The Industrial Automation and Process Control INSIDER interviewed ARC CEO Andy Chatha yesterday afternoon. The interview, which will be the subject of Joy Ward’s profile column in the March INSIDER, included a discussion of the just-completed ARC Forum.
Chatha noted that this was the best attended forum, with very close to 800 attendees from all over the world.
The ARC Forum has become the most significant meeting of automation suppliers and end-users in the world. Sometimes it looks like a meeting of tomcats in an alley, with competitors circling each other warily. Sometimes it looks like old home week, because this is a very small industry, and everyone leaves friends behind when they change jobs. Joy Ward will have, in subsequent months, a profile interview with Helmuth Ludwig, of Siemens, and an interview with Chris Lyden of “Invensys is becoming Schneider” and one with his close friend, Peter Zornio of Emerson.
To see how very small the leadership of manufacturing automation actually is, consider that the majority of such leaders were in Orlando this week, and the total attendance was 800. This industry is different from most others, really, because of the sheer multidisciplinary amount of knowledge and experience you need to operate successfully in it. I once compared being an automation professional to being Ginger Rogers. She did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.
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