Rob Sentz of 3M is Chairman of the Emerson Global Users Exchange. He’ll welcome more than 2,500 delegates from around the world to the 2017 Emerson Global Users Exchange in Minneapolis.
Since last year’s conference in Austin, your Board has been hard at work to ensure that we continue to drive improvements in the Exchange experience, advancing a “for users, by users” agenda that fosters optimal learning and information sharing among this community of industry leaders. We chose this year’s theme, “Powering Collaboration,” to drive home the fact that in today’s dynamic economic and technology environment no single individual and no single company can afford to work in a vacuum. The power of knowledge is in the group. It’s only by taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of those around you that you can expect to survive and to thrive. Sitting next to you right now may be the person who’s already gone down a road you’re about to travel—or maybe they’re about to undertake a project similar to one you did last year. Your companies have invested the time and money to send you here. Now it’s up to each of you to make sure that investment pays off.
Based on feedback from all of you, we continue to tweak the Exchange program to deliver just the right mix of education, networking and diversion opportunities throughout the week. For our Thursday night networking event, we’ll be visiting US Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Vikings and Superbowl LII. You won’t want to miss Viking Field transformed into a traditional Oktoberfest tent. The Music Jam, which is now an annual institution, visits the Pourhouse in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. And for those interested in exercising body as well as mind, we’ve added Tuesday and Thursday morning yoga sessions to the fun runs that debuted last year.
We received very positive feedback on the event app last year, and I encourage everyone to download and use it. It will help you to manage your activities throughout Exchange week, alert you to last minute changes, allow you to connect with other Exchange attendees and participate in real-time polls. One particular enhancement of note is a more powerful, global search tool for finding relevant content across the app.
The Technology Exhibit once again includes a wealth of solutions that potentially overwhelms. In order to make your time spent in the Exhibits more focused and productive, we’ve added informal “mini-tours” that provide an overview and orientation to all that’s on display. Last year, we moved the popular Meet the Experts sessions to Thursday morning, but due to popular demand we’ll be holding those session twice—on Thursday morning as well as on Friday. Also on Friday, you’ll also have the opportunity to tour Rosemount’s new global headquarters in nearby Shakopee, where you’ll be treated to an insider view of this state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and see Emerson quality processes first-hand.
But perhaps the most important venue for powering collaboration with your peers this week are the more than 400 workshop sessions on tap. We incorporate a variety of feedback mechanisms to determine topics of highest interest, and continue to work hard to increase the quality of presentations, including reviewing and giving feedback to those presenters selected. Session schedules have been arranged to afford the maximum number of opportunities to learn and share. We have something for everyone—from plant and operations managers to instrument and maintenance technicians to process and controls engineers.
In addition to the 437 workshop sessions, there are a record 30 complementary Educational Services Courses (complete with CEU credits), eight Industry Forums, 15 Product Roadmap sessions, 10 Short Courses, five Technology Roundtables, and 17 Meet the Experts sessions.
The Emerson Global Users Exchange is intended to provide a full week of learning and collaboration opportunities—all in one place, all at one time. We hope you take advantage of all that Exchange has to offer.
