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Posted: 2019-9-10
All members of PSMA companies are invited to attend and to offer their inputs and suggestions for the projects and activities the Association should focus on in the coming year. The 2019 PSMA Planning Meeting will take place on Saturday October 5, in the Jackson Room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, New Orleans, LA.
The Board of Directors relies on the inputs generated at the Annual Planning Meetings to identify, consider and select programs for the following year that will bring benefits to the PSMA membership. For example, initiatives generated at recent Planning Meetings have resulted in the Power Supply in Package and Power Supply on Chip project and workshops, the Energy Efficiency and Safety & Compliance Database projects and the 3D Power Packaging projects and 3D-PEIM Symposiums.
This year's meeting will begin with a brief review of the year to date accomplishments and a summary of ongoing activities by Stephen Oliver, Chairman of the PSMA. This will be followed by an update of the six-quarter financial forecast from Treasurer Tim McDonald, and a status report and plans from the active PSMA committees.
Most of the meeting will feature an open forum to introduce and discuss possible special projects, initiatives, and priorities for the coming months. All members of PSMA Companies are encouraged to provide inputs. If you cannot attend the meeting in person, email suggestions to power@psma.com and they will be considered and included in the discussions. In the coming months, the PSMA Marketing Committee will summarize the results of the meeting and prioritize which projects and initiatives should be included in the focus for the next year.
All members and guests attending are invited to remain after the Planning Meeting to participate in a meeting of the Board of Directors, which will take place immediately following. After the Board Meeting, interested individuals are invited to tour the exhibit area space in the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Centerand the meeting room facilities planned for APEC 2020.
The APEC 2020 Technical Program Committee will meet the following day, Sunday October 6, to discuss the technical abstracts submitted and to organize the technical sessions, professional education seminars, rap sessions, and industry presentations for APEC 2020 in March. Since PSMA is a co-sponsor of APEC all members are invited to participate and contribute in this important activity.
If you plan to attend the 2019 PSMA Planning Meeting, please email the Association Office at power@psma.com. We look forward to seeing many of you at these important meetings.
Posted: 2019-9-10
The folks in New Orleans like to say, "laissez le bon temps rouler," that is "let the good times roll." And that certainly holds true for all of us currently in the power electronics industry. Never in the history of electronics has the contribution of power conversion been more in the forefront. Efficiency is a top priority of nearly every new design. And the latest advances in technology are touching virtually every aspect of our industry, from passive components to semiconductors and packaging. And there just isn't anywhere else on earth our industry comes together so completely to learn, connect and grow than at the Applied Power Electronics Conference. So, get yourself ready to let those good times roll at APEC 2020 in New Orleans next March.
The Call-for-Papers closed in July with over 1,000 digests submitted. Now the committee and over 100 volunteers have the task of peer-reviewing all the digests in preparation for the mid-year meeting in early October. At that time, the tough task will be to select the top 500+ papers for the program. Students with an accepted paper are encouraged to apply for APEC Student Travel Support. For more information, see the article on page 4 of this issue.
Work continues in development of the Plenary Session program. The committee has put together an exceptional roster of potential candidates. The program will be finalized before the next edition of this newsletter. The Plenary Session is expected to attract well over 2,000 attendees. In addition, IEEE.tv will, once again, be streaming the entire session, live, for those who can't make it to APEC by Monday afternoon.
By early September 2019, all the submissions of proposals for both the very popular Industry Sessions as well as the highly informative Professional Education Seminars will be under consideration. The Industry Session tracks that run in parallel with the Technical Sessions are expected to be as popular as ever.
At APEC 2019, over 1500 attendees arrived early to take advantage of the weekend and Monday morning Professional Education Seminars. The committee is planning for a repeat of this attendance in 2020.
The exhibit area for APEC 2020 has been expanded and it looks like the exhibit hours will be extended on Tuesday. As always, the APEC exhibits will be buzzing with the latest innovations to make your design job successful. The Wednesday Social Event will be held at Mardi Gras World with over 1000 attendees expected. It should be an interesting venue to view the many floats and costumes used during Mardi Gras events.
On the Saturday prior to the start of APEC2020, PSMA and PELS will again be sponsoring two workshops, the fifth High Frequency Magnetics Workshop and the third Capacitor Workshop. For more information see the articles on each workshop in this issue of the UPDATE.
Registration opens the week of October 28th. Go to https://www.apec-conf.org/ to get all the information you need. In addition to making your reservation to attend, you will also be able to book your hotel accommodations. APEC has secured blocks of rooms at the close-in hotels to the convention center. As usual, these rooms will sell out long before next March.
