A wee little brag on us

Being here in Phoenix, Keith Larson and I missed last nights regional ASBPE Awards Dinner in Chicago. Putman Media received more than its share of regional awards, and next week some of us will attend the national ASBPE awards dinner in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Control, Plant Services, and Control Design will receive national awards. It is gratifying to see that our work is being noticed and honored by our peers in the media, but it is even more gratifying to realize that we are winning awards because of our unique focus on the end-user, not the vendor, and the invaluable assistance that we get from end-users in the preparation of news and articles, as well as in the research we do prior to AutomationXchange. Thank you to our end user readers for all they do for us. We believe, as does Honeywell, in the voice of the customer, and the power of our end user base. Seventeen years ago, when Control was founded, we decided to become the voice of the end user, and not another vendor-driven magazine. As an outside observer I thought that attitude was brash and novel. As an insider, I now recognize how special and brave the original Control team was to go it alone and create a completely new message for advertisers: Advertise in our magazine because that is where the users are. We won't cater to vendors, and we stil don't allow vendor-written editorial. Our only editorial limitation is that gratuitous vendor bashing is not allowed. But if a vendor deserves it, we'll let fly. And we've been successful following this model, and we've become a respected outlet for end users as a voice of the customer. We also have some outstanding contributors. In the last two months we've had articles by Greg McMillan (straight ones, not just ControlTalk), Greg Shinskey, Cecil Smith, David Spitzer, and other real automation gurus. We will continue to offer the best writing in the process automation space, because you asked for it. Anyway, I just want to say thank you to the end user community for the awards you are responsible for.