News and Markets Industrial Automation North America to feature next-generation technologies Dirk Schaar When in September 2014 the Industrial Automation North America, International Trade Show for Process, Production and Industrial Building Automation open its doors in Chicago, the world is invited to join this great event. But why should you attend – the organizer answers? Attendees at this year’s Industrial Automation North America (IANA) trade show and conference co-located with the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) will experience the next generation of robotics solutions in the exciting, fast-growing area of robotics for industrial automation. Global exhibitors at IANA (September 8 - 13, 2014, McCormick Place Chicago, USA) will demonstrate collaborative robotics, vision guided robotics, material handling robotics, as well as servo drives for robotics applications, robotics integration software and services. According to the International Federation of Robotics, the trend towards automation is dramatically increasing the number of robot installations across the globe. The Federation estimates that robot installations will increase by six percent on average per year through 2016. As factories modernize and expand production capacity to stay competitive and robots continue to become easier to use, safer, less complicated and lower priced, manufacturers in North America and emerging markets, as well, will increase their robotics installations. Industrial Automation North America and IMTS attracted a record-breaking 100,200 attendees in 2012. Considering that 91 % of those who attended found new products and ideas to enhance their productivity, and 65 % actually plan to make a purchase within one year of the shows, the 2nd IANA is promising to be an even better and larger show. Collocated once again with IMTS and the addition of the Motion, Drive & Automation North America will make the 2014 event the most comprehensive manufacturing technology event in the Western Hemisphere. Dave Lawson, General Manager of Sommer Automatic is convinced: “By attending the Industrial Automation North America 2012 event, we made many new business connections within our target industries and expanded our geographic reach, connecting with valuable new business contacts in Mexico and South America. We were pleased with the show and expect to exhibit at Industrial Automation North America 2014. By then, we will have new space requirements so may choose to secure additional booth space.” Photographs: fotolia www.ia-na.com back to current issue 88 AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGIES 2/2014
Larry Turner about the show 2014: Industrial Automation North America is well on its way to becoming North America’s leading trade show for process, factory and building automation. What makes the show so special? A large part of the success is the tie with Hannover Messe and its worldwide portfolio of Industrial Automation events. The exhibitors expect a very high level of quality from our shows, and our worldwide network helps us deliver on that expectation. The launch of Industrial Automation event was very well attended with more than 20,000 attendees visiting the show. The quality of the attendees, in addition to the quantity, was a good fit for all of the exhibitors that participated in the inaugural show and many have signed up to exhibit this year. What are the advantages of the co-location with IMTS? The advantage to Industrial Automation North America is the ability to leverage an attendee base that is already on the show floor for other manufacturing technologies. The work we do developing new attendees provides an additional focus for anyone who is visiting the show floor for the first time or may not have been to IMTS recently and now is looking to automate their facility. For IMTS, we bring a high-profile set of international exhibitors to the joint events. In 2012, approximately 85 % of the companies that exhibited were headquartered outside of the United States. In additional to expanding the international scope of the combined shows, we are also bringing a new set of attendees to the event. This includes new companies attending and/ or new titles attending that have not been to an IMTS event. The US market is very well known for Automation technologies. What is the role of the Industrial Automation North America in this context? Our role is to help bridge the information from providers to the companies that can use the new technologies. Technology is important, but more important is the implementation of these technologies. We have a one day conference running on the Wednesday of the event that highlights best practices on key technologies and provides conference attendees state-of-theart information about how the technologies are being implemented and used by their peers. We are organizing a training program on the Thursday and Friday of that week that will address how to secure industrial control systems produced by ISA. The ISA Larry Turner, CEO, Hannover Fairs USA training provides 14 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and allows participants to learn how to protect their internal manufacturing control network. What are the important topics of the Industrial Automation North America in Chicago? Industrial Automation NA 2014 focus is new ideas and topics ranging from Resource Efficient Manufacturing and Network Security to Robotics, Secure Industrial Control Systems and Big Data. What do you – as the organizer – expect for the exhibition in 2014? We have very high expectations for the event in September. The exhibition was sold out in early February 2014. Since then, we have focused on getting the word out to the appropriate manufacturing channels regarding the event, content and technologies at the show. Attendee registrations are already ahead of those at this time in 2012, so we expect a strong event all the way around. In one or two sentences: Invite the reader to Chicago: Why should he come to the show? The event is a collection of three world class tradeshows; Industrial Automation, MDA and IMTS. The overall event is the leading manufacturing technology show in North America and is a must see. All the right technologies are on-site and the opportunities to network with worldwide peers are available all week. The other reason is the city: Chicago is beautiful and especially nice in September. McCormick Place is located right on Lake Michigan a few minutes from downtown Chicago where you can access some of the best food in the country. AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGIES 3/2014
