Kicking Off DAC 2015

The DAC executive committee closed the 51st DAC last Friday. And guess what? Right afterward we had the first planning meeting for next year’s conference, for which I’ll serve as General Chair. Because most attendees don’t really get a glimpse behind the curtain into these sorts of activities, I thought I’d experiment by blogging my way to next June in San Francisco.

I plan to publish on a regular basis, thus the blog’s title “52 Weeks of DAC”. I admit I like the coincidence that we’re headed toward the 52nd DAC and have exactly 52 weeks to get ready. However, that title is as much aspirational as anything. The main goal is to share our efforts to sustain and extend the most important conference in the EDA industry. It’s also to recognize the many great people who volunteer their time throughout the year to make this one week happen. And, most important, it’s to enlist your feedback and help along the way.

First though let’s look back at a really successful DAC. The event was a vibrant success! Traffic on the show floor was energetic and the core technical sessions were very well attended. Quite honestly, both the Tutorials and the Designer Track attendance just blew me away. DAC really figured out how to bring industry content to an industry audience. What started as a user track years ago has come a long way!

The 51st DAC saw several new initiatives with lots of great sessions on security, IP and automotive electronics design. How great to see the dual keynote of Ford’s Jim Buczkowski and MathWorks’ Jim Tung talking about connected car initiatives, the SKY talk from Green Hills Software’s Dave Kleidermacher on securing the internet of cars, and investor Jim Hogan’s pavilion panel on self-driving cars .

And for those who left too early and missed the security keynote from Intel’s Ernie Brickell – you missed a talk that prompted me to go home and review the permission levels of all the apps on my iPhone.

It was a great DAC, we saw plenty of new faces, made new friends and were able to catch up with familiar colleagues.

So, what did you think of the conference? Looking ahead to 52nd DAC, what changes would you like to see next year? And what topics would you like me and the rest of the executive committee to address here on the blog in the 52 51 weeks ahead?