ARC World Forum: A Great Time for Industry, Part 3

This is the last of the three part series on the #ARC Advisory Group’s World Industry Forum. Invensys was very active, with customer presentations both in the technical tracks (Moving Historian and Production Management to the Cloud with General Mills’ use of SmartGlance, and Getting Smarter with Operator Training Simulators with Ron Cisco/Salt River Project’s use of DYNSIM) as well as in the Social Media track. 

The last panel we participated in was called Social Technologies for Industry, and featured Jon DiPietro, Internet Marketing Consultant; Gary Mintchell of AutomationDaily (previously co-founder, Automation World), Roy Krok VP Marketing, ARC and yours truly representing Invensys.

Jon started the panel out with a discussion on The Social Media Doppler Effect.  You can find the complete presentation here: http://blog.domesticatingit.com/Internet-Marketing-Blog/bid/172316/The-Social-Media-Doppler-Effect.  Jon’s position is that most industrial companies aren’t moving fast enough to keep up with the effects of social media—they are getting left behind.  As alarming as it sounds, there are ways in which you can overcome this effect, and he provides some insight into how you can change.

The remainder of the panel was dedicated Q&A, with Gary discussing general industry trends, using his perspective as a long time observer of the industrial automation industry, and Invensys (me) sharing our journey in creating a social media environment, starting with an appointment of a social media manager, who set out our guidelines and structure for the group. 

Invensys’ Carlyn Greco has been instrumental in pushing, coaxing, and leading us to build out content, find our voice, and establish a presence in the market.  Our use of social media (primarily the blogs, along with Twitter, LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent, Facebook), have increased our industry visibility, followers, and interest.  And, we hope, we have helped to educate the market on technology, as well as the industry momentum as a whole. 

I was actully surprised at the number of attendees on this final day of the conference.  The audience was engaged, interested in sharing their experiences, and there were lots of discussions afterward on how to improve, or even start, a social media presence.

So congratulations to #ARC Advisory Group on a terrific event.  We can't wait for next year!