On May 14-16, 2024, PI North America hosted the PI community in Orlando, FL for technology discussions, meetings, and strategy sessions. It’s an annual meeting of the independent companies, organizations, and groups that collectively make up PI:
- Regional PI Associations
- PI Support Center (PNO)
- PI Training Centers
- PI Competence Centers
- PI Test Labs
Because PI follows the “think global, act local” mantra, we are decentralized. Our technology standards are applicable and interoperable worldwide (“think global”) while local support can be found in many different regions (“act local”). This year, participants hailed from:
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- UK
- USA
Many in the industrial automation and process control market think of our technologies as strictly German in nature. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The PROFIBUS, PROFINET, IO-Link, omlox, and MTP technologies span borders and oceans. In the case of well-established technologies like PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link, this is due to the sheer size of their installed base. PI technologies have become de facto standards in many industries due simply to market demand. Therefore, a community has grown around them to support the tens of millions of devices installed in factories around the world.
Michael Bowne