UBM Electronics' David Blaza Named to the 1st Annual EXPO Elite List

SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Electronics, a UBM company and the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, today announced that David Blaza, Vice President, UBM Electronics was named to the first annual EXPO Elite list, a list of some of the most distinguished show and event executives in the industry. Blaza was chosen for the award based on his unique and forward-thinking strategies with UBM Electronics' Events.

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Blaza leads UBM Electronics and as part of that role directs the UBM Electronics events portfolio. Under his leadership, he expanded the division's footprint considerably over the past year through organic initiatives and acquisitions.

• UBM Electronics' flagship event franchise, the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC), has been in existence for over 22 years and has been successfully expanding its footprint.  It offers events in Boston, Chicago, India (Bangalore), San Jose (Silicon Valley) and a new event in Brazil, which takes place this month in partnership with UBM Brazil.  ESC Brazil brings together South America's designers, technologists, business leaders and suppliers with a conference program and exposition. With cutting-edge product demonstrations, visionary speeches and hundreds of essential technical training classes and accreditation opportunities, ESC is the leading venue in North America for the design engineering community to learn, collaborate and recognize excellence.  
• In April 2010, UBM Electronics acquired DesignCon, the definitive exhibition and conference for electronic design experts spanning chip, package, board, and system domains, addressing common issues in signal integrity, power management, interconnection and design verification. The DesignCon exhibition and conference expanded UBM Electronics' event portfolio into adjacent markets including chip-level system design and verification, analog and mixed-signal design and verification and IP re-use and integration. Additionally, DesignCon will be expanding with the creation of DesignCon East, co-located with ESC Boston, on September 27, 2011.
• Blaza understands the power of combining live and virtual events and under his leadership in December 2010 DesignCon offered a virtual preview of "DesignCon 2011 – Where Chipheads Connect." The virtual event, a first of its kind for UBM Electronics, drew 845 registrants and 204 live attendees.  Attendees remained within the environment for an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes.
• UBM Electronics in partnership with Reed Business Information expanded its portfolio to offer the Embedded Live Exhibition and Conference, the definitive UK event for electronic design innovation and systems technology development in London. The event was specifically targeted to engineering executives, system architects, design engineers, suppliers and analysts.
• UBM Electronics in conjunction with ARM produced the 2010 ARM Technology Conference.  The event attracted the technology elite, system developers employing the ARM architecture, chip teams working with ARM silicon IP and tools, and the entire ARM Connected Community®.  The conference offered targeted content and exhibits to both ARM silicon partners and ARM-based system developers, and attendance grew under Blaza's leadership by 65 percent.  Additionally, the conference was named one of the "25 Top Fast-Growth Shows of 2010" by Expo Magazine.
• The EE Times Medical Electronics Summit focused on overcoming regulatory, legal and funding hurdles to drive innovation and bring new products to market.  The high level executive summit was created to assist senior level executives from across the medical electronics industry overcome regulatory, legal and funding hurdles to drive innovation and bring medical electronics products to market.
• In addition, UBM Electronics added the EDN Designing with LEDs event to its portfolio which was co-located with ESC Silicon Valley in May 2011. An "east" version of the event is scheduled to launch in conjunction with ESC Boston September 27, 2011.

"We are honored that David has been named to the EXPO Elite and recognized for creating a successful events portfolio," said Paul Miller, CEO, UBM Electronics.  "Under David's leadership we have launched, acquired and created new events and expanded our reach into the electronics industry.  All of these events have contributed to 20 percent revenue growth for the company.  We congratulate David and his team on their successes."

Blaza has over 20 years of sales, marketing and media experience in the technology sector with IBM Europe, Motorola, Mars Electronics, ChipCenter and UBM.  Blaza built his early career selling new technology into emerging applications including selling one of the first voice mail systems installed in the UK and private wireless data systems in the US.  In addition, Blaza sold some of the earliest versions of internet ads on the EETimes.com and led the CMP Electronics Group web sales initiatives. Blaza has held a variety of management positions with UBM Electronics including Publisher of Embedded Systems Design magazine, Vice President and Publisher of EE Times.   Blaza earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science from the University of Bradford, England and a Master of Science in Economics and Technology from the University of Stirling, Scotland.

About UBM Electronics

UBM Electronics is the global leader in media and marketing solutions for the electronics industry.   UBM Electronics delivers results for the key influencers and decision makers involved in the design, development and commercialization of technology through its market leading brands, peer communities and professional education services.   More than 2.2 million engineering professionals engage with UBM Electronics brands which include EE Times, EDN, EDN China, EDN Asia, EDN Japan, Design News and Test & Measurement World, TechOnline, Designlines and Embedded.com across the globe to accelerate technology sales. The international electronics community gathers at UBM Electronics market leading events such as the Embedded Systems Conferences, DesignCon and ARM Technology Conference to share, learn, discuss, and advance the critical issues and challenges facing the electronics industry. Additionally, UBM Electronics provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation marketing, integrated media, custom solutions and research.  UBM Electronics is part of UBM (UBM.L) a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

About UBM plc

UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

For more information on UBM Electronics please contact:
Felicia Hamerman, Vice President, Marketing
T: 516.562.5652, E: felicia.hamerman@ubm.com

SOURCE UBM Electronics