from the department of "okay, vendors, show off a little!"

Liz Patronella, of the HART Communication Foundation, has asked me to help improve the number of entries the "HART Plant of the Year Award" committee sees. If you're an end user, join the HART USER GROUP, and submit what you've done with your HART enabled products. Who knows, you might win Plant of the Year. Since HART is only in the infant stages of organizing the USER GROUP, it falls to the media and the members of the HART foundation to do this. This means you, ladies and gentlemen of the supplier community. Every one of you that has HART enabled products has contacts in the end user community who have done something cool with their HART products. Get your customers some great publicity, maybe a raise, and raise your own visibility as a provider of HART products at the same time. Why not? It can't hurt, and it would certainly help. If you want to help Liz, give her a call at HCF. Picture me glaring. You SHOULD want to help Liz. Here's the text of Liz' press release: PRESS RELEASE HART Communication Foundation CONTACT: Liz Patranella 9390 Research Blvd. Suite I-350 512-794-0369 Austin TX 78759-6540 USA [email protected] End Users Receive International Recognition for Innovative Use of HART Communication Technology Nominations for HART Plant of the Year Award now being accepted Austin, Texas (28 February 2007)"”The HART® Communication Foundation (HCF) is currently seeking nominations for the 6th annual HART Plant of the Year Award. The global award is presented annually to recognize innovative use of HART Communication in real-time industrial process plant applications. Nominations are encouraged from all world areas and will be accepted through May 31. Nomination forms are available at www.hartcomm.org. "We are seeking the innovators who have taken the capabilities of their HART instruments beyond configuration and calibration and have discovered new and better ways to use the HART technology already in their plants," says HCF Executive Director Ron Helson. The HART Plant of the Year winner receives an award plaque to display at its facility, special recognition at an international trade show, exposure to the global industry press, and a full feature article in a major trade publication. Information also appears in the Foundation's HARTLine newsletter and on the HART website. An official awards presentation is held at the plant site. The HART Plant of the Year is the only public award presented to end user companies to recognize ingenuity in the application of HART technology. "We want to recognize the hard work and creativity of those engineering teams around the world who are using the information in their intelligent devices to help them keep their plants competitive," says Helson. End users can nominate themselves or suppliers can nominate a plant. Nominations should include a description of how the plant is using the diagnostics and other intelligent capabilities of HART-enabled devices in real-time applications with plant control, safety and asset management systems to improve operations, lower costs and increase plant availability. Previous recipients include: BP Canada Energy (Alberta); Sasol Solvents (South Africa); BP Cooper River (South Carolina); Clariant (Germany); Detroit Water and Sewerage (Michigan); and DuPont (Mississippi). The HART Field Communications Protocol is the global standard for smart process instrumentation. Seventy percent of all smart process measurement and control instruments installed worldwide each year use HART Communication and the global installed base of HART-enabled devices is the largest of all communication protocols at more than 20 million. Key features of this unique open standard communication technology are - 4-20mA compatibility, ease of use, low risk, and cost-efficient implementation for both users and suppliers. The HART Communication Foundation is an independent not-for-profit organization providing worldwide support for application of HART technology. Established in 1993, the Foundation is the technology owner and standards setting body for the HART Communication Protocol. Major instrumentation manufacturers and users around the world support the Foundation. Membership is open to anyone interested in the use of HART technology. For more information, go to www.hartcomm.org. ®HART is a registered trademark of the HART Communication Foundation