Conferences, Technical Societies and Development – A History of Synergy Dr. Jacob Baal-Schem, IEEE SLM Tel-Aviv University, Israel Abstract — This paper is about IEEE Region 8 Conferences, Radio Engineers. Marriott became the first IRE president. To their raison d’être and their impact on the development of Electro- a large extent, they modeled their Institute on the AIEE, with technology in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which membership grades, a journal, local sections, standards activ- constitute the geographical area of the Region. The claim is that technology conferences, held by ‘learned ities, and technical meetings, but there were other influences societies’ in different parts of Region 8, were necessary for the as well. They established their journal, the Proceedings of the technological development of the Region, in order to highlight IRE, along the lines of scientific journals, with papers directly and discuss the problems with which technology world is coping. submitted and peer review, which allowed for faster publication In order to set up these conferences, technology experts needed than AIEE’s policy that papers be presented at meetings first. technical societies, such as IEEE, to enable – among other activities – this facility. On the other hand, the holding of these They deliberately did not include ‘American’ in their name, to Conferences contributed to the technological development of the signify the transnational nature of radio. Therefore, as years Region and to the contact between scientists and engineers, for passed, new IRE sections were set up, first in the American the benefit of Humanity. continent and later in the Eastern Hemisphere, beginning with Thereby, IEEE Region 8 and the series of EUROCON, the Israel IRE Section, set up in 1954. MELECON, AFRICON etc. conferences had a synergetic effect on the technological development of EMEA during the last 50 In 1963, AIEE and IRE merged into IEEE. As IRE had at years (1960–2010). In a business application, synergy means that that time several Sections in the Eastern Hemisphere, Region 8 teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person was founded as part of IEEE to cover Europe and the Middle within the group were working toward the same goal individually East. A few years later, Africa was included into Region 8 and it is claimed that by creating the awareness about the latest borders. inventions, issues and concerns of technology among technologists, IEEE Conferences, organized by Region 8 Operating units, have largely contributed to the technological development of EMEA II. EUROCON in the fields related to IEEE activities. One of the first goals of the IEEE Region 8 Committee Index Terms — Conferences, IEEE, Technology-transfer, was to organize technical Conferences, similar to the events Region 8. held in the US. This could be done only in cooperation with European National Societies. As reported by Dr. Fritz I. INTRODUCTION Eggiman, IEEE Chair of the First European Conference, they Edison was one of a small group of men who responded to successfully got the support from 13 national engineering Nathaniel S. Keith’s call for a New York meeting to organize a associations within Europe, who became ‘supporting Societies’ society of electrical professionals to represent the United States of EUROCON. This became the basis for the founding in to foreign dignitaries who would be attending the International 1972 of a Convention of National Societies of Electrical Electrical Exposition the Franklin Institute was hosting in Engineers of Europe (EUREL) as a non-profit organization, Philadelphia that fall. They met in New York on May 13, 1884 as the official partner of IEEE Region 8 in organizing the and established the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. following EUROCONs. EUREL represents nowadays Member The men were a cross section of the electrical experts of Associations of 9 Countries in Greater Europe. Among the era. The first AIEE president, Norvin Green, was the EUREL’s Missions, the first one was “To facilitate exchange president of Western Union; the six vice presidents included of information and foster a wider dissemination of scien- Thomas Edison, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, tific, technical and other information relevant to Electrical MIT physics professor Charles Cross, two veteran telegraphers, Engineering between Members and other interested bodies.” and an employee of equipment manufacturer Western Electric. The first joined activity of IEEE Region 8 and the European That fall, the new AIEE held its first technical meeting in national associations was to hold EUROCON 1971, the first Philadelphia. Six papers were presented, and then published European Conference on Electrotechnology, at the Palais as the first issue of the new society’s journal, the Transactions de Beaulieu, Lausanne, Switzerland, 18–22 October 1971. of the AIEE. Following EUROCON Conferences were held by agreement By 1912, Radio engineering was a young profession, with between IEEE Region 8 and EUREL. radio telegraph stations connecting ships at sea. A