The entire APEC Conference Committee is excited about bringing our Premier Global Event in Applied Power Electronics to New Orleans, March 15-19, 2020. Laissez le bon temps rouler!
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Provided by Greg Evans, |
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Posted: 2019-6-9
Technical Sessions - Now Open Submissions of technical papers for consideration are due by late July. (Right now, the date is July 19, but this is subject to change.) Prospective authors are asked to submit a digest explaining the problem that will be addressed by the paper, the major results, and how this is different from the closest existing literature. Papers presented at APEC must be original material and not have been previously presented nor published. The principal criteria in selecting digests will be the usefulness of the work to the practicing power electronic professional. Reviewers value evidence of completed experimental work. Go here for more information and submission details: https://www.apec-conf.org/callfortechnicalsessionpapers Professional Education Seminars – Opens in Early July Professional Education Seminars at APEC2020 will address the need for in-depth discussion of important and complex power electronics topics. Submission are due by early September. 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 selected are to address the practical issues of the specification, design, manufacture and marketing of power electronic components, products, and systems. Visit the APEC website to find out more information when available. Industry Sessions – Opens in Early July The Industry Sessions run in parallel with the technical sessions and have proven to be very popular. Submissions are due by early September. Speakers are invited to make a presentation only without 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 individuals such as purchasing agents, information technologists, regulatory agencies, and others who support the power electronics industry. Visit the APEC website to find out more information on the program when available. Make your plans to be part of APEC2020. Be sure you have this important event on your calendar and included in your budget for next year. And do your part to make it an even better conference by volunteering to be on the technical paper peer-review panel in areas where you are qualified. See you in New Orleans – Laissez Bon Temps Roule.
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uilding upon the very successful APEC2019 in Anaheim, the APEC2020 will take place for the first time since 1988 in New Orleans. Our initial return visit, planned for 2005, was undermined by Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, we were able to relocate that year's event to Dallas. A lot have things have changed since that APEC in 1988. Back in the 1980s, APEC took place in hotel meeting rooms with a small ballroom exhibit. Since then, APEC has grown to be the unrivaled venue for the Power Electronics Industry and our industry has emerged to its rightful place as enabling many of the advances in electronics technology. Back in 1988, a competitive power supply had an efficiency of maybe 85%, today we are discussing supplies with 98% efficiency. Back then, we had APEC attendance that numbered in the hundreds. In 2019, we had over 6,000!
Posted: 2019-6-9
ver 70 PSMA members and guests attended the PSMA Annual Meeting, held at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, CA on Monday March 18, 2019.
The buffet breakfast before the meeting start provided attendees an opportunity for networking and meeting colleagues. The Chairman Stephen Oliver officially opened the meeting by welcoming all the attendees and asked each to briefly introduce themselves. Among those present were many of the 60 recipients of the APEC Student Travel Support. This support is provided jointly by IAS, PELS and PSMA and attracted 109 applicants from 63 different schools in 16 countries.
Next on the agenda was the election of five people to the Board of Directors. The following candidates were elected to the Board of Directors for the three-year term (2019-2022):
| Trifon Liakopoulos | EnaChip (Affiliate Member) | ||
| Stephen Oliver | Navitas Semiconductor (Regular Member) | ||
| Ralph Taylor | Delphi Technologies (Regular Member) | ||
| Matt Wilkowski | EnaChip (Affiliate Member) |
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Ada Cheng (Affiliate Member) was elected to fill the unexpired term (2019-2020) vacated by Alain Chapuis.
Stephen Oliver and the attendees congratulated and welcomed Trifon Liakopoulos, Ralph Taylor, and Matt Wilkowski and Ada Cheng as newly elected Directors.
The Chair recognized the contributions of Michel Grenon and Brian Narveson whose terms as Directors expired at the meeting and expressed the appreciation of PSMA for their service and continued contributions to the Association.
Stephen Oliver then presented an award to Trifon Liakopoulos in recognition of his outstanding contributions over the past three PwrSoC Workshops as Financial Chair for each of the events. He also presented awards to Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn for their Quinn for their leadership as Co-Chairs of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap.
 Trifon Liakopoulos and |
 Conor Quinn, Dhaval Dalal and |
 PSMA Chairman, |
The Chair briefly reviewed some of the major accomplishments of the association for the past year including:
- Organizing 9 Industry Sessions for APEC2019
- Organizing the fourth Magnetics Workshop and second Capacitor Workshop the day prior to APEC2019
- Holding EnerHarv, PwrSoC and 3D-PEIM workshops and a joint workshop with CPSS in China during 2018
- Continuous updating of the Energy Efficiency and Safety and Compliance Data Bases
- Publishing for 2019 Power Technology Roadmap
- Joint sponsorship of APEC Student Travel Awards
Stephen also reviewed the Membership Statistics since APEC 2018 which currently shows a total of more than 200 Members – a new high.
