Minutes of the DeviceNet UK Steering Committee Meeting
University of Warwick
Monday, 24 May 1999
Attendance:
Mark Daniels, Product Manager, Rockwell Automation UK
Darren Hill, Manager – Open Automation Systems, Cutler-Hammer
Mark Hadley, Marketing Manager, Weidmuller
Mike Harrison, Director, HM Computing Ltd.
Richard McLaughlin, Senior Research Fellow, Warwick Manufacturing Group
Kiah Hion Tang, Research Fellow, Warwick Manufacturing Group
Apologies:
Michael Juniper, Divisional Manager, Omron
Derek Lane, Product Manager, Wago Ltd.
Minutes of the DeviceNet UK Marketing Meeting held on the 30th of April were reviewed to determine areas of action.
ODVA UK / DeviceNet UK – It was agreed by the committee that a vendor supported UK section of the ODVA must be established. All agreed that it shall be known DeviceNet UK.
The committee passed that DeviceNet UK members must be members of the ODVA.
The committee agreed that DeviceNet UK wishes to accomplish increased awareness through:
· Application stories
· Marketing communications
· Product launches
· Editorial stories
· Technical education – papers for trade press, seminars, road shows, etc.
After much discussion of funding levels for DeviceNet UK, it was agreed that the level of funding for the rest of 1999 will be £600 per supporting company, and the level for 2000 will be established after the fieldComms99 exhibition (Oct. 5th & 6th). Annual membership of DeviceNet UK will be on a calendar year basis. The benefits to the supporting companies include:
· Participation in DeviceNet Stands at UK trade shows (FieldComms for 1999)
· Marketing at the Warwick facility, e.g. graphics.
· Receive visitor list at the Warwick facility.
· Warwick web site exposure/advertising.
· Exposure via Warwick PR activities, e.g. press releases, seminars, road shows, etc.
· Utilise the Warwick facilities for product launches.
· Lead generation.
Action for R. McLaughlin to contact all the UK DeviceNet vendors to propose this scheme and report back to the next Steering Committee the response from these vendors. From the response at the UK Marketing meeting on the 30th of April, there is a possibility of at least 25 UK companies.
Trade Show Activities – After discussions on the format of the DeviceNet stand at FieldComms99 (Telford, Oct. 5 & 6), it was agreed that the “Warwick Castle” format (C&I 98) would be scraped for two reasons – the quote to rebuild it is too much, and it will not convey the message that this committee wishes to communicate. The committee agreed that the message should be more of an integrated stand that sells DeviceNet UK and its member companies, rather than the past formats were each company was segmented into its own little part of the stand. The theme should be similar to last years FieldComms stand, but with physical connectivity. Only DeviceNet UK participants will be on future DeviceNet UK stands. The theme for the participating companies should be “We are part of this Organisation”. It was also agreed that there should be space on the stand for application stories. Other items that committee members felt that should be stressed on the stand include:
· DeviceNet is a Fieldbus
· DeviceNet is CAN-based
· Show USP’s through application stories
· Standards activities and Conformance Testing (show the “tick” mark logo)
· Openness of DeviceNet
· Network position – diagnostic features
DeviceNet UK is to be launched at FieldComms99. A press launch is to organised by working with member’s PR agencies. The committee agreed that the theme should be “End-users force the formation of DeviceNet UK”.
R. McLaughlin presented some ideas to the committee that were received from Paul Nash of Quill Publicity. Mr. Nash’s ideas reflect the ideas of the agreed format. R. McLaughlin will organise for Mr. Nash to present his ideas at the next committee meeting.
AOB – It was proposed that DeviceNet UK should involve a PR agency. All agreed that since most companies already utilise an agency, that we should use the resources of these agencies.
It was proposed and passed that the DeviceNet UK Steering Committee must consist of 6 to 8 members.
The Next DeviceNet UK Steering Committee Meeting was set for the 7th of July, 10:00 at the IMC, University of Warwick.
Meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.