2010-06-28 - Customers from metro Milwaukee see show, venue, attend technical workshops, and take ABB New Berlin Campus Tours
New Berlin, WI, June 28, 2010 – Nearly eight hundred business partners, customers, prospects and company personnel turned out for the ABB “Power & Control Roadshow,” held at the Harley-Davidson Museum near downtown Milwaukee, June 22 – 23.
“The venue was a natural draw, and, along with all the other information, product showcases and tours, proved compelling,” according to Steven Jones, the planner and organizer of the shows.
This show, according to Howard (H.J.) Dewes, Low Voltage Drives regional manager for the Upper Midwest District, “will lead to many great wins for our customers, our channel partners and for ABB. “There was a lot of buzz related to identifying new opportunities to solve current and next-generation challenges in factory and building automation, and in equipment production – this dominated discussions.”
Both Dewes and Jones noted how effective it is to bring engineers, purchasing folks, distributors and sales representatives together, “in a common location with technical experts and business managers -- all working toward the common goal of solving energy and productivity challenges across our markets,” they said.
Technical Know-how for Customers
On Customer Day, workshops, in conjunction with a large exhibit area, offered “must-know” expertise on a host of automation-related information, ranging from UL and NEC standards, to mitigating arc flash in transformers, to harmonic mitigation in industrial environments, to sizing motors correctly for drives, to a profile of motor types, and PLC installations, and efficient, energy saving control panel designs.
The show provided visitors a close-up look at a wide berth of ABB products and services (drives, controls and systems, and motors), automation, power/transformers, medium voltage, and instrumentation solutions -- and the chance to talk with the product experts on all the lines. Customers and business partners also could elect to bus out to the company’s New Berlin Campus for a firsthand look at how drives are produced and control products assembled. The Process Automation division of ABB, along with the Medium Voltage business unit of the Power Products division, was on the floor with displays, too – along with the Robotics business unit, from the Discrete Automation and Motion division.
The Road Shows, which are held in high-potential markets and targeted to prospects and customers within a 200-mile radius, are a unique opportunity to strengthen existing relationships, but also open conversations to a host of future users.
“We exist for, and because of our customers,” noted Jon Mercer, principal of Mercer Midwest, the manufacturer’s representative that works closely alongside ABB to serve the metro Milwaukee market. “To keep customers competitive in today's worldwide marketplace, ABB was excited to showcase our latest product designs and energy saving components and systems at a location which, itself, is a symbol of the excellent tradition of Wisconsin manufacturing,” he noted.
Photos included in full story at right: