After two years that could best be called "lackluster" it was said that ISA Automation Week was dead. Apparently, not dead enough. The money-losing event has risen from its grave, with Paul Galeski of Maverick Technologies as the program Chair, joining Greg McMillan and Peter Martin as notables who couldn't make the conference work and pay for itself.
Color me surprised. I thought that the new ISA leadership had put a stake in it.
Ya gotta ask yourself, what is the purpose of the conference? What does it do that other meetings, including vendor-sponsored user groups, don't already do?
ISA does a great job of putting on smaller, focused conferences. What would happen if they applied the significant amount of money they spend on Automation Week to beefing up those instead?
Automation Week is one of the two great bleeding sores (The Automation Federation is the other) that keeps ISA mired in its past. The amount of money ISA spends on both activities is not published, so I can't tell you how much they are wasting and not putting toward service to their members in ways the membership obviously wants to be served, but it is not small.
If ISA were ever to enter the 21st Century, what would it be?
