Yokogawa America Hosts Technology Innovations Fair

From November 29 to December 1, 2006, at the Hilton Americas in Houston, Texas, Yokogawa America held its most important event of the year - the Technology Innovations Fair & User Conference. Yokogawa America invited everyone to come and see how Yokogawa's patented innovations from the fields of life sciences, aerospace/aeronautics, micro-technology, photonics, and wireless and digital broadcasting apply to advancement in industrial automation technologies.

There were several key events - a Technology Innovations Fair, a User Conference, Training Seminars and a University Recruitment Fair.

The Yokogawa Technology Innovations Fair kicked-off with a General Session at 8 a.m. Wednesday, November 29. President Uchida was the keynote speaker followed by Carl Sisk, BP Field of the Future.

The fair - which was held in one half of the Hilton Americas Lanier Grand Ballroom, an area that equals half the size of an American football field - opened at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony. It featured four zones - History, Today's Solutions, Non-IA and the Future. In the History Zone, attendees were greeted at the reception desk and offered a tour of the Tech Fair. They were then able to view antique Yokogawa equipment dating from 1913 -1980 and learn about the Company's landmark progress from its inception in 1915 to today.

When they entered the gate to the Today Zone, they walked down a black carpet with the VigilantPlant logo towards two back-lit columns that lead to the dais that supports the Systems Command Center. Surrounding the Command Center were five industry kiosks (Power, Subsea, Oil & Gas/LNG, Pharmaceutical, & Refinery) with Yokogawa America business unit kiosks fanning off of those like wagon wheel spokes. These business unit stands featured equipment and solutions offered today by the American branch of the company.

Presentation panels from Yokogawa partners and vendors lined the walls of the room to show Yokogawa's complete offering. Included in the list of partners were those who are members of the Yokogawa Vigilant Integration Partners (VIP). This acted as the announcement of the new program to the rest of the world.

As the attendees walked toward the back of the Today's Solutions Zone, they saw an entrance covered with fog. This was the Non-IA and Future Zone - the home of Yokogawa R&D at the Tech Fair. It was in these two areas that the most amazing equipment was on display. Patented technologies from the areas of life sciences, aerospace/aeronautics, micro-technology, photonics, and wireless and digital broadcasting had everyone truly believing that Yokogawa will be the global leader in industrial automation by 2010.

The seventh annual Yokogawa User Conference opened at 1 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, and featured seven workshops on the following topics:

- Asset Excellence (2 different workshops)
- Safety Excellence
- Production Excellence (3 different workshops)
- Lifecycle Excellence

The workshops allowed customers to make presentations to their peers on their experiences with Yokogawa equipment and solutions. Combined with presentations by Yokogawa experts on new or current solutions or products, the customer presentations made the workshops a huge success. The users also held a User Only meeting during the conference. This meeting was run by the User Steering Committee and was used to select key changes or additions in Yokogawa hardware, software and solutions.

Yokogawa held three, two-hour training seminars during the conference focusing on Fieldbus Implementation Strategies, Basic Networking in Instrumentation, and Basic Process Gas Chromatography. We also held The University Recruitment Fair November 30-December 1 (Thursday-Friday), 8-5 p.m. on the fourth floor of the Hilton Americas. Yokogawa interviewed students from Texas colleges including University of Texas (Austin), Texas A&M, University of Houston, Rice University, and others.

The overall visitors to the event reached approximately 1000, surpassing our initial target.