2020 WHMA 27th Annual Wire Harness Conference

One of WHMA’s Most Successful Events to Date

March 24, 2020 – The 2020 WHMA 27th Annual Wire Harness Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 18-20, 2020 at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa was a huge success. With a record-breaking number of 41 exhibitors, more than 60 first-time attendees and nearly 200 total attendees, this was one of WHMA’s best conferences to date.

Another first this year was the technical education workshop held February 18, “The Evolution of IPC’s Cable and Wire Harness Documents: IPC-D-620, IPC/WHMA-A-620 and IPC-HDBK-62” presented by Robert Cooke, NASA Johnson Space center.  Twenty-five attendees learned about IPC’s cable and harness assembly documents, how they are used and plans for revisions.

Space fans were awed by keynote speaker B, Gentry Lee’s presentation, “A Passion for Space Exploration.” He captivated his audience by highlighting his exploration career and discussing his role of wires and harnesses with spacecrafts. His responsibilities included engineering integrity of all robotic planetary missions managed by JPL for NASA, Lee provided engineering oversight for the Curiosity rover mission to Mars in 2012, the Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, the Juno mission to Jupiter and the GRAIL missions to the Moon.

Additional presentations included:

– “Wire Harness Industry Economics – Managing in an Uncertain Economy” presented by Taylor St. Germain, ITR Economics

– “Space Challenges from Wire Harness” presented by Bob Cooke, Johnson Space Center

– “Megatrends of CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrification)” presented by Jim Hawersaat, TTI, Inc.

– “Micro Trends and Mega Changes” presented by Shawn Dubravac, IPC

– “Electric Mobility will Change your Business,” presented by Benoit Dagenais, Innovative Vehicle Institute

Roundtable topics included using the IPC/WHMA-A-620 standard as a marketing tool, growth strategies, wire harness industry economics, low pressure molding, and high-performance teams and trends in direct labor affecting wire harness operations in Mexico.

“This year’s event was very successful thanks to WHMA/IPC staff, our stellar lineup of presenters, and event sponsors and exhibitors,” said Rick Bromm, WHMA chair and president of ALTEX. “We’re already planning for the 2021 conference which will take place February 18-21 at the Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona.”