Priority Interrupt by Steve Ciarcia The Insanity of Success

Let’s face it. As technical magazines go, Circuit Cellar is a small fish in a big publishing sea. It’s not a David and Goliath struggle, mind you. It’s more like mutual coexistence. They do their thing and we do ours.

One of the things we do really well is design contests. I could claim that it is merely the ability of a small business to react quickly and tailor products to meet changing demands and interests, but the real credit goes to our involved readership. Circuit Cellar readers have an insatiable appetite for innovative ideas and relish an opportunity to exhibit them. Our design contests have evolved as a catalyst to construct those ideas and the magazine as a forum for their presentation.

Design contests have always been a big deal around Circuit Cellar, and in recent years, they have evolved into a major part of our editorial strategy. What is the fundamental ingredient to doing contests well? That’s simple. We enjoy it. Most technical publishers treat contests as just another advertising endeavor. Rarely do they provide more than minimal contest management and contestant entries rarely involve physically building anything. This isn’t a failure on their part, it is merely a consequence of their business model versus ours. Certainly just treating it as advertising would be easier.

There was a time when we had one design contest a year. Demand from sponsors as well as readers has increased that to two a year. In fact, it can get a little insane around here because we’re always working on three contests at a time—past, present, and future. For example, we just finished the Texas Instruments contest and are now working with winners and entrants creating follow-up articles; we’re still running the present contest with Cypress MicroSystems; and, finally, we’re negotiating the contract and creating the ’Net presentation for the fall 2002 contest. Crazier yet, we have five companies already interested in the spring 2003 slot. I once joked, “If you don’t see your favorite processor now, wait a minute, it’ll show up.” That seems to be very true now.

Entrants and sponsors get a lot of value from participation. Contestants aren’t entering a lottery. Not winning isn’t the same as losing around here. Because our real motivation is editorial rather than advertising, every project entry is evaluated by our editorial staff for its potential to be turned into an article and published (we contact you separately for publishing rights). If you happened to be a winner, it’s consequential, not critical. Getting published in Circuit Cellar is based on the application value of your project, not on how it placed in a contest. If it’s a good design, I want it, period.

Being a winner in a Circuit Cellar contest can be good for your career, too. Companies looking to hire good designers view our contests as an accurate test of your design credentials and your ability to finish what you start. More than a few contest entrants have received job offers. In addition, some contestants have reported that being listed among our design contest winners provided the visibility they needed to launch their product. In our most recent TI contest, for example, one winner was approached by a marketing organization and his project is now in full production. Regardless of the outcome, entering a Circuit Cellar contest can be a confidence builder.

With each successive contest, we try to make it easier for you to enter. To facilitate your ability to compete, recent contests have included samples and development kits shipped free to anyplace in the world. Of course, “sampling” for our current Cypress contest takes on a whole new meaning when you realize that Cypress is providing a complete PSoC development system (worth about $50), and together with us, invested about $100,000 to put them into the right hands. We don’t want a little problem like not being able to find a PSoC in Beijing to keep you from entering.

Next month, you’ll see the print announcement of the winners of our Texas Instruments MSP430 design contest. And the Cypress MicroSystems PSoC 2002 contest has another month and a half before the projects go to the judges. But, as I’ve said many times before, don’t unplug your soldering irons yet. This fall, we are planning another Microchip Technology design contest for all of you PIC fans out there. It’s our third outing with Microchip and we’ll try to make it our best yet. Reader involvement is the greatest encouragement I know. If you are enthusiastic about a PIC contest, e-mail me and I’ll let Microchip know how you all feel.

Design contests have become an essential ingredient around here. With all of these present and future contests in the pipe, subscribers can count on a lot of terrific projects covering a variety of great processors in the issues to come.

steve.ciarcia@circuitcellar.com

Published: May-2002