Siemens Automation Summit 2017 Highlights

07/10/2017

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The 2017 Siemens Automation Summit took place June 26-29th at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton, Florida. Per Siemens, the Siemens Automation Summit is, "a user conference for manufacturing professionals who use Siemens automation technologies, including DCS, PLC, HMI, industrial networks, factory automation, motion controllers, process instrumentation, motors and drives, and are interested in cyber security and safety."

Automation professionals from all over took advantage of dozens of presentations that showcased the latest technologies and provided a sneak peek into the future of automation. If you are trying to stay on the cutting edge of automation technologies, the Siemens Automation Summit is a great annual event to attend.

Connect Event

The Solution Partner Connect Event enjoyed a great turnout with wonderful music and food at the Boca Beach Club.

Photo of Siemens Automation Summit Connect Event in Boca Raton, Florida at the Boca Raton Resort and Club.

DMC Denver's John Sullivan took home the top prize at Night at the Races on the last night of the summit with a Run for the Roses. The event theme paid homage to the Kentucky Derby with Southern food and mint juleps. Attendees bargained with funny money, placing bets on their favorite horses while dressed in race-inspired attire like pastel, hats, and bow ties.

Photo of DMC's John Sullivan receiving the prize for the Derby Connect Event contest.

Breakout Sessions: IoT and Industrial Application Security

This year's summit featured several breakout sessions with topics including:

Best Practices & Novel Approaches

Energy & Asset Management

Maintenance & Operations

Productivity & Efficiency

Safety & Industrial Security

Breakout sessions about the Internet Of Things (IoT) and security of industrial applications were particularly interesting. Traditionally, industrial applications have avoided Internet connectivity. However, the release of the Siemens MindSphere signals a shift in this trend.

MindSphere is a cloud-based IoT platform designed specifically for industrial applications that, per Siemens, "lets you connect your machines and physical infrastructure to the digital world. It lets you harness big data from billions of intelligent devices, enabling you to uncover transformational insights across your entire business."

Mindsphere infographic

Mindsphere gained a lot of interest from end customers as well as integrators, indicating a shift in how classic industrial applications interact with cloud-based services may be on the way.

Sessions dedicated to the security of the industrial applications provided a few highlights on how to implement a basic protection of your automation network. Hopefully, this topic will be extended at future summits to cover advanced topics.

DMC's Siemens Drink Bot Demo

The Siemens Drink Bot is a portable demo that DMC developed which utilizes Siemens hardware to mix drinks, similar to Boston's Drinxperiment. It was recently integrated with Cortana. The Drink Bot was a huge hit, and successfully mixed Italian sodas and adult beverages for the entire event. Whiskey seemed to be the most popular beverage among summit attendees.

Picture of Boris Cherkasskiy demonstrating the Siemens Drink Bot.

Check out this video showing off the demo in action.

DMC Represents and Presents

DMC was present in full force at the summit with attendees from all six offices. Ryan Landwehr of DMC Houston was a first-time attendee as well as a first-time presenter. He particularly enjoyed attending case study presentations to see how other integrators use Siemens hardware and software to tackle different obstacles.

The summit isn't all about presentations though. In addition to networking at the opening Connect Event, it was a unique bonding experience for DMC employees from across our six offices.

Group photo of DMC attendees in and by the pool drinking out of coconuts.

"It was great to catch up with all of the DMCers in other offices. We spent our free time sipping mojitos on the beach, coconut cocktails by the pool, and waking up early to catch the sunrise on the beach."

- Ryan Landwehr