Semiconductor Insiders - Podcast EP341: Details of the Upcoming Microelectronics US Event with Michael Adeniya

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Daniel is joined by Michael Adeniya, Group Director, Microelectronics Global and a key architect behind the launch of Microelectronics US. Mike is focused on uniting the “Silicon Hills” ecosystem to address the practical engineering bottlenecks of the post CHIPS Act era. By fostering strategic partnerships … Read More

Hello, my name is Daniel Nenny, founder of Semaiwiki, the Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals. Welcome to the Semiconductor Insiders podcast series. My guest today is Michael Adanea, group director, Microelectronics Global, and a key architect behind the launch of Microelectronics U.S. Mike is focused on uniting the Silicon Hills ecosystem to address the practical engineering bottlenecks of the post-chips Act era. By fostering strategic partnerships with leaders like Silicon Catalyst, Risk 5, and Edge AI Foundation and more. This is a big undertaking, Mike. This is great. Well, welcome to the

podcast. Thanks for having me, Daniel. Appreciate it. Now, first, what brought you to Microelectronics Global? Can you share a little bit about your background? Yeah, absolutely. So my background is not technical. I'm not an engineer. My background is in sales and marketing. I built event companies over the last 20 years or so. Generally, an event, that may serve a community over one or two days, but actually when you look deeper, it should really be supporting that community all year round. So I've had a lot of fun in supporting generally tech sector industries

in developing what might be a one-off event into something that might support an entire ecosystem and community on a 365 basis through live events, digital touchpoints, and yeah, meetups and so forth. Well, you picked a great time to join the semiconductor industry. This is the most excitement I have seen in my 40 years. So we see a lot of events in Silicon Valley.

I mean, here in Santa Clara, I mean, they're just events every month, two, three a month. I've been to eight already this year. But you've chosen Austin for Microelectronics U.S. this April. So what is it about the Silicon Hills ecosystem that makes it right to anchor the show in Austin? Yeah, a really good point. And what you just described there is synonymous with a lot of the feedback we've had, Daniel, around the fact that there is a really thriving ecosystem in Austin and that part of Texas. And there's plenty of opportunity in the Silicon Valley area, Santa Clara, even Embedded World. They have an event in Anaheim, I believe.

and so many organisations that are in our advisory committee and support groups have said that really, Austin is massively underserved. And if we were to bring our microelectronics brand, that we had a really successful launch in Europe. Our event in London has just grown from strength to strength. It's actually doubled year on year. and we're now really confident that we got a huge opportunity to serve that Austin community of engineers and technicians in the semiconductor photonics and embedded space with an event of their own.

Yeah, you mentioned that the mission for microelectronics U.S. is about execution at scale, which is important. So how is the show floor and the agenda structured differently to facilitate that? Yeah, so one thing that I've always found important with live events is the experience. And we've created a really nice blend that's more than just the exhibition booths. I think having the right partners on the show floor as exhibitors is really important. And like I said, we brought that Austin community to the show. So we have the likes of AMD, Intel, Samsung, Semmel. semiconductor, Silicon Labs, a whole bunch of the key players. I didn't even mention Texas

instruments who are in that Texas area as well. So having all of these key players, supporting the show floor is really important. But the content that's we're bringing through is really, really good from a technical perspective, but also from a strategic perspective. So we've got panels, workshops, executive forums for everyone from a graduate engineer, right through to CTOs and CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world. So that blend of micro experiences, technical workshops, the right exhibitor booths, but then also fun experiences, like happy hours and sort of fun and games on the show floor as well, all create a really good experience.

So that blend is important for the show floor, but as you mentioned, this is a really exciting time for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry. And over the last year or so, all I've seen is people move away from exploring and investigating new technologies to really delving into how do we execute this at scale. So that's what we're really trying to help people understand is how can we use this blend of the overlapping worlds of semi-photonics and embedded, bring them under one roof so they can solve the execution challenges without operating in silos. Yeah, we've been to Austin a few times with our traditional semiconductor conferences. And, you know, the nice thing is you see different people, right? I mean, these conferences are big on networking. And you network in the Silicon Valley is important, but you get new people, and it was really a great experience. So I'm really a big supporter of this program.

