IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - January/February 2020 - 7

Figure 1. Left to right: CESoc Liaison L. Dennis Shapiro, Bao Di, Matt Swatzell, Protik Kotangale, Richard
Oxland, CESoc Board Member Narisa Nan Chu.

us to develop a plan for reinvigorating an organization that could be, and should be, a meeting place
that matches the vitality of the field it represents
(see Figure 2 for a summary of these findings).

WHO ARE WE, ANYWAY?
It used to be easy to identify devices that qualified as consumer electronics-the television, the
answering machine, the video games console. But
as a passion for HiFi became one for WiFi, the
worlds of consumer electronics, computing, and
communications began to overlap and merge. The
definition of a consumer electronics device now
encompasses everything from personal computers
to watches, drones, smart washing machines,
energy meters, and a good portion of your car's
dashboard. Likewise, whereas it was once easy for
a consumer-electronics engineer to determine why
she would want to be a member of CESoc, today
someone building mobile phones could just as reasonably join a communications or computing society. A handful will join all three, but our interviews
suggest most people choose the organization most
closely related to their granular, day-to-day work.
And that organization is rarely CESoc.
Why should it be otherwise? We found even
highly engaged CESoc members had trouble articulating an answer; moreover, ideas about mission
and purpose varied significantly, suggesting there
is little consensus across members of different
longevity, from different geographies, or working

January/February 2020

in different parts of the field. Less engaged members were often unaware of key CESoc programs
and benefits, and therefore saw little reason to
maintain their membership. Others had only
signed on because membership came free with
conference registration.
One US interviewee captured a worryingly
common sentiment when he told us, "I guess
I just forgot to cancel." Over the course of
14 months of research, it became clear that the
CESoc needs to find a niche in order to have any
meaning at all. But how?

IVORY TOWER, US ZIP CODE
The question is complicated by interview
partners who felt there are areas in which the
Society needs to broaden its ambit rather than
narrow it. Many people perceived CESoc as
being overly scholarly, "just academics talking
to academics-not at all relevant to my day-today work," in the words of an American
engineer.
Nor was this grievance voiced only by those
working in industry; academic researchers, particularly in Europe, craved a forum in which they
could find industry partners interested in practical commercial implementations of their research.
CESoc, they said, is not currently that forum. A
lack of industry involvement degrades value
across nearly all members. It also saps the organization of funding, since nonengaged companies

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - January/February 2020

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