Sponsored by ASSEMBLY Magazine and co-located with NEPCON East/Electro and a pair of conferences being held by the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Edina, MN) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, New York), the event will feature hundreds of products on display, free educational sessions and even an ice cream social.

Specific free sessions will include a keynote address by Charles R McClinton, technology manager for the Hyper-X scramjet program at NASA's Langley Research Center (Hampton, VA). The American Society of Test Engineers (ASTE, Nutting Lake, MA) will also moderate a free panel discussion on outsourcing; the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership will sponsor a discussion of the "human" side to lean manufacturing; and the Adhesive and Sealant Council (Bethesda, MD) will moderate a session on adhesives and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.