Evertiq Expo celebrated 15 years – in the city where it began

On 21 May, Evertiq Expo took place in Lund – the city where it all began. After several years at Malmö Arena, the event returned to home turf to celebrate its 15th anniversary, this time at Sparbanken Skåne Arena. 332 visitors from 215 companies met 106 exhibiting companies during the day – a visitor record for Lund. A total of 591 people filled Sparbanken Skåne Arena during the Expo. “Celebrating 15 years right here in Lund felt right. This is where it all started, and the reception during the day showed that interest in this format is as strong as ever,” says Daniel Myrtenblad, Expo Manager at Evertiq. The conference programme covered some of the industry’s heaviest current issues. Vytautas Ilgūnas from TLT PCB argued that European AI sovereignty remains a castle in the air without a rebuilt domestic PCB industry. Elisabet Österlund and Malin Berglund from Semiconductor Sweden presented the foundation behind Sweden’s national semiconductor strategy for 2035 – an ecosystem of more than 8,000 companies, 260,000 employees, and over SEK 1,000 billion in turnover directly dependent on advanced electronics and semiconductor technology. Mahdi Fazeli from Halmstad University reviewed hardware trojans and what a global supply chain actually means for the industry’s security work. When circuits are designed, manufactured, and assembled in different parts of the world, opportunities for malicious modifications also grow – and Fazeli argued that hardware security is one of the most critical yet most overlooked challenges in modern electronics. Claus Aasholm from Semiconductor Business Intelligence analysed the semiconductor market, where facts and data were pitted against companies’ own narratives. Using his own data models, he reviewed capacity expansion, capital flows, supply chain shifts, and regional political effects. The day ended with a mapping of the Swedish EMS market. Of 77 pure EMS providers with a combined turnover of SEK 13.6 billion in 2024, 57.5 percent of the market is controlled by just ten individual production facilities. On the floor, the atmosphere was consistently positive. Conversations naturally revolved around shortage situations – memories, copper foil, and ever-longer lead times – but without the concern one might expect. Rather, the impression was that most were busy and optimistic about the near future. Defence build-up ran like a red thread through many discussions, closely linked to questions of European self-sufficiency. AI and data centres also engaged attendees, with conversations shifting between pure optimism and more cautious tones about what happens when the bubble eventually bursts – if it does. The next Evertiq Expo in Sweden takes place in Gothenburg on 17 September 2026