Growing Up - While the Organic Electronics Association, more widely known as the OE-A already turned five years old in December, the real birthday party will come at the end of May, when it kicks off its trade show, the LOPE-C (the Large-area, Organic and Printed Electronics Convention) in Frankfurt. Since its inception in 2004, the OE-A has become the leading international industry association for organic and printed electronics and represents the entire value chain of an industry that is growing at lightening speed. Brandi Schuster asked OE-A Chairman Wolfgang Mildner about the progress the group has made over the last five years and what his expectations are for the LOPE-C.

CHEManager Europe: Congratulations on your recent 5th birthday! How have your global activities grown over the last five years? Are you where you thought you would be back when the association was founded in late 2004?

W. Mildner: The OE‐A was founded to promote international networking within the organic electronics industry. In this regard, our expectations were by far exceeded, if you look back to our founding day. We have a total of 135 members now, from materials to end‐users and institutes from more than 20 countries. The association has become more rooted and has gained more importance than we were expecting. What we still have to work on is the market penetration. While several products have reached the market or at least prototype stage, still were expected faster penetration

How has the organic and printed electronics industry fared over the course of the recession?

W. Mildner: OE‐A has seen the strongest membership growth in the recent months since its foundation. We value this as a clear and positive signal for the commercial climate. We have noticed that a number of companies have used the crisis to explore future applications and possible activities in order to be prepared for the time after the crisis. However, the dynamic of adaption and willingness for pilot applications was definitely reduced and still is.

In which area of organic and printed electronics do you see the most potential for growth?

W. Mildner: The keyword here is: green electronics as for example OPV, and efficient lighting solutions. Those environmentally preferable electronic products are followed by new applications for electronics like
printed RFID.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry today?

W. Mildner: This can be put in a nutshell: bringing the competences of materials, production and technology together to find the appropriate solutions to the challenges.

Sumitomo recently joined the OE-A. What additional steps are you taking to enhance your Asian footprint?

W. Mildner: OE‐A was and is active in several conferences and networking events in Asia. The challenges and collaboration efforts to pursue market opportunities do not stop at borders. We are enhancing our activities in Asia by building partnerships with local organizations in the field.

What can you tell us about OE-A's activities since last year's LOPE‐C? What are your expectations for this year's show?

W. Mildner: OE‐A has released the third edition of its application and technology roadmap to the public with a extensive whitepaper available for download, to name just one activity. We started additional working groups on upscaling production and green electronics, two other hot topics for the community. The attractiveness of the organization is reflected in 15 new members from Europe, the U.S. and Asia since the beginning of 2010 and record attendance of our quarterly working group meetings. LOPE‐C 2010 also reflects this positive development with a big increase in the exhibition and attendees. It will be the largest event in the field - with more than 120 presentations from leading companies and Institutes. In addition, two months before the start of the show, the exhibition is almost sold out with 75 exhibitors. We expect LOPE‐C to grow to more than 800 attendees, manifesting its role as the premier international marketplace for the community. New products and applications as well as live emonstrations of production equipment will be highlights at the expo.

Last but not least - the good old typical "job interview" question: Where do you see the OE-A five years from now?

W. Mildner: Looking back at the continuous growth of members during the last five years, it should be possible to grow to 200 members worldwide  asily within the next five years. The reason for this exceptional growth is that OE-A as a market-driven industrial association provides a value for the member companies that they cannot find anywhere else.


About the OE-A
The OE-A (Organic Electronics Association) is a working group within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and was founded in December 2004. The OE-A is the leading international industry association for organic and printed electronics and represents the entire value chain of this emerging industry. Our members are world-class global companies and institutions, ranging from R&D institutes, component and material suppliers to producers and end-users. More than 130 companies from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia are working together to promote the establishment of a competitive production infrastructure for organic electronics. The vision of the OE-A is to build a bridge between science, technology and application. More than 3,000 member companies from the engineering industry make VDMA the largest industry association in Europe. 
www.vdma.org/oe-a

About the LOPE-C
LOPE-C is the official annual conference and exhibition of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A). It is the largest and most comprehensive annual convention worldwide, dedicated to rapid progress in the field of organic and printed electronics. This year's conference takes place May 31-June 2 in Frankfurt, Germany.
www.lope-c.com