Friday, February 16, 2007

Orlando As I said, I guess there was a conference in Orlando this week, but I saw only one presentation and most of one "panel discussion." On Thursday I bounced between the two OMAC sessions for a while, but I didn't pick up any information that I didn't already know. While I wasn't in the sessions and can't remark in detail, I have a few ideas for Andy Chatha (president of ARC) for the future. First-a panel with 10 people is too big. Everyone knew it was just a bone thrown to the CEOs of his clients who showed up. I think that the industry could use a forum where the leading CEOs, who are the industry leaders after all, can speak. Limit them to 20 minutes or so where they can promote their company briefly (those that over-hype earn the scorn of users so that is self-defeating) and then answer questions. Since ARC and its analysts earn money directly from these clients, have moderators who are neutral and will ask the tough follow up questions (my hand is raised, and I know others). The end users would love the chance to hear and question them. Next, have an application part of the Forum where people who actually do the work present the challenges and successes of implementing new technologies. Again with ample time for questions. 15-20 minutes is ample time for a presentation with 15-20 minutes for a good q&a with a good moderator. Since many people talk about the need for university partnerships and educating the next generation of engineers--bring in some leaders in engineering academia for discussion. A keynote on developing personal leadership skills or that sort of thing would be quite useful. If you agree with any of this, do as I will be doing when I get home (I'm in the Cleveland airport President's Club right now) and write to him. I had lots of great meetings outside the conference. So much so that I didn't have time to go to the sessions. I think everyone gets a lot from such informal discussions. There should also be more "hallway" time for everyone. Plus the "networking reception" at Universal is not that. It's just a party time. (OK, there's photographic evidence somewhere that I was also enjoying myself, but it'll never be on this blog). I had a tremendous learning experience along with an excellent dinner with Peter Zornio and Jane Lansing of Emerson. Meeting with leaders such as Dave Petratis and Andy Gravitt of Schneider, Auber Martin and Raj Batra of Siemens, Paulett Eberhart of Invensys Process Systems, Mike Bradley of Wonderware, Kaihori-san of Yokogawa and many others was a great way to get a feel for what's important right now in the industry. I saw cool new technologies including video conferencing from Tandberg and data connectivity from ILS. Well, gotta catch another flight. More this weekend. 11:56:40 AM    comment []

Orlando Sorry I've missed a couple of days. Been putting in 18-hour days in Orlando since Monday with little time to blog. I think there was a conference going on, but I saw only one speech and part of a panel discussion. Meanwhile, there was a lot of buzz, lots of networking and some new technology. More later. I'm about to board my plane home. But, I blogged the Invensys and Yokogawa news Tuesday. I also met with new Invensys Process CEO Paulett Eberhart Wednesday. More later--but suffice to say, forget the accounting background reported by my friend Andrew Bond. She definitely has a sales and marketing background. They are now boarding, so I'll post from Cleveland. 7:23:14 AM    comment []