Interphex was busy yesterday. Lots of people around. When I first became an editor in 1998, I was sent to trade shows to collect press kits bursting with information of new products and attend press conferences where company presidents would spout their philosophy and unveil new products. That lasted about three years. Now, they are mostly a place to meet new people, renew acquaintances and learn about what's happening in the industry.
GE Fanuc was promoting the Wednesday keynote that featured a panel moderated by NBC's science correspondant Robert Brazell and included the president of GE Healthcare (NBC is owned by GE). First thing I noticed was that they anticipated a much smaller crowd than last year's for Rudy Giuliani. They were right. Next, I thought that the high-powered panel could shed some light on the industry and provide a good editorial. Didn't happen. Brazell lobbed some questions and the panelists danced around a little. Questions from the audience were more pointed, but the panelists didn't dive deep into them. When there's only about 10 minutes, there's not much time for thoughtful dialogue. I'm thinking either a well-thoughtout presentation or much more dialogue with the audience would make for a better event.
On the other hand, I had some great one-on-one meetings with GE Fanuc people who taught me much and held out the possibility of much activity during 2006. Hope so. I also benefitted from discussions with thought leaders at Aspen Tech, Honeywell, Invensys, Rockwell Automation. I mentioned yesterday my meeting with Justin Neway from Aegis. Another great learning experience resulted from dinner last night with Peter Dossing and Tom Diederich of Emerson Process.
Over the years, I've been blessed to know some really great teachers in various industries. I'm familiar with most varieties of discrete manufacturing, electronic assembly, chemicals and a little refining. Life sciences have been a mystery. After three years of listening, I feel like I'm beginning to see what's happening. And that is good news for those automation companies and integrators ready to capitalize. The pharma industry in particular has concentrated on R&D and marketing. Margins were high enough to relegate manufacturing inefficiencies just a rounding error on the income statement. The political climate has changed and people are demanding to know why drugs that are vital to many of their lives are so expensive. Now, pharma manufacturing is taking center stage--with a boost from the FDA--and they are ready to automate and study process improvement techniques.
Sounds good--for us and for society.
11:06:38 AM 
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