The Chairman then discussed his vision for the organization. He looks to continue the amazing growth of the activities of the Technical Committees to make PSMA the relevant source for technology and market trends, to increase collaborations with selected partners, to have an increased presence on social media, and to increase the Regular Membership by focusing on emerging markets. He highlighted the successes and continuing work of the newly formed "Tiger Teams", powerful, agile groups of experts brought together for a single, short project, to address some of the current opportunities and challenges. Stephen also encouraged the membership to pick one or two of the Technical Committees and to actively participate in their activities as being the best way for people to increase the benefits of membership.
Following the Chairman's Report was a Financial Report. Outgoing Secretary/ Treasurer, Michel Grenon was unable to attend the meeting. but provided a report on the current financial status of the Association and a six-quarter financial forecast. Joe Horzepa reviewed the report which supported that the financial status and outlook for the Association continues to be very positive The surpluses from APEC conference together with the PSMA sponsored and co-sponsored workshops and events should generate sufficient funds to support a number of Special Projects that can be of benefit for the membership and the power sources industry.
Each of the PSMA Committees presented a report. You can read more about these on page 3 of this issue.
Ernie Parker, General Chair for APEC 2019, provided an update on the overall conference. APEC2019 is expected to be a financial success with a full program of events. The schedule includes 18 Professional Educational Seminars, 592 Technical Papers in 8 parallel sessions and Dialog session, 119 Industry Sessions in 5 parallel sessions, 3 Rap Sessions, 302 exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall and a Social Event.
Jose Cobos will be the General Chair for APEC 2020 which will be held at the Ernest Moria Convention Center in New Orleans LA March 15 – 19, 2020.
 Manfred Schlenk, EPSMA |
The invited speaker at this year's Annual Meeting was Manfred Schlenk from the European Power Sources Association – EPSMA - who presented an overview of the number of companies in the organization and the current focus. They have a 17-member Technical Committee with experts on safety, EMC, and product qualification. The output of the Technical Committee includes a series of best practices and design guides. The organization also works to influence international standards with CENELEC as a liaison partner.
Before adjourning, Chairman Stephen Oliver asked the attendees for their comments and any suggestions for the future directions and activities for Association that would increase the value of their membership. A number of areas were discussed including suggestions for encouraging students to participate in the industry and to consider career opportunities in power sources and power electronics. These and other suggestions will be considered by the Board. Stephen Oliver thanked all presenters and attendees for their participation and invited interested individuals to attend the March meeting of the PSMA Board of Directors, which immediately followed.
The minutes from the PSMA Annual Meeting have been posted in the Members Only area of the PSMA web site together with the charts from the presentations.
The Sunday prior to the Annual Meeting PSMA hosted a reception with members of the China Power Supply Society (CPSS). This provided a great opportunity for members of both organizations to network and discuss options and activities that will benefit members of both organizations over the next year. Several members of CPSS also attended the PSMA Annual Meeting.
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The Annual Meeting, PSMA Committee meetings, as well as the technical sessions, seminars, Industry Presentations, exhibits and other events kept PSMA members busy all the week. The APEC social event, featured a number of Food Trucks serving a variety of food options, several game activities and music, gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves.
There was a full exhibit hall at APEC 2019. Many of the PSMA member companies exhibiting participated in a "Passport" game in which attendees who visited their booths had their passport booklets stamped. Attendees turned in their completed passports for a chance to win an AirPods, a Samsung Smartwatch and the grand prize a Charles and Colvard Necklace, Featuring Gemstone Grade Silicon Carbide by Wolfspeed, A Cree Company. Traffic to members' booths was brisk and the lucky winners were very happy with the prizes.
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| PSMA APEC Passport Prize Winners | ||||
Posted: 2019-6-9
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Fred Weber, Capacitor Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee now has two additional co-chairs (Pierre Lohber and Wilmer Companioni) and have organized a four speaker Industry Session with the theme of "Which Capacitor Technology You Should Use for Power Conversion Applications". The committee also organized two technical webinars in support of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap and an educational webinar on Capacitor Fundamentals. The committee held a successful workshop on Saturday prior to start of APEC2019 with over 50 registrations. The committee is meeting during the week to review the workshop, plan for a follow-up workshop at APEC2020 and discuss the theme and subjects for the upcoming year.
