PEC 2024 was a record year. This year's event was benchmarked against APEC 2019, the last event before the COVID impact as well as the last time the event was held in California (Anaheim). We were expecting to approach that year's attendance of over 5,900. Our expectations were exceeded with registrations of over 6,100. In 2017, the last time APEC was held in Long Beach, we shared the Convention Center with another conference and exhibition. This year, we had the place to ourselves and used every square foot of this beautiful facility. A big thank you to Tim McDonald, APEC 2024 General Chair and the Organizing Committee for a job well done!

Now it's on to APEC 2025, March 9-13 at the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart. This is first time for APEC to return to Atlanta since the event hosted fewer than 1,500 attendees at the Weston Peachtree Hotel back in 1997. Incoming General Chair, Tony O'Gorman, expects APEC 2025 to continue its record-breaking role as the "Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™."

I recommend that you check the website in the weeks ahead (www.apec-conf.org) and watch for announcements about the calls for Technical Session and Industry Session submissions as well as proposals for the Professional Education Seminars.

Technical Sessions
Prospective authors will be asked to submit a digest explaining the problem that will be addressed by the paper, the major results, and how this differs from the closest existing literature. Papers presented at APEC must be original material and not have been previously presented or published. The principal criteria in selecting digests will be the usefulness of the work to the practicing power electronic professional. Reviewers especially value evidence of completed experimental work.

Professional Education Seminars
Professional Education Seminars at APEC 2025 will address the need for in-depth discussion of important and complex power electronics topics. Seminars are three-and-a-half hours (including breaks) in length, can range from broad to narrow in scope, and can vary from introductory to advanced in technical level. Topics are to address the practical issues of the specification, design, manufacture and marketing of power electronic components, products, and systems.

Industry Sessions
The Industry Sessions run in parallel with the technical sessions and have proven to be very popular. Submissions are due by late August. Speakers are invited to make a presentation only and will not be submitting a formal paper. The target audience for these sessions differs from the engineers in typical technical sessions and may include system engineers/architects and business-oriented people such as purchasing agents, information technologists, regulatory agencies, and other people who support the power electronics industry.

Make your plans to be part of APEC 2025. Be sure to add this important event to your calendar and in your budget for next year. And do your part to make it an even better conference by volunteering to be on the peer-review panel in areas where you are qualified. See you in Atlanta.

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2025 Publicity Co-Chair

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