You know, I've also seen that Silicon Catalyst is your exclusive strategic partner. That's a big statement. We're very active with them here in the Silicon Valley. They are very impactful in the industry, especially for the startup industry, for CHIP startups. So how are you specifically supporting startups and early stage innovation at the event? I mean, you pick the right partner, but how are you doing? Yeah, big shout out to Silicon Catalyst. They've been pretty instrumental in supporting us, not just with this event in Austin, but also with it started a couple of years ago with our UK event as well. So we, just like you described, having startups as a part of our community is so important.

Early stage founders can find themselves so busy doing the work that getting out to events, meeting people, building their network can sometimes very quickly become a secondary part of what they do. So we wanted to create a show where these early stage startups are championed and almost positioned as the heroes of the show. So we've got a dedicated stage for startups, dedicated time in the program, and through our partnership with Silicon Catalyst as well, we give them free of charge exhibition space so they can do their demos, present on the show floor, and get their technologies in the hands of people that can actually implement it and use it at scale. So, yeah, we really wanted to put early stage companies right at the show floor. We've got around 10 to 15 early stage startups built into the program. A good chunk of them are part of the Silicon Catalyst cohort, but we've also invited some that are not that our,

attendees at the show are going to go and get to meet as well. You know, I just checked your website, and the exhibitor list is growing fast from the headline sponsors like Edge Impulse to Giants like Nikon and AWS. Who are some of the other key players people should be looking out for? Yeah, we got such a good blend of exhibitors, and, you know, we're aiming for the first year, if we can get somewhere in the region of 70 to 80 exhibitors, we're going to have a really, really strong show. And we're going to be able to build on this for years and years to come as well. But yes, we've got some really exciting companies from Brain Chip.

You mentioned Edge Impulse, Advantec, who are very well known. Companies in the AI space, like Fem to AI as well. And then we've got some of our partners over from the UK, the Welsh government, looking to build and expand partnerships in the US. And they're coming there over for the show. the likes of KeySight Technologies as well. So a really, really good blend of organisations. And like I mentioned, the companies that you may not typically have heard of too.

Just thinking of how the sort of semiconductor space is consolidating as well. So very recently, MIPS has been acquired by Global Foundries and MIPS is on board as a gold sponsor of the show. They'll be presenting and exhibiting at the event too. So yeah, very exciting to see a really nice range of organizations. You mentioned some of our strategic partners. You'll see them on the show floor like Risk Five. We'll have an exhibitor booth at the show. Edge AI Foundation are actually sponsoring our drinks reception.

So you'll see them. And some of the component companies, so OEM secrets are doing work with us and bringing some of their partners to the show. HACTA, bringing the embedded engineer community to the show as well. There's a really nice, buzzy show floor. Great. So if I'm a design engineer attending microelectronics US for the first time, what are, say, maybe the top three or four things that I absolutely have to put on my schedule?

Just off the top of your head. Yeah. So we've actually created something quite cool. On the first day, we've actually created a feature called the Design Engineers Guide to Robotics, and the second day, it's a Design Engineer's Guide to Automotive. And we're working with some of our partners at the show, some of the companies I mentioned earlier as well as TQ systems, embed us and a range of startups where design engineers can get an insight into how can they initiate projects in robotics and automotive and take it from design right through to scaled execution. And it's almost like a mini scavenger hunt in each of those in those two sectors where they can get an insight into what are the. the different design considerations they need to be thinking about, how do they embed security

into it and so forth. And then of course, what do they need to think about when they're scaling too? So that's just a couple of features that I think would be really exciting for a design engineer to take part in and get some insights and walk away with something really practical that they can apply in their jobs as well. Great. Last question. How do people register for the conference?

You know, I hear it's free, right? Yeah. So we wanted to make the barriers to entry for attendees as low as possible. So unlike other events, our event is completely free to attend. So you can easily sign up, just go straight to the website, www.werelectronicsus.com, and you can register online free of charge. So, and that gives you access to a ticket to the show. all of the content, all of the networking, the exhibition show floor, of course, all free of charge.

And my most important question, there will be food, right? Yep. So we've got lunches, we've got coffees. In fact, we've actually built a central networking area right in the middle of the show floor that everyone's got access to. Great. Hey, I'm looking forward to it. I wish I could be there, but I will get some of the presentations and we'll cover it after the event.

And we'll look forward to working with you again on future conferences. It'd be great to have your community down at the show. Shame you can't make it, but please spread the word. We'll do. Thank you. That concludes our podcast. Thank you all for listening and have a great day.