WBF, the forum for automation and manufacturing professionals, formerly known as World Batch Forum, has announced that because of the economic situation, it has decided to postpone its North American Conference for 2009 to a date later in the year. The new date will be announced at a later time.
“We believe that we need to respond to the global economic situation in an appropriate way,” says Maurice Wilkins, outgoing chairman of WBF. “We’ve decided that a conference held as early in 2009 as we had originally scheduled it would not serve the membership and sponsors of WBF.”
“We will be hosting an Executive Summit, along with the annual Process Automation Hall of Fame banquet and awards ceremony, sponsored by Control magazine and Yokogawa Corporation, in the spring in Chicago,” says George Devine, technical director of WBF.
The banquest and press conference are scheduled for April 23 at the Embassy Suites Rosemont in suburban Chicago.
“We will be inviting the global press and our sponsors to a detailed press briefing discussing the repositioning of WBF into an organization that can have a significant impact on manufacturing going forward…as significant an impact as it has had in the past, with the adoption of ISA88 and ISA95 in manufacturing worldwide,” says Devine. “Further information on the Executive Summit will be forthcoming in February,” he said.
Separation from ISA
Bill Stewart, incoming chairman of WBF, says, “WBF will be remaining as part of the Automation Federation, but WBF and ISA have arrived at a mutual decision to separate their operations.”
WBF has retained KCA, Inc., as its association management company, in an effort to develop some synergy with KCA’s other major client MESA International. WBF will operate under the direction of newly appointed technical director, George Devine, who reports to the board of directors.
