Canada’s new printable electronics association stakes its claim

The Canadian Printable Electronics Industry Association, Ottawa, (CPEIA) the newly minted voice of Canada’s printable electronics sector, has achieved its first major milestones: obtaining 32 founding members, brokering strategic relationships with key partner organizations and securing major sponsors for Canada’s signature industry event.

The CPEIA made its official debut in November at IDTechEx’s Printed Electronics USA conference, one of the leading industry events for the global printable electronics (PE) industry. Founding membership was extended to all Canadian and international organizations that joined by Jan. 1, 2015.

These Founding Members include:

• PE-focused small to medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

• R&D organizations

• Universities involved in PE development

• Large multinational companies with PE product lines and R&D

• Companies in vertical markets (such as intelligent packaging; secure printing; medical, health and wellness; consumer electronics) that can use or integrate PE into their current products or solutions, or create new product categories based on PE

• Service providers to the PE industry.

These organizations represent a strong cross section of the PE industry, from materials, devices and prototyping, to manufacturing and printing.

In addition to signing up members from across Canada and abroad, the CPEIA is partnering with fellow industry associations that reach end-users in its target verticals. These include aerospace and defence; medical, health and wellness; secure printing; marketing, advertising and commerce; packaging; and consumer electronics, wearables and intelligent homes and buildings. The association will announce these partnerships in coming months.

Any Canadian or international organization from these sectors, be it an SME focused on developing new technologies, or a major end-user of such technologies, is welcome to join the CPEIA. The Association will provide opportunities for vertically focused companies to work alongside PE-focused technology developers.

“The success of CPEIA and its members is largely dependent on attracting companies that want to create new solutions enabled by PE, such as flexible solar cells, advanced flexible displays, wearable health monitoring devices, new interactive marketing and advertising surfaces, or intelligent labels for advanced retail environments, just to name a few,” says Peter Kallai, executive director for CPEIA. “We will work with end users and market-leading companies that have the vision to partner with PE technology developers and create new categories of products and solutions.”

A full list of the CPEIA’s founding members can be found at http://cpeia-acei.ca/members/our-members

Making a splash with CPES2015

In addition, the CPEIA is spearheading the 2015 Canadian Printable Electronics Symposium, to be held April 21-22 in Montreal. Six major sponsors have already been secured. The CPEIA will shortly announce the event’s Gold Sponsors and keynote speakers. CPES2015 will serve as an opportunity to learn about the convergence of research and development, industry expertise, commercial effort and government support that gives Canada a tremendous opportunity in this explosive global market. Deadlines for paper and presentation submissions is January 31.

“We have accomplished much in a short period of time, but a great deal of work still lies before us through 2015,” adds Kallai. “In addition to making CPES2015 a truly world-class event, we will continue to grow our Membership, establish linkages with the academic community, and build our relationships with industry associations and end-users that represent our target market verticals.”