An invitation to you to attend SA’s premier industrial event.
Throughout its 18-year history, the purpose of X-Change has always been to provide an information forum for the exchange of ideas between industrial automation professionals. Today we can say that this goal has not only been reached but sustained with the result that the conference is the longest running and most successful event of its type anywhere in the world – and we take a great deal of pride in that as should you, our customers and partners.
But success has not gone to the head of this annual milestone event in the South African industrial automation calendar. X-Change has always retained the personal touch where one-on-one talks with local and international authorities in their field and networking with your peers and other solution vendors has always been top of the agenda – that is, after all, why it is called X-Change.
And this is now more important than ever. How are others coping with erratic market demands and what is the next step to keeping profitable in a world that is changing at an alarming rate?
That is why X-Change looks at the bigger picture of business challenges as well as the supportive technologies and approaches necessary to overcome them. So, we invite everyone who has something to share or something they want to learn to attend the conference. If you have never been to the event before, you are in for a pleasant and informative surprise. If you are a regular, we do not have to sell you on the idea and welcome back.
This year, X-Change will be held from 17-20 April at the Champagne Sports Resort in the Drakensberg. There is no other venue quite like this.
Agenda
Where are you now?
It is all too easy to get stuck in a comfort zone – for example, control and instrumentation engineers may believe that their scada systems have little more to give and are expertly tuned to the company’s process control needs – but real-time historians are destined for a far greater role than just scada. Production managers may be comfortable in the belief that their current or future MES implementation will give them all the control they need – but although central to enterprise information needs, MES is not an island and needs to adopt responsibility for a larger information landscape.
Talking about that, what about enterprise manufacturing intelligence and then there are industry-specific packs that are being produced at an accelerated rate thanks to the backbone of object-oriented ArchestrA technology.
Where do you want to be?
Mining and manufacturing companies do not just do scada, MES, EMI or ERP or any other acronyms. They do them all to a greater or lesser degree and now that fires can be eliminated in each of these principal areas, it is probably a good time to see how they all fit together because these are all components of a higher purpose – contributing to a unified company achieving its business goals.
But how do you move from your comfort zone and ensure that processes dependant on you get what they need? Who do you have to talk to in order to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction? And how do you get consensus on what comes next? Come to think of it, what does come next? Finally, how do you do all this irrespective of your position in the company because that is what has got to happen if your business is going to meet today’s challenges?
The scope of X-Change 2011
There will be a number of streams at the conference to address the many topics of concern to today’s CEOs, CFOs, production managers and engineers involved in the mining and manufacturing industries. These presentation streams are industry-specific, technical and business-oriented. In other words, we look at the world from your point of view regarding where you are and where you want to be.
Technology stream
This will be mainly technical in nature and focus on existing and new product-specific features in the Wonderware suite of solutions including Wonderware Intelligence, Information Server, System Platform, InTouch, Operational Performance, Historian, HMI Reports, InBatch and others.
Solutions stream
This will address everything from enterprise manufacturing intelligence, monitoring and improving asset effectiveness, empowering your mobile workforce and corporate energy management solutions to HMI/scada, data historians, MES and enterprise integration.
Ecosystem stream
Wonderware has long held the belief that no single solution vendor could supply the incredibly varied needs of the mining and manufacturing industries. Trying to do so would simply erode the effectiveness of core services. A better idea is to form alliances with true professionals with proven track records of success in selling their core services which are complementary to Wonderware’s. The list of such Ecosystem partners is growing quickly and this is their opportunity of showing you what they have to offer.
Vertical industry stream
This will focus on the application of all the above solutions in vertical industries such as mining and metals, manufacturing, food and beverages, utilities, etc. This stream will also feature user presentations compiled by end-users, their system integrators or both allowing you to determine ‘from the horse’s mouth’ as to whether Wonderware products performed as it said on the box or not, and how they helped end-users achieve their business and operational goals.
Keynote speakers
We are fortunate in having access to some of the leading local and international authorities on subjects as far ranging as how to survive profitably in the current world economic climate to the adoption of new approaches to information and control in mining and manufacturing.
Lewis Gordon Pugh – environmentalist, swimmer and speaker
Lewis is one of the busiest speakers on the international speaking circuit undertaking over 100 speeches per annum across Europe, the USA and South Africa. He speaks with experience on having a vision in life, the value of goal setting, courage, perseverance, self motivation, harnessing the full power of the mind, leadership, teamwork, overcoming setbacks, leaving an enduring legacy, and of course protecting our fragile world.
Sudipta Bhattacharya – president and CEO Invensys Operations Management
Sudipta is responsible for the combined day-to-day operations of Invensys Process Systems, Wonderware and Eurotherm. He joined Invensys as president of Wonderware in September 2007.
Tim Sowell – VP Solution and Product Strategy Invensys Operations Management
Tim has 27 years of experience in industrial software applications and development. Prior to joining Wonderware, he was co-founder of the Wonderware South Africa distributor, Futuristix, and was instrumental in building the company as technical director in sales and consulting.
For more detailed biographies of the speakers readers can visit: http://instrumentation.co.za/+C14927A
Expo
System integrators as well as hardware and software partners use this unique venue to showcase their wares and achievements. They do so because nowhere else is there such an opportunity to talk to a more qualified audience eager to see what they have to offer.
Wonderware Open and user presentations
There is nothing quite like getting the information you need firsthand. Insofar as the number and nature of documented successful Wonderware implementations are concerned, South Africa leads the world and you can see this for yourself at these user presentations. You can ask presenters any questions you want regarding aspects of their implementations as they might apply to your specific environment and check that the software solutions chosen do what it says on the tin.
All user presentations done either by end-users, system integrators or both are entered into the Wonderware Open competition where prizes are awarded for the best presentations in various categories. All presentations are then documented in the form of an article and, after approval, sent to various magazines for publication. These articles also appear in the Wonderware Southern Africa web site and bi-monthly Protocol magazine as well as Wonderware’s annual international booklet of success stories.
Hands-on training
While brochures and data sheets try, they never really tell the full story. These hands-on training sessions let you roll up your sleeves and see what our solutions have to offer in such a way that you can interpolate how they may apply in your environment. This is also another way of determining if they do what it says on the can.
Spouse programme
Such conferences are always better when shared with your partner – who may, however, not share your enthusiasm regarding the benefits of advanced technology. That is why a rich programme of entertainment has been planned for your partner ranging from sporting activities to sightseeing and many other events. Look forward to seeing you there.
On-line bookings – www.x-change.co.za
For more information contact Michelle Giammartini, Wonderware Southern Africa, 0861 WONDER, [email protected], www.wonderware.co.za
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