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Invensys and Emerson: Dueling User Groups
October 2nd, 2005 (06:30 pm)
This week, since I haven't yet acquired the ability to clone myself, I've sent Rich Merritt to cover the Emerson Exchange, meeting in Orlando, while I cover the Invensys User Conference, meeting in Houston.
I wonder how many actual users had to make the same choice I did. Quite a few, I'll bet, since there are many process plants with both Invensys (Foxboro, Triconex, Avantis, Sim-Sci Esscor) and Emerson products and systems.
From a customer friendliness point of view, this attack scheduling is bad for the industry.
Oh, well. Merritt will be sending me dispatches from the Emerson front to post, and I will be blogging live from the George Brown Center in Houston, recently home to a number of Hurricane Katrina and Rita displaced persons.
I think they scheduled their meetings in the same week, on purpose.
This proves that some companies are misusing user groups for their own benefit.
The purpose of a users group meeting is to bring together users, so can meet each other, share experiences, ... And not to enter into a competition of "I have more attendees than you have"
I have been active in the organizing committee of another supplier. One of the most important issues each year is selecting a date :in order to avoid as much as possible clashes with other conferences, users group meetings. It is a also a sign of respect for the other suppliers.