Message from the CEO

By Jose Rivera

Full fall calendar

 The following is currently on CSIA’s calendar for the remainder of 2019:

• September 17-19: Inductive Automation’s Ignition Community Conference, in Folsom, California. Dave Patterson, CEO of Grantek Systems Integration, and I will deliver a joint presentation.
• September 29-October 1: CSIA Board of Directors meeting in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, (a suburb of Chicago) at CSIA headquarters. This is one of two in-person board meetings held every year. The other one takes place before the start of the Executive Conference. The rest of the board meetings are remote. Recently elected board members will attend, providing a good ground-setting meeting.
• October 8-9: CSIA System Integration Regional Event, combined with an in-person Digital Transformation Task Force and Partner Committee meetings the following day. These events will also be held at CSIA headquarters in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.
• October 21-24: Rockwell Automation TechED EMEA in Munich, Germany. I will deliver two presentations.
• November 11-14: FABTECH, Chicago. I will probably attend one day and walk the show. I plan to meet with current and prospective members to gain insights in developing trends in manufacturing.
• November 20-21: Rockwell Automation Fair, Chicago. As CSIA has done over many years, the association will have a booth at this important event. Additionally, CSIA will host a get-together on Wednesday, November 20, in the evening (more details to be announced).

2020 Executive Conference update

Planning for the 2020 Executive Conference started a while back. As is customary for CSIA, we announced that we will host the event in New Orleans, May 19-22. We are now shifting into higher gear. Monica Saunders and I did a site visit August 7-9, and we have already booked the first speakers.

The theme of the conference is “Claiming the Role of the SI in the Digital Transformation.” The Digital Transformation Task Force, chaired by Sam Hoff, CEO of Patti Engineering, is generating not only very valuable monthly presentation/discussion sessions, but, in the process, is creating relevant content for the 2020 conference.

What I have learned at CSIA

In my 4.5 years with CSIA I have learned:

• CSIA represents the voice of the SI industry.
• CSIA creates SI-centric and highly valuable content through member collaboration and sharing. We are all familiar with the work done by the Best Practices Committee with the BP Manual being the direct and visible outcome.
• Other times the output is less visible but the developed content and gained knowledge are equally as valuable. The CSIA Marketing Committee, under the leadership of Georgia Whalen, Founder of Rivergate Marketing, and Jessica Mlinaric, Marketing Manager at DMC Inc., have been developing buyer personas for the CSIA Industrial Automation Exchange. The outcome is valued by CSIA, and the participating members learn the process and can replicate it for their companies.
• A past task force developed the topic of “Transformative Business Models” and helped drive the content for the 2016 Executive Conference. In Latin America, a recurring task force under the leadership of Victor Gonzalez, president of Cybermax Automation, and Ignacio Guerra, president and CEO of Deux Group, is developing the topic for this group through monthly calls in Spanish.

As you can read, CSIA has plenty of activities ahead. I look forward to catching up with you during the multiple events this fall and beyond.