Global Collaborations Create Hybrid Events

Summary

With so much disruption in supply chains, global trade, and workforce availability, manufacturers are forced to come up with new ways to attract, train and retain employees. 

To support industrial companies in their efforts to educate their automation, instrumentation, and IT employees, ISA has stepped up. ISA is collaborating with significant global partners to provide technical content and has added in-person conference components to its successful virtual-events programming. 

ISA’s first conference of 2022, held in March, included a collaboration with the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras. It was also ISA’s first multilingual virtual event, as it featured a translation component with all presentations delivered in Portuguese with English closed captioning. 

“The conference offered a wealth of digital transformation and cybersecurity content sessions developed and sponsored by Petrobras, followed the next day by ISA’s IIoT & Smart Manufacturing virtual conference programmed by ISA staff and volunteer program committee,” said manager of conferences and events Kimberly Belinsky. The agenda included a keynote by Indranil Sircar, Microsoft CTO for manufacturing and supply chain industry, as well as a panel of experts discussing how manufacturers are building organizational readiness for scaling up their smart factory projects. 

The 2022 events program is highlighting the “international” aspect of the International Society of Automation through such partnerships and adding a welcome in-person component to virtual events. “We launched our virtual conferences in October 2020, and in 2021 attracted more than 12,000 global participants,” said ISA senior manager of events Bill Furlow. “In 2022, we are building on this success. These live events are being strategically supported around the world by ISA sections and local partners in specific regions.”

The upcoming 2022 event schedule is as follows. Note that the locations shown indicate the time zones during which the virtual events will take place:

• Digital Transformation: India, 21 June. In-person location: Faridabad, Haryana, India. Supporting organizations: National Power Training Institute (NPTI) and Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
• Digital Transformation: North America, 30 August. In-person location: Houston, Texas. Local partner: ISA Houston Section.
• Digital Transformation: Asia, October date TBD. In-person location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Local partner: Petronaus.
• Cybersecurity Standards Implementation: Middle East, 25 October. In-person location: Saudi Arabia. Local Partner: Saudi Aramco.
• Cybersecurity Standards Implementation: North America, 26 October. In-person location: Houston, Texas. Local partner: ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance.
• ISA Annual Technical Conference covering process automation, digital transformation, cybersecurity, IIoT, and more: North America, 8–9 November. In-person location: Galveston, Texas.

ISA’s hybrid conferences offer automation professionals powerful insights into key operational and business. All promise to help members of the automation industry develop the professional knowledge and digital skills needed to succeed.

_{This feature originally appeared in the June 2022 issue of InTech magazine.}