The Society for Information Display (SID) hosted its 55th International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, known internationally as Display Week 2018, May 20-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles. This year’s event topped attendance records and brought together the brightest minds in the display industry, providing insight into new display technologies in development, as well as affording a sneak peek at new products that will be hitting the shelves within the next few years.

Sri Peruvemba, board member and chair of marketing for SID, said numbers were up across the board which included sponsorships, symposium attendees, media and analysts, and exhibitors.

“Display Week 2018 was a huge success in terms of participation,” noted Peruvemba. “There was a double-digit percent increase in symposium attendees and total attendance was nearly 7,000. We also saw a 10 percent increase in floor space. Additionally, attendance by local, national and international media and analysts increased by 50 percent, demonstrating that the week-long event is critical to understanding emerging display technologies.”

The four-day Symposium featured hundreds of leading display industry papers from around the world in multiple technical sessions. It included a plenary keynote session, presentations in parallel sessions, a poster session organized around selected topics, and author interview sessions with demo models each afternoon. Also included in the event were SID’s Sunday short courses and Monday seminars.

The three-day Exhibition was the premier showcase for global information display companies and researchers to unveil cutting-edge developments in display technologies, some of which included micro-LED, OLED, LCD/quantum dots and ePaper. More than 200 exhibitors shared and demonstrated their latest products, providing an inside glimpse into the work that’s being done to yield coming technologies and trends.  It also served as a prime networking venue for leading OEMs worldwide.

Special topics from Display Week 2018 included artificial intelligence; augmented and virtual reality; quantum dots and micro-LEDs; and wearable displays, sensors and devices. Other highlights included a special session on Women in Technology, CEO Forum, and the four-conference series Business Track (Immersive Experience Market Focus; Automotive Display Market Focus; Investors Conference, Business Conference).

“Exciting technology advances continue to emerge, seemingly nonstop, enabled both by those at the cutting edge of high-tech, and by those who are adapting those developments to make them useful in our everyday world,” said Helge Seetzen, president of SID. “Where we really are going to see a tech explosion is in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning –  especially as they pertain to the automotive field. We are seeing many developments aimed at improving technology in both human-driven and autonomous cars. This market is providing significant opportunity for new display technologies- they can be used to create more vivid displays, heads-up displays, and curved displays, which, thanks to flexible substrates, can be placed in unique ways to avoid destroying the design/appearance of the dashboard area.”

Seetzen added that with all these new trends, “Display Week 2018 saw a 20 percent increase in sponsorships.”

SID will be hosting Display Week 2019 in San Jose, California, May 12-17, 2019 and will be announcing registration details later this year.