AltiumLive 2018 a Mecca for PCB Designers
AltiumLive 2018 San Diego is now in the history books. This is the second annual AltiumLive (North America), and it was even better than the first. With nearly 300 hundred participants, from all parts of the country and industry, the event was a huge success.
The event took place in San Diego, California at the Lowes Coronado Bay Resort. Located right on the water, the venue was perfect. The attendees were provided excellent meals throughout the entire event and the views were spectacular.

The Navy even flew a few WWII-era airplanes past during dinner one night.

On the first day, Altium users attended University Day classes to strengthen their Altium tools skills.

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After the classes on the first day wrapped up, Altium held a Happy (Holden) Happy hour. This special event took place on the outdoor patio where Happy Holden held a book signing of his HDI Handbook and introduced his latest book on automation, Automation and Advanced Procedures in PCB Fabrication.
The second day began with an overview of the new Altium 365 tool. This tool will give designers the ability to easily collaborate with their team in real time. The tool also has a companion app that provides a mobile experience, so designers can enjoy instant access to their projects anywhere in the world. A key driver behind Altium 365 is convenience, an important attribute that the Altium team strives for in each tool update. They want their user experience to be as convenient as possible.

The second day was also filled with great keynote speakers who inspired the group with their ideas and accomplishments. Between the keynotes, the attendees enjoyed their breaks with refreshments and visits to the tabletop exhibits of the event sponsors.

The sponsors’ tabletops displays included exhibits from PCB design services and fabrication providers, OEMs, and of course the I-Connect007 tabletop. There was also a special Altium user experiences room that allowed attendees to meet the Altium team and have a hands-on look at the suite of offerings provided by Altium.
Once day two’s educational tracks came to a close, a cocktail party began on the beautiful patio and tabletop exhibit area.

The crowed was energized and sharing what they learned and looking forward to another great meal.

After dinner, attendees drew numbers and formed teams for the after-dinner robot challenge and battles.

The bot battle was amazing, check out the video at the bottom of this page. The newly formed teams were provided a kit with instructions that for assembling the robots. Once assembled, the bot battles began. I must say, adding this challenge to the event really strengthens the connections attendees make here. The teams work together and compete against each other all in the spirit of good fun.

As day three began, the energy was high and the event carried on. The day was full of classes designed to help inspire the great minds of our industry. At the end of the day, Altium’s Judy Warner interviewed Bil Hurd, designer of the Commodore 128. Bil shared dozens of “war stories” from the early days of personal computers.
At the end of his talk, he gave away a new, autographed Commodore 64 game to the first person to explain the significance of a penguin in a Monty Python skit (it explodes), and our own Editor Andy Shaughnessy took home that prize. Trivia knowledge comes in handy sometimes. Other raffle winners took home all kinds of cool electronic prizes.
All in all, this event is one that will continue to grow and do well. As in 2017, Altium is planning another AltiumLive Europe in January of 2019. This event will take place in Munich, Germany. As the official Media sponsor of the AltiumLive events, we congratulate the entire Altium team on another successful event.
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