It was a pleasure and an honour to organize and host the 36th annual PI meeting in Edinburgh. During the 35th meeting in Orlando, we discussed the potential of hosting the event back in Europe and PIUK volunteered to take up the mantle. With support from past hosts from the USA, Germany and UAE we were able to develop a suitable agenda for the 5-day event.
As always we hosted a partner program in parallel, allowing our nearest and dearest to share in our annual event, but also to get engrossed in the traditions of the host country. They managed to enjoy Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Yacht Britannia, The Royal Mile, The Botanic Gardens and of course the fine cuisine available in Scotland’s capital city. Even ‘spitting’ on the Heart of Midlothian!
Original expectations for attendees was 50 delegates, however with a final tally of 88, we far exceeded the estimate and stretched each venue’s capabilities to the maximum.
Evening entertainment included a Ghost Bus Tour of Edinburgh’s dark and mysterious past, a distillery tour and whisky tasting and of course a Burns supper, which started with a piper and parade outside the hotel. The piper toasted the haggis and helped to conclude a fantastic event.
Each day was full and packed with all of the technologies we know and love. As our Ethernet-based technologies expand at an exponential rate, we have to be updated and educated on their status and use cases and the 36th meeting was no exception. A highlight for me personally was the safety update from Christian Eitner. A difficult subject to present, but he made it enjoyable and interesting with his own unique style.
A further highlight was the Ethernet-APL update from Axel, Michael, Harald and Volker. This interactive and hands-on presentation helped everyone on the journey that this upcoming technology is on and provides us all with the confidence to share it with our peers and clients. Were else could we host such a presentation –in a distillery of course. What a venue!
The event concluded with a marketplace event on the Friday morning by the members of PIUK. Each had the opportunity to share with the wider community how they are involved with PIUK and what benefit they receive from being members. Showcasing the new PIUK demo rigs and how they use them to develop member awareness on APL, Safety and IO-Link in particular was a highlight.
Chris McComb