May 3, 2016– Nearly 500 people attended the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Executive Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was held April 19 – 22, 2016.
Underscoring CSIA’s growing international presence, 65 system integrators, partners and guests from 16 different countries attended the conference from outside the United States, and were welcomed at a special reception for international guests.
A two-day workshop was held immediately preceding the conference. The Best Practices Training workshop was held for those interested in learning more about the application of the principles behind CSIA’s cornerstone document, its Best Practices and Benchmarking manual, to improve their system integration businesses.
New in 2016 was the first annual CSIA Fun Run/Walk. One hundred runners and walkers participated in the 5K event that wound its way around the Coco Beach area of Puerto Rico. It was a very popular event that will likely continue as part of future Executive Conferences.
Also new this year was a CSIA Women in Industry networking breakfast designed specifically for women in all aspects of control system integration.
The conference also featured sessions, panel discussions, an expo and a field trip to the Amgen Pharmaceuticals plant in Puerto Rico.
Rounding out the three-day meeting was keynote presenter Alan Beaulieu, president of ITR Economics. A popular annual speaker, Beaulieu gave a clear presentation of the world’s economic realities while leaving attendees with a solid, positive outlook for their future.
New features of CSIA’s Industrial Automation Exchange, www.csiaexchange.com — an online directory and community for integrators, partners and prospective clients — were showcased at the conference. Among them was the introduction of instant user metrics for profile subscribers. Tony Veroeven, the Exchange community manager, was on hand to provide demonstrations and advise members on how to generate more traffic to their profiles.
CSIA’s 2017 Executive Conference will be held May 2 − 5 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.