small group Enormous technological progress was made during the of men representing local societies in New York and Boston second world war. The English developed radar which would met in New York in May 1912, and led by Robert Marriott, be the forerunner of television. Progress in electronics and Alfred Goldsmith, and John V.L Hogan, formed the Institute of computers, made during the war, provided a foundation for further development that fundamentally transformed the Electrotechnology Conference. The first edition, held in Tel- postwar world. All these tremendous developments needed a Aviv, in presence of Israel’s President and the IEEE President scene for presentation to the young engineers and EUROCON had over 1200 attendees and was followed by MELECON aimed to become the venue. 1983 in Athens, MELECON 1985 in Madrid, and so on. The subjects of EUROCON 1971 sessions included: Table II • Automatic timers THE SERIES OF MELECON CONFERENCES • Biomedical engineering 1 MELECON 1981 – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 24–28 May • Telecommunication 2 MELECON 1983 – Athens, Greece,24–26 May • Electric power distribution 3 MELECON 1985 – Madrid, Spain, 8–10 October • Electronic data processing 4 MELECON 1987 – Rome, Italy, 24–26 March 5 MELECON 1989 – Lisbon, Portugal, 11–13 April • Integrated circuits 6 MELECON 1991 – Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 22–24 May The major objectives set by the convention steering 7 MELECON 1994 – Antalya, Turkey, 12–14 April committee – as published in IEEE Spectrum of October 1970 – 8 MELECON 1996 – Bari, Italy, 13–16 May 9 MELECON 1998 – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 18–20 May were as follows: “EUROCON ’71 will provide specialist 10 MELECON 2000 – Limassol, Cyprus, 29–31 May conferences in selected areas, as well as general reviews 11 MELECON 2002 – Cairo, Egypt, 7–9 May and discussions on the state of the art and interactions of 12 MELECON 2004 – Dubvrovnik, Croatia, 12–15 May 13 MELECON 2006 – Benalmádena (Málaga), Spain, 16–19 May technologies. The conference intends to present an educational 14 MELECON 2008 – Ajaccio, Corsica, France, 5–7 May program of in-depth treatment of advanced technologies.” 15 MELECON 2010 – Valletta, Malta, 25–28 April EUROCON 1971 was followed by EUROCON 1974 in 16 MELECON 2012 – Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia, 25–28 March Amsterdam, and by EUROCON 1977 in Venice, where a Special session was devoted to Communications in developing IV. AFRICON countries, which was considered to be an important item not As Electrotechnology begun developing in Africa, an IEEE only for these countries but for the future of the whole world. Kenya Section was formed and the first AFRICON Conference was held in Nairobi in 1983, to be followed by AFRICON Table I Conferences in Ivory Coast, Swaziland, South Africa etc. A THE FIRST SERIES OF EUROCON CONFERENCES major problem encountered in these conferences was that 1 EUROCON 1971 – Lausanne, Switzerland, 18–22 October Africa was losing some of its best scientific and technical 2 EUROCON 1974 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22–26 April 3 EUROCON 1977 – Venice, Italy, 3–6 May expertise to other regions of the world as many scientists and 4 EUROCON 1980 – Stuttgart, Germany, 24–28 March technician are joining the ‘brain drain’ and are leaving the 5 EUROCON 1982 – Copenhagen, Denmark, 14–18 June continent to work abroad. This was the reason that after the 6 EUROCON 1984 – Brighton, UK, 26–28 September 7 EUROCON 1986 – Paris, France, 21–23 April first AFRICONs, this series of conferences continued mainly 8 EUROCON 1988 – Stockholm, Sweden, 13–17 June in South Africa for some years. Table III EUROCON 1990 was replaced by CompEuro ’90, and THE SERIES OF AFRICON CONFERENCES EUROCON 1992, scheduled to be held in Zurich, Switzerland, 18–21 May, was canceled. 1 AFRICON 1983 – Nairobi, Kenya, 7–9 December 2 AFRICON 1987 – Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 30 November – 2 December EUROCON Conferences actually fulfilled their aim “To 3 AFRICON 1992 – Mbabane, Swaziland, 22–24 September provide an environment conductive to the informal interaction 4 AFRICON 1996 – Stellenbosch, South Africa, 24–27 September of engineers, scientists and technical management people. 5 AFRICON 1999 – Cape Town, South Africa, 28 September – 1 October 6 AFRICON 2002 – George, South Africa, 2–4 October They will be able to make professional contacts and follow 7 AFRICON 2004 – Gaborone, Botswana, 15–17 September them up by attending successive conventions.” 8 AFRICON 2007 – Windhoek, Namibia, 26–28 September The organizers of EUROCON 1977 already realized the 9 AFRICON 2009 – Nairobi, Kenya, 23–25 September 10 AFRICON 2011 – Livingstone, Zambia, 13–15 September effect of the growth of communications in developing countries, mainly meaning African countries, and a full day V. EUROCON IN EASTERN COUNTRIES of presentations and round-table discussions was devoted to the techno-economic problems and needs for the development A new wave of demand for technological know-how arrived of communications in these countries.