Plant Engineering’s new global focus

Reaching out to new readers in new markets, and reaching out to current readers in new ways, Plant Engineering made four announcements in September that will help change the fundamental ways manufacturing professionals communicate with each other around the world.

By Plant Engineering Staff September 15, 2008

Reaching out to new readers in new markets, and reaching out to current readers in new ways, Plant Engineering made four announcements in September that will help change the fundamental ways manufacturing professionals communicate with each other around the world.

The announcements include:

Sponsorship of YAPFEST, the annual meeting of Young Automation Professionals at the 2008 ISA Conference in Houston on Oct. 14-16. Plant Engineering editor Bob Vavra will conduct a forum at YAPFEST focusing on the workforce development crisis in manufacturing and look at how public-private partnerships and manufacturers can encourage young people with an interest in and aptitude for manufacturing to consider it as a career choice.

At YAPFEST, Plant Engineering will announce its Future 30 program, which will recognize 30 outstanding young manufacturing professionals around the country. That program will culminate with a special issue in the February 2009 edition of Plant Engineering. The 30 honorees will be invited to attend the 2009 Plant Engineering Manufacturing Summit.

In partnership with IBM and Life Cycle Engineering, Plant Engineering has announced its 2009 Manufacturing Summit will be in Charleston, SC on March 29-31, 2009. Seminars on workforce development, asset management, energy and sustainability and digital manufacturing will be on the agenda. Also at the Summit, the winners of the 2008 Product of the Year and Top Plant awards will receive recognition.

Plant Engineering has entered into a partnership with Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade show exhibition company in the manufacturing sector, to produce a quarterly e-book magazine. The magazine will be distributed to Hannover Messe’s global trade show attendees and will deliver Plant Engineering’s content to a worldwide audience. The first issue will be distributed in mid-November, just before Hannover Messe’s India show in Bangalore Dec. 10-13, 2008.

That show will include CeMAT India (logistics), MDA INDIA (hydraulics and pneumatics), Industrial Automation INDIA and Energy INDIA. These four events will be staged side-by-side at the Bangalore International Expo Centre where more than 500 exhibitors will be on hand to do business and talk shop with more than 20,000 solution-seeking industry professionals.

“It has been a busy and productive summer for Plant Engineering, culminating in these announcements,” said Plant Engineering publisher Jim Langhenry. “Our readers have told us what the crucial issues manufacturing workers face in the coming years — finding skilled workers, managing the increased energy costs, making their plant floor assets go further and run better. Helping our readers find solutions to these issues is an important role for Plant Engineering.

“What is also important is approaching those issues with the help of strong industry partners,” Langhenry added. “The partnerships we’ve forged with ISA, Life Cycle Engineering, IBM and Hannover Messe will deliver cutting-edge manufacturing knowledge to the largest possible global audience. We’ll look for ways to connect that audience and give manufacturing workers in every part of the globe a way to share ideas, solve problems and improve productivity.”

The 2009 Manufacturing Summit will move to historic Charleston, SC on March 29-31, with a focus on excellence in manufacturing in 2008 and how manufacturers can achieve excellence, even in the challenging global environment.

“We’re delighted to partner with Plant Engineering to make the 2009 Manufacturing Summit an event that offers new insights into crucial industry issues and recognizes outstanding companies that are demonstrating great results,” said Life Cycle Engineering CEO Jim Fei. “Life Cycle Engineering recognizes that education and knowledge sharing is critical to helping industry leaders remain competitive in a global marketplace. We’re looking forward to welcoming Summit participants to Charleston.”

“We’ve worked with Plant Engineering on many programs over the years and publication’s readership includes thousands of loyal Maximo users.” said Bill Sawyer, vice president, IBM Maximo and Hosting Operations. “It was a natural to partner with Plant Engineering for the upcoming Manufacturing Summit. We look forward to a dynamic event full of industry insight and lively information exchange.”

“Plant Engineering has been ahead of the curve on the issue of workforce development, the skilled worker shortage and the need to promote and celebrate manufacturing as a career,” said editor Bob Vavra. “The YAPFEST program will help us reach out to that young engineer in new ways. Our Future 30 program takes that effort a step further and identifies the skills, characteristics and success that today’s young plant professionals use every day to advance the effort toward quality manufacturing.”

“We all recognize the crisis we face in the manufacturing and technology sector globally. The editorial staff of Plant Engineering magazine came to ISA with some great ideas to educate our young attendees about the opportunities available in automation. ISA’s mission is to educate and motivate the next generation of automation professionals, and this fits perfectly with those goals,” said ISA President Kim Miller Dunn. “We’re thrilled to have their support.”

“We share Hannover Messe’s enthusiasm for the manufacturing sector, and we are pleased to have them as a partner in this effort,” said Vavra. “Plant Engineering has found a solid footing with some manufacturing professionals around the world through our Website. They trust us to provide sound technical information as well as industry news. Now we’ll be able to reach those professionals directly with the kind of knowledge they need to help grow manufacturing on a global basis. And because it’s an e-book, we can do so in an environmentally responsible, sustainable manner.”

“Joining forces with Plant Engineering gives us a splendid opportunity to share the most exciting developments, topics and trends with our trade fair clientele, which comprises top industry buyers, sellers, decision-makers and users,” said Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, chairman of the board of management of Deutsche Messe.

Every spring, the parent Hannover Messe takes place in Hannover, Germany, putting a highly international audience in touch with industrial innovations, trends and topics. The next global event will be form April 20-24, 2009.

“This has been a big year for Plant Engineering,” Langhenry added. “Despite the gloom in other parts of the publishing industry, we enjoy solid growth with our print magazine. Our Arc Flash University series has been an unqualified success. Now we’re reaching out to the world of manufacturing, and to the future of manufacturing. These partnerships are just the beginning of what we will accomplish in 2009.”