Message from Portugal

ISA Portugal is the organiser of 2013 District 12 Leaders Conference, which will take place at Cascais, a historic and tourist town 20 miles west of Lisbon.

Click for Guide! (pdf)

In order to help our guests upon arrival in Lisbon we have prepared a small guide here (pdf). ISA President, Terry Ives, and Brian Curtis, District 12 Vice-President will be in attendance, as many other ISA Leaders. The attached Registration Form (pdf interactive) should be filled out and sent to direcao@isa-portugal.com.

The conference will be held at Pousada Cascais, a recently refurbished hotel built inside the town fortress walls, over the sea. A limited block of rooms is available at ISA special rate until April, 10^th. Reservations have to be made directly with the hotel, see reservation form (pdf). Ask for Mr. Nelson Nunes, by phone +351 21 0417063 or by email nelson.nunes@pestana.com.

I’m looking forward to meet everyone in Portugal and contributing to this important conference in which we can further our knowledge of ISA to help our sections grow, network with other ISA members and most importantly have some fun.

See you all in Lisbon.

José Alexandre Pereira

ISA Portugal - President

Paper call for automation event in Saudi

The ISA Saudi Arabia Section of ISA has issued the formal Call-for-Papers for their ISA Automation Conference and Exhibition. This is scheduled to be held from December 7th to 11th, 2013 at the Sheraton Dammam Hotel & Towers, Saudi Arabia.

Under the theme “Experience the Future”, the event promises to be the only full-scale conference and tradeshow in the Middle East that will be dedicated for process automation.

It will focus on measurement and control latest technologies through a 3-day technical conference, product exhibition, workshops and training courses.

The event is primarily sponsored by Saudi Aramco.

DLC Portugal 10-11 May 2013

This is an invitation for all Section Presidents and other members from their section to attend the District 12 Leaders Conference which is being held in Lisbon Portugal on Friday 10 May and Saturday 11 May.

1. Registration Form
The application form to register for the DLC this is to be filled out and emailed to direcao@isa-portugal.org

2. Hotel reservations
Reservations at Hotel Pousada de Cascais have to be made directly with the hotel. A limited block of rooms are available at ISA special rate until April, 10th.
Ask for Mr. Nelson Nunes: +351 21 0417063 nelson.nunes@pestana.com.

3. Program for DLC

The program for the two days is also attached. This is the Draft issue and may be updated before the event in Lisbon.

I would like to thanks Jose Alexandre Pereira and the Portugal Section committee for hosting this event and for their work in putting this program together. Jose will be sending out a map of Lisbon to show where the hotel is located and details on how to get from the airport to the hotel shortly. (see subsequent message 3/4/2013)

The ISA President Mr. Terry Ives will be in attendance and I look forward to meeting everyone in Lisbon.

All of us should look forward to contributing to an important conference,in which we can further our knowledge of ISA to help our sections grow, network with other ISA members and most importantly have some fun.

See you in Lisbon.

Brian Curtis
DVP District 12

2nd Israeli Automation Congress

VP Jean-Pierre Hauet has just reported on the 2nd Automation Congress organised by the Israel Section.

This event was a fantastic success : Forty exhibitors, forty lectures organised in six different tracks, in Hebrew or in English. There were more than 1000 participants: Yes, one thousand participants!

Yes! One Thousand!

Giora Brandwine Section President (left)
Ofer Stern President Elect

This event reflects the vitality of the Israeli economy, the dynamism of the local ISA section and the interest people in the automation field are paying to ISA.

VP Hauet gave a talk about “Wireless : the key features of ISA-100 solutions” which was well received.

Congratulations are well earned by the officers and committee especially, Giora Brandwine – ISA Israel President, Ofer Stern – President Elect and Udi Kedem – Secretary, who was particularly involved in the organisation of the event.

Conclusion DLC 2012 - Nice France!

Our DLC in Nice is now over.

Click to see more pictures!

I believe we had a very useful meeting which perfectly illustrates the vitality of our Society. We had representatives from 11 countries plus our Key-note speaker, Eric Byres, from Canada, and also Bob Lindeman, ISA President, who especially came from the USA. I thank all the participants for their presence.

We had a lot of exciting exchanges and all the presentations were of excellent quality. They have been posted here on our web site. I just include two pictures taken during the meeting but there are a lot of other ones taken by the numerous participants.

Our DVP Elect & Secretary, Brian Curtis, will draw up the minutes and I thank him in advance.

Without waiting for them, Here is the text of the motion that was approved by the D12 council, regarding the ISA Governance. We hope this input will be useful to the ongoing discussions regarding the ISA Governance evolution.

The transfer of the gavel of DVP to Brian Curtis will be effective as from 1st January 2013.

We still have several very important events scheduled by the end of this year. Notably in Israel (ISA Israel 2nd annual congress – 6 November) and in Qatar (ISA Automation Conference – 9 & 10 December).

However, I would like to seize this opportunity to say again how pleased I was to have the responsibility of District 12 during the last two years. It was a fascinating experience and I thank all our colleagues and friends who supported me in this challenge.

Excellent representation expected at ISA European meeting

Representatives from 11 sections (i.e. 11 countries) have already registered to the next District Leaders' Conference, in Nice (F),  5 & 6 October. 

Eric Byres

The event will also benefit from the presence of Bob Lindeman (ISA President-USA) and Eric Byres (Tofino - CDN), possibly of a key-note speaker in the evening. Eric Byres is a veteran in the area of security for SCADA and industrial process control systems which has become so relevant in automation since the unleashing of the Stuxnet worm in 2010.

This meeting projects the image of a truly global organisation and no doubt that it will be a very informative and useful event.

For those who still would like to participate but have not registered yet here is the registration form (pdf) again!

35th anniversary of Foundation of A.I.S.

A.I.S. (Associazione Italiana Strumentisti) is the Italian Association for the professionals in Automation. It is an Alliance Society of ISA, and it works in close cooperation with ISA Italy Section.

For this important occasion AIS and ISA Italy Section have organised a Technical Conference - with a small exhibition - on "Closed loop process control, from the measures up to the controllers - products, technologies and future trends." The language of the conference will be Italian.

The event  will take place on the 18th September 2012 at the "Pinacoteca Ambrosiana", one of the most ancient and important art Galleries in Milan. At the end of the day the attendees will have the opportunity of a guided tour of the Gallery.

The organisers expect an attendance of around one hundred people.

ISA Italy President Alberto Leni will give more details about the organisatio of this and other events during his presentation at the October D12 DLC in Nice.