Week 27: Announcing DAC TV

I’m just back from a few days in San Jose, which luckily is only a short flight away from Portland. After so many of these trips I’ve found that most of the time I’m surrounded by familiar faces and the one or two flustered employees that couldn’t catch their much more convenient corporate commuter flight. I have to admit the idea of bypassing airport security and just showing my badge, grabbing a boarding pass and being on my way, is pretty neat. Let’s not drool too much over convenient air travel. Instead let’s talk about DAC.

On the set of DAC TV with Brian Fuller.

This week we started the production for DAC TV. This is a new outreach campaign our brilliant team Michelle Clancy and Rob van Blommestein came up with. And guess what – we are going to have some fun with this! Although getting ready to be taped is not what I call fun. I’m a little anxious to be in front of the camera as I prefer to direct, not act.

Yesterday we taped Dan Bourke, our designer track co-chair; Michael McNamara, our IP track chair; and me. The real fun will begin once we produce videos on how to navigate the conference, from the show floor to the technical sessions. And I can hardly wait for the video with guidance on how to exhibit at DAC.

Our first three videos were produced at the amazing film studios of Cadence. I really appreciate all the support the team at Cadence MVP (Marketing Video Production) has given us in this new endeavor: Steve Alvin, production lead; Stephen Nguyen, who helped out on set; and Andrew Hampy and Sean O’Kane, who together will be editing the productions.

And I want you to meet our TV hosts – both of them are awesome creative minds: Brian Fuller at Cadence and Joe Hupcey at Mentor.

Brian doesn’t really need an introduction – he has been journalist for 30 years, two thirds of that with EE Times covering the electronics industry. He was editor-in-chief for six years before joining an agency to build a content program for clients. He came back to EET in 2010 and ended up driving an electric car around the country for year interviewing engineers for a content-creation program that EET’s parent, UBM, created with Avnet. In 2013 he joined Cadence as editor-in-chief, where he blogs, helps run the contributed content program and does video segments.

Joe is product manager focused on Questa Formal and CDC. He also has considerable experience in consumer product development, new product introduction, marketing, and merchandizing focused on the mobile device market. Before transitioning to product management and marketing, he worked as an EE in FPGA design, EDA tools for FPGAs and ASICs, and ASIC verification. In his spare time, he enjoys photography and videography (his YouTube channel has over 22,000 views), riding motorcycles, and playing softball. He’s also a licensed pilot.

We will launch DAC TV right after the holidays in early January. In the meantime enjoy Mac’s interview below with Warren Savage on “Take 5 with Warren” and start working on your submissions for the Designer and IP tracks. I want to make sure that you get your content in on time. Don’t forget the deadline is Jan. 20.