Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1123345
Conference Review 26 | May - June 2019 | www.machinerylubrication.com Following the opening session, there was tremendous buzz as the exhibit hall opened for the fi rst day. A steady stream of attendees, looking for the latest technologies and solutions to their everyday issues, visited the record-breaking 131 exhibitors occupying the Huntington Convention Center. This diverse mix of companies, which covered all facets of the maintenance and reliability industry, provided any type of solution for issues faced by our industry. "You guys had more vendors than I've seen ever, and I made an effort to walk and see every vendor I wanted to see," said alumnus Ben Staats, reliability manager at West Fraser. Each year, the conference sees the return of several long- standing exhibitors who are continually impressed with the Reliable Plant experience. "Existing customers come back for continuing education, and we get to meet new customers all the time, which keeps us coming back," said Scott Howard, training and education director for Hy-Pro Filtration. "So far it's been very positive." "We are proud to be a sponsor for the past several years, and this year has been a great show," said Ron Boffa, industrial specialist for Chevron. "We've seen customers as well as a lot of new people interested in ISOCLEAN. I like being at this show because it's specifi c to in-plant needs – the people who talk about reliability, process improvements and maintenance improvements. It's very specifi c to the industries we are targeting. "There's always new technology and new people, which allows a real learning environment," Boffa continued. "When we all share information, we'll all do much better in what our capabilities are. This year has been particularly fun because I've run into people I haven't seen for years. I've been around for 35 years in this business, so seeing old colleagues with competitors or with support companies has been fun. We've seen a good mix of the younger folks who have come through and are eager to learn, and it's a good platform for them to come and learn." Another return exhibitor to Reliable Plant was Augury. "We really like Reliable Plant," said Michael Patton, account executive for Augury. "A lot of our end users attend this show, and interacting with them at this level and at this event is really important for us. When you look at Reliable Plant, it's a good variety of all things regarding maintenance and reliability that a plant is looking for – everything from your lubrication systems all the way down to your predictive maintenance or vibration like Augury handles." GenesisSolutions, another long-standing exhibitor, was equally impressed by the show's performance. "Bar none, it's one of our most successful conferences," said Rajiv Daljeet, senior account executive for GenesisSolutions. "We get more business out of this conference than just about anything else we attend. Reliable Plant is a place where you can gel with peers on a common platform, on a common level to understand what reliability means to your organization. The relationships we develop from this conference are long-lasting. You come back here and see people year over year. Business may not come in the fi rst time, but two years in and three years in, we start seeing the same people and we start seeing the loyalty. It builds those relationships, and we keep seeing success out of this conference. "There's been a lot of new people, and we've connected with a lot of new people," Daljeet continued. "I've also connected with new people from familiar companies, and that is more important than anything else, because once you start a relationship with a company, you need to spread the word and start the relationship." Echoing his thoughts was Jeremy Drury, vice president of IoT Diagnostics, another returning exhibitor. "It's great to talk to people who are actually on the floor," he said. "It's easy to get into corporate-level conversations around IoT, and sometimes that's the dangerous level of the conversations because they leave it to the people on the floor to fi gure it out. It's good to bridge that gap together for the people. It's been a big move with people doing real IoT at this point, so it's been awesome. "There has been a lot of new faces this year and defi nitely a handful of familiar," Drury continued. "It's been great because we'll have one rep of a company come by and talk to us, and within a few hours more reps from the same company will come back and talk to us. People seem excited about what we're doing here, and it's been great to connect with people."