The second annual Automation Conference, produced by Summit Media, publishers of Automation World and Packaging World magazines, was bigger and better than last year, with more sponsors and a significant increase in end user registrations, according to show organizers. More than 230 attendees from 124 companies attended two days of keynote and track sessions in Chicago May 14-15.
To keep the learning going, all registered attendees with receive an email with a link and password for downloading presentation Powerpoints. Others can visit www.automationworld.com/TAC2013 for a roundup of all articles, podcasts and videos from the event.
“Our speaker lineup this year was outstanding, featuring our peer-to-peer approach to live exchange that included representatives from PepsiCo, Campbell Soup Company, Coca-Cola, Nova Chemicals and others,” said Jim Chrzan, Automation World publisher. “This clearly is a community, and we’re happy to extend the opportunities for community members to collaborate.”
End users from manufacturing, processing and packaging companies were both speakers and attendees at the conference, and many said TAC 2013 was a good opportunity to gain some cross-industry perspective. “I don’t often get to see what works in other industries. This was a great opportunity to do that,” said Perry Picard, business process architect for pharmaceutical manufacturer Perrigo. Picard and his colleague Trent Martin spoke at the conference on “an automated, wireless way to bring packaging materials to packaging lines.”
Others commented on “the large number of information systems people in the room,” and how that boded well for better communications among IT, operations and engineering personnel within plants. Jeff Russell, PepsiCo operations manager, co-presented his keynote session with Bryan Cleal, PepsiCo’s IT infrastructure engineer. Both took questions from attendees in the hallways and offered their perspectives in other sessions.
Automation system integrators also were well represented, discussing their ability to bridge the still-sometimes-wide IT/automation divide. “The [end user] process experts lay out clear expectations for the process. We develop a functional design document from that process design document (sequence of operations, or SOP) and ask lots of questions before we write a line of code,” said Ed Diehl, co-CEO of system integrator Concept Systems. That structured project methodology links up well with IT methodologies, and ensures projects are successful.
Bookmark www.TheAutomationConference.com and check back later this summer for information on the 2014 conference. That link also provides additional information on 2013 sessions, speakers and sponsor companies.
