Between Laser Focus World’s 33rd Annual Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar held March 4-5, 2021, and the fast-following Photonics West Digital Forum, there was a lot going on for photonics professionals during the month of March. So, for the first time, I moderated a Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar Wrap Up Roundtable Discussion to recap, update, and discuss all the sessions and associated learnings. The panel consisted of Stephen Anderson, Director, Industry Development, SPIE; John Dexheimer, President, LightWave Advisors; and Laser Focus World’s laser analyst Allen Nogee, President of Laser Markets Research.
Just a few of the front-and-center topics discussed included final fourth-quarter 2020 revenue updates, the potential acquisition of Coherent (Santa Clara, CA), and all the recent publicity surrounding special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Dexheimer essentially views SPACs as big capital flowing into companies at early stages, noting photonic integrated circuit company Rockley Photonics (Pasadena, CA) as the most recent example. Since it was also the first time I’ve had a chance to speak with Anderson and Nogee after actual 2020 fourth-quarter revenues have come in, we also updated some of the information they presented during their March 4th and 5th presentations, which, due to seminar content deadlines, mainly rely on fourth-quarter estimates. Nogee noted that his overall 2020 laser market growth was bit high at 8% and said that due primarily to shipments being delayed and pushed out into this year, actual revenue growth was closer to 5.6%. Anderson, who tracks revenue of the top 30 core photonic component suppliers for SPIE, said it’s noteworthy that fourth-quarter 2020 revenues exceed the pre-pandemic levels by 15%.
Every session, including the March 31st roundtable discussion, can be viewed on-demand until the end of April. So please, take a more in-depth look at our lineup of speakers and register today.

John Lewis | Editor in Chief (2018-2021)
John Lewis served as Editor in Chief of Laser Focus World from August 2018 through October 2021, after having served as the Editor in Chief of Vision Systems Design from 2016 to 2018. He has technical, industry, and journalistic qualifications, with more than 13 years of progressive content development experience working at Cognex Corporation. Prior to Cognex where his articles on machine vision were published in dozens of trade journals, he was a technical editor for Design News, covering automation, machine vision, and other engineering topics, for over six years.