By Jose Rivera
The period Sept – Dec remains a historically busy one for our industry and, thus, for our members and association. Many trade shows and conferences take place during this time, more than what we witness in the Spring when CSIA holds its annual conference.
At the time of this writing, we attended these events:
- IMTS – International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, Sept. 9-14
- CSIA Partner Committee meeting (in-person) at the HQs of PTC (Kepware), Sept. 10-11
- Manufacturing in America (MIA) trade show in Detroit, Sept. 25
- CSIA Board in-person meeting in Chicago, Oct. 1-3. (This meeting includes the Chairs of our committees via virtual call.)
The following events remain on our agenda:
- In Latam, CSIA will deliver an Intro to the BPs workshop in Mexico City (Oct. 30-31), and I have been invited to deliver a presentation at the ceremony for the 20th anniversary of Sistemas IQ in Costa Rica.
- PackExpo in Chicago, Nov. 4-6
- Rockwell Automation Fair, Anaheim, CA, Nov. 18-21
There are of course other important events taking place like the Inductive Automation ICC, AVEVA World, etc. We rotate our participation at these events in an effort to be fair to all of our partners.
Partner Meeting
I would like to highlight the recent CSIA Partner Meeting. Software Toolbox sponsored our welcome reception and Kepware sponsored our meeting and provided us with an impressive location; the HQs of PTC in Boston.
This year we tried a new format. We invited anybody (SI or vendor Partner) who was interested to register.
We followed the “first come, first served” method as we had limited capacity.
This allowed the participation of several local SIs who had never attended in the past to join. It provided some fresh perspectives.
We provided an update on our association, review of the recent conference and developing plans for the next one. We had very valuable discussions and suggestions (e.g., for topics to center the conference around) that we’ll try to implement.
I want to thank our Partner Committee Co-Chair, John Weber, for his 10 years on this leadership role.
I also want to recognize Nicole Castonguay (Kepware) and our staff Jill Gabbert, Karaina Callahan, and Lisa Richter. Their incredible “behind the scenes” efforts made our meeting a reality. Thank you.
For the next months CSIA has several key deliverables:
- 2025 Budget preparation and approval.
- Set up of the 2025 conference registration site and planning.
- Contracts for our CSIA 2026 and 2027 conference sites.
I wish you all a productive month ahead. The transition to the Fall provides us with beautiful colors and, hopefully, a reminder to take a break now and then to recharge our batteries.
Jose Rivera is CEO of Control System Integrators Association.