Mike Hayes and Brian Zahnstecher, Energy Harvesting Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee now has 46 members covering 4 continents and been meeting monthly via teleconference. The committee supported the 2019 PSMA Power Technology Roadmap with two Technical Webinars and has organized a seven presentation Industry Session for APEC 2019 with the theme "Making the Batteries Outlive the Devices They Power". The Industry Session includes a Live Demo with hardware, models and systems.
The committee organized EnerHarv 2018 Workshop in Cork Ireland. This was a very successful workshop attracting over 80 registrations. The committee will be meeting during APEC to discuss and plan EnerHarv 2020, develop a theme for the APEC2020 Industry Session and plan a possible student competition.
Patrick Le Fevre and Ed Herbert, Energy Management Committee Co-Chairs, reported the committee was unable to organize an Industry Session for APEC2019 but is planning one for APEC2020 and considering ideas for a special project. The committee is currently looking for new leadership and to increase committee membership and participation. The committee continues to support the efforts to update the Energy Efficiency Data Base that is available on the PSMA web site. Arnold Alderman, provided a brief update of the current status of the Energy Efficiency Data Base. Joe Horzepa reviewed the objectives of the Industry-Education Committee which are to promote interaction between power electronics students and industry and to promote power electronics to university and pre-university students. The committee has been and continues to spearhead a joint program with PELS and IAS for Travel Support for students to attend APEC. For APEC 2019, 60 students from 15 countries will share a total of $60,000. In addition, all students were encouraged to post their resumes on the PSMA website for the industry member to consider for position openings. Joe Horzepa discussed the need for PSMA members to take a more active role in encouraging students at the high school levels to consider the opportunities for a career in power electronics and encourage qualified candidates to pursue a degree in the field. He encouraged the attendees to join the Industry Education Committee and to initiate special projects focused on middle and high school students that highlight the potential of a career in the power electronics industry. Steve Carlsen, Magnetics Committee Co-Chair, reported that the committee has held monthly meeting this past year and has organized a seven presentation Industry Session focusing on new magnetic materials for APEC 2019. The committee has been sponsoring two special projects during the past year. A preliminary report is currently available and the final results will be documented in a Report when completed. Under the leadership of Matt Wilkowski and Ed Herbert, the committee, with technical support from IEEE PELS, organized fourth very successful one-day workshop on high frequency magnetics the day prior to APEC2019 with about 110 people registered. An overview of the workshop will be presented at the Industry Session and Magnetics Committee meeting. A fifth workshop is being planned for APEC 2020. Frank Cirolia and Greg Evans, Marketing Committee Co-Chairs, provided an overview of the committee and highlighted some of the activities on its current agenda. The committee was instrumental in reducing and simplifying the number of Membership Categories for the Association and defining Component Suppliers as Regular Members. The committee also updated and printed a new Membership Brochure and continued the Passport program at APEC2019. In addition, the committee is considering a new logo for the Association and will be distributing a survey during APEC2019 to better understand the awareness and expectations for the Association.
Power Packaging and Manufacturing Committee Co-Chair, Ernie Parker, reviewed the activities and results of the committee this past year. It has been another outstanding year with the organizing of a 7-presentaion Industry Sessions for APEC 2019 entitled "Making Power Sources Small with 3D Power Packaging Solutions", organizing the Second 3D PEIM Symposium the past June which attracted 70 attendees, and providing financial and technical support for a very successful PwrSoC 2018 in Taiwan with over 150 registrations. In addition, the committee supported the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap. The committee is currently supporting IWIPP 2019 in Toulouse, France, planning for PwrSoC2020 in Philadelphia and the third 3D-PEIM2020 scheduled for Osaka Japan. Dhaval Dalal and Conor Quinn, Power Technology Roadmap Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the committee committee has completed work on the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap Report which has been published and will be distributed to the membership in the next several weeks. In support of the Roadmap the committee organized 17 Technical Webinars and significantly expanded the survey (more than 100 responses) to include a Chinese translation with the support of CPSS. In addition, a new section was included on University Research activities on future products and technologies. The Plenary Session for APEC2019 includes a presentation on the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap focusing on the University Research. The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to discuss plans for the 2021 Roadmap effort. Tony O'Brien and Brian Zahnstecher, Reliability Committee Co-Chairs, reported that the new committee has monthly meetings and has 22 members from the industry. The recent focus of the committee has been sponsoring a Special Project that addresses Power Supply Software/Hardware Specifications and Testing Standardization. The project will be documented in the coming year. The committee organized a Technology Webinar in support of the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap. The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to discuss the special Project and planning for the coming year. Safety & Compliance Committee Co-Chairs, Kevin Parmenter and Jim Spangler, reported that the committee is looking for more active members and new co-chairs to continue the committee's efforts in 2019 and beyond. The committee contributed a section to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap and continues to promote and support the Safety and Compliance Data base on the web site which is updated on a continuing