This year, I have attended several in-person meetings and thereby been able to have more direct communication with people. For me, the RMS EBSD meeting and MMC conference were opportunities to talk directly to delegates, some of whom I have not seen for several years due to COVID and travel restrictions, and to also get feedback about how our products are being used and to discuss work and research being done using EBSD.
Talking directly, face-to-face, makes it a lot easier to share information and have discussions, which might not be as easy via Teams. As an example, trying to explain FIB workflows, involving lift out to get the sample into the right geometry for EBSD analysis, is easier when you can just pick up the physical items to show the movements.
When talking to existing customers at the conferences, one of the most frequently asked questions has been:
“Will there be another EBSD User Meeting?”
Figure 1 - Delegates at the 2019 Meeting
Last Meeting
Oxford Instruments EBSD user meetings have been held every 2-3 years at different locations in Europe. Our last meeting was held in Germany in 2019, and it was a great opportunity to meet and share experiences with EBSD users of different experience levels, at different stages of their career, and from a variety of application backgrounds.
These user meetings gave an opportunity for users to network with us and with one another, hearing from EBSD experts, application scientists, and technologists, on a wide variety of topics. Having a user meeting now is long overdue.
It is important to us that we ensure that our users can get the best out of their system. We aim to achieve this in several ways; the help built into our AZtec system, manuals, via local and on-site training courses, webinars and tutorials; User Meeting are one of the more impactful means in our repertoire. The dedicated breakout sessions cover specific chosen topics and give the opportunity to directly ask “how do I do …?”.
Figure 2 - 2019 User Meeting session on data processing
In the last meetings, TKD was discussed at length, as it was still a new technique for many users. Since then, the technique has become much more common practice, but I am sure it will still be something to discuss at a coming meeting.
Besides networking and knowledge sharing, these meetings have also been a great way for us to get your input on future developments. As an example, at the 2019 meeting, delegates were asked about the importance of several features/topics. One question included was “what do users want or what is needed?”, and the feedback we obtained was used during the development of AZtecCrystal. The discussions also help us to identify potential collaborators or beta testers for when new products are being developed, so your contributions to the meetings are invaluable to us.
Coming Soon
The 2024 Oxford Instruments EBSD User Meeting is being held in Krakow, Poland between 14th and 16th May.. As with previous events, as well as contributions from invited experts, we intend the event to be an opportunity for those using Oxford Instrument EBSD systems to share ideas and experiences. The agenda includes time for user presentations, poster sessions and discussion.
You can learn more about our EBSD User Meeting, including more details of the agenda, the venue, cost and how to register, here. We hope you will join us.
