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Friday, May 25, 2007 |
Finally a recap from the Matrikon Conference. I had to give this one some thought since it was my introduction to the company. I really only knew Matrikon through its OPC involvement. Turns out it has a comprehensive set of process solutions. Interesting that I talked with several people there who were not users, but they were there scoping out the company and products for possible purchase. Some think that these conferences can become inbred, but this shows the potential of a conference as a sales tool--if your sales force does its job right.
There were about 170 attendees representing a broad global cross section. The interesting thing for me was the time the CTO, Dave Shook, took to talk, not technology, but bundling and branding. Another executive told me that the company has not done a good job of marketing--partly making their products understandable and partly promoting them. But it seems that the names of the products don't necessarily reflect what the product does. Hence, bundling and rebranding. Interesting. Not unusual, a very technical company about to discover marketing--therefore a good niche company poised for growth.
Another company also focusing on the customer need to achieve operational excellence. Now that is the beginning of good marketing. They defined op ex as production management + asset effectiveness + operations optimizations or people + business process + decisions. Another good phrase I picked up was "business centric automation." I like that and wish I had thought it up when we were defining Automaton World, since that's a large part of what we're all about.
10:55:42 AM 
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As you can tell, I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging (and news writing) after a really hectic six weeks or so. I still must finish my high school referee assigning, but that'll be mostly done this weekend and the other four leagues I do for spring are about done. I finally get a weekend of actual refereeing this weekend. For the 19th year, I'll spend Memorial Day weekend with thousands of soccer people. This year, the Warrior Classic in Dayton has almost 500 teams. I have 4 games Saturday, 3 Sunday and one final on Monday. Since they are all U15 and older, that's plenty of work for a weekend.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some user conference announcements I had received. Siemens wanted me to be sure to mention theirs--called the Automation Summit June 13-15 in Orlando. Wes will be there since I'll be at the other end of the country at another user conference at the same time. Since I'm speaking at the other one, that's where I'd better be.
We also receive some clarifications about the user conferences (note plural) of Invensys Process Systems. Only the Foxboro one will be July 15-19 in Boston. Avantis will hold its conference Sept. 9-12 in Denver (same time as a competitor), SimSci-Esscor October 1-3 in Houston (same time as ISA Expo) and Triconex Oct. 22-23 in Galveston (same time as two other conferences).
Ye old calendar is getting crowded. Oh, and if you want a summary, check out Automation World.
10:34:20 AM
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Guy Kawasaki's Top Ten Reasons PR Doesn't Work. For all my PR friends--but especially for their clients (whether internal or external) that haven't taken delivery from the Clue Train. Very good tips. Lately I have noticed that PR people must get extra points for a) placing a thinly veiled marketing piece as an article and b) getting their marketing managers quoted. The only magazine in our niche I ever saw run those articles doesn't exist anymore. There is not a lot of credibility with the reader. Now a thoroughly technical article from the CTO in the right place at the right time might be a different story (but don't send any emails to me, please). And second, see today's earlier post. Readers want to hear from people who actually do the work or those who actually develop the technology--not from someone whose job is to sell them their products even if they are truly experts.
10:12:16 AM
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I try to stay away from marketing programs, but here's an innovative way of involving customers and the Web to build a library of video applications of the company's products (in this case, Opto 22).
8:25:28 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Gary Mintchell.
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