basis as well as adding additional agencies that are tracked. The co-chairs have also provided monthly articles on Safety and Compliance issues to How 2 Power. There will be a committee meeting during APEC2019 to discuss the need for new co-chairs and the future of the committee. Tim McDonald, Co-Chair of the Semiconductor Committee, reported the committee has been very active this past year and has organized three Industry Sessions -the first two are 7-presentation Industry sessions entitled: "Getting up to Speed on Switching: Wide Band Gap & Other High Performance Components" and "Current reliability and product qualification topics for SiC and GaN wide band gap devices" The third is a 6-presentation session entitled: "Production use cases of wide band gap semiconductors". The committee has also provided support to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap including a number of technical webinars. The committee sponsored the 2018 WiPDA (Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications) and will help organize and sponsor the 2019 WiPDA workshop.to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina. The committee will be meeting during APEC2019 to plan the activities for the coming year including considering a Special Project of interest to the industry. Fred Weber, Transportation Power Electronics Committee Co-Chair, reported the committee has been very active this past year and organized a 7-Presentation Industry Session with the theme: "Enablers for Transportation Electrification" The presenters are from the major automotive manufacturers and experts from the industry. The committee has also contributed to the 2019 Power Technology Roadmap. The committee will meet during APEC2019 to identify possible themes for APEC 2020 and to discuss the initial results of a Special Project focused on ways to generate more awareness of PSMA to the automotive industry. More information about the PSMA committees was made available during the week at the individual committee meetings. PSMA members and guests were encouraged to attend these meetings to learn more about the committees and to help plan activities for the coming year. All of the PSMA Technical Committee meetings are held via webconference and are open to individuals interested in learning about and participating in the work of the committees. This is an excellent way to network with others and to influence the technical direction of the committees. |
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ach of the PSMA Technical Committees provided updates on the recent activities of their committees at the Annual Meeting at APEC 2019 in Anaheim, CA. In addition, each Committee also held individual meetings during the week of APEC 2019.
Posted: 2017-4-14
Posted: 2016-6-12
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APEC is truly an International Conference. 1212 Technical Session abstracts, received from 45 different nations, were peer reviewed last fall. Abstracts from 30 of these countries were selected for inclusion in this year’s record setting event. Case in point, engineers traveled from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to share their latest design concepts. Speakers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan represented Asia. Representing South and Central America, speakers travel from Brazil and Columbia. From the Middle East there were presentations from Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Representing Europe were speakers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, German, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Ukraine. Let me not overlook the speakers from Canada, Ireland and the U.K.
And what was happening with the PSMA you might ask? A lot. There were 24 two to three hour technical committee meetings scheduled, ranging from a workshop on High Frequency Magnetics that started at 7:30 on Saturday morning to a three-hour session addressing Safety and Compliance issues and another three-hour session on Semiconductors advances that were held on Thursday. I would be remiss not to point out that the very popular Power Technology Roadmap Committee met for two hours on Tuesday. We did look into the Packaging Technical Committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening attendees could select from three desirable Rap sessions including: Future of Semiconductor Technology Development, Power Electronics for Internet of Things: Will it Happen and Advanced Refueling Technologies for EVs. In quizzing some of the attendees we were told that the new hot item is Gallium Nitride semiconductors. Another area to be aware of is IoT. "Internet of things" where you will be told when you are running low on milk, your coffee is ready and other smart power alerts. "The Internet of Things” is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data."
Where is everyone from my past? We did find representatives from firms dating back to the 70s and 80s. Many of the others have merged, sold outright or folded in a very competitive environment. The APEC 2017 conference will be held in Tampa from March 26-30. If you wish to submit a paper for consideration in the Technical Sessions or be a Trade Show exhibitor simply check the PSMA website for details.
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ince APEC 2016 was being held in virtually our back yard, Cherokee International founder and president Ganpat Patel and I drove to Long Beach to attend the 30th annual Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC).
This year's event was held inside the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center (located adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Hotel). Having served as the APEC Publicity Chairman (1991-96 & 1998-2004) I wanted to meet some former committee colleagues and to see what new products are being developed and introduced. APEC, sponsored by the IEEE PELS and IEEE IAS Societies and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association, PSMA, is "recognized by many as the leading conference for practicing electronics professionals."
Complementing the technical presentations, the APEC exhibit hall contained 370 booths with a wide array of products. “Feed them and they will come” always works. APEC set up multiple serving stations with great entrees and beverages as well as ice cream stations for the 5,100 plus attendees to keep them from leaving the exhibit hall at the Convention Center.
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