Nashville News

Nov. 18, 2008
Where's Walt, some of you have been asking He's not sick, been captured by aliens or anything else horrible.
Where's Walt, some of you have been asking He's not sick, been captured by aliens or anything else horrible. We've just had him on the road, meeting with readers, chatting with advertisers, giving presentations, flying the flag, taking meetings, doing 2009 strategic planning and other editor-in-chiefy things, all have which have left him precious little time for blogging. Right now, he and most of the rest of the Control staff iare down in Nashville, at the annual Rockwell Automation clan gathering, Automation Fair. They are pulling together the 21st-century version of that old trade-show stand-by, the show daily. But being a new century and all, we now do it all with electrons and email copies to readers, thereby saving tons of trees. Such work does, however, require some back-up at home; hence, digital managing editor, Katherine Bonfante, and I are back here at the home pop-stand, keeping the electrons flying, the coffee pot on and the fire burning. I miss Automation Fair. Rockwell gives good user group. But since Walt has left me the keys to the blogging machine, I'm going to take it out for a spin.

One of the good things about being left behind, so to speak, is that Katherine and I get to see all the best news out of Nashville before anybody else. One of the subjects under the microscope at Manufacturing Perspectives, the pre-show all-day press briefing, was sustainability. Mark Lee of Coca Cola cut right to the chase. It's not just about being green, he said. Sustainability is "really just good business practice." For the complete story, click here.

But wait! There's more! The press got a run-down on Rockwell Automation's new roadmap for its process automation "umbrella," PlantPAx. For the details, click here.  For even more details on Plant PAx, go here.

That's all for now, folks. But there will be more tomorrow. Don't miss the next exciting episode.