CSIA 2025: SI Experts Share Thoughts on Digital Transformation and More

The transcript below is available for those who prefer to read along. Please be aware that it may contain minor errors. 

 

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Alright, I’m Daren Dieleman. I’m with Interstates. I’m the Vice President of Operations, so I basically oversee our automation operations. I’m also a member of the Board of Directors of CSIA as well.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What does Interstates like to do for automation work?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

So we’ve been involved with CSIA and doing system integration work… we’ve been doing system integration work really since the ’80s. Our company’s been around 70 years. We originally just doing electrical work and then we got into power engineering and then eventually back in the ’80s when control systems and things started coming around, we got into that. So we’ve been involved with CSIA really from the early days back in the ’90s. We’ve been certified I think eight times. So what do we do? I mean, we’re based out of the Midwest of the US. We’ve got 13 or so offices based in central US and then we have a smattering of remote employees. We even have a German entity actually and some employees in Germany servicing some clients over there. So we do a lot of traditional industrial automation stuff. We do industrial networking, cybersecurity data and analytics, MES, a lot of those sorts of things. And having our kind of headquarters, if you will, in the central US, a lot of our markets are kind of agricultural based food and beverage and do a smattering of other markets as well.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I didn’t realize you were international, congratulations!

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Yeah, thank you!

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What are their biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now? Anything come to mind?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

That’s a good question. I think everybody’s really trying to figure out what to do with data and new technology. Everybody’s talking about AI and where that’s all going. I think that’s kind of a trend and a challenge at the same time to know how much to invest, how far. So trying to really make that real for clients and beyond just buzzwords and things like that. I know we’ve been talking about that at the conference here this week a little bit as well. I think an ongoing trend or a concern is aging infrastructure in these facilities. There’s a lot of modernization stuff that needs to happen while also trying to figure out how you digitize and be able to take information off of machines and use it in ways that maybe you haven’t before. And so those are just some trends I think we see in some challenges that come along with it.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Are there any other technology innovations you’re excited about?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

There’s a lot of interesting… for one, as a system integrator, there are a lot of different companies popping up with different tools on how to make the work we do more efficient and done more easily. So I think that’s pretty exciting. We’ve got a dedicated innovation team that does R&D stuff to try out some of these new technologies, so I think that’s something that we’re kind of excited about and we’re kind of seeing. Yeah, I think AI, right, It’s what everybody’s talking about. And so how do we use that to even, again, make our internal processes more efficient? How do we use certain tools to help extract better value out of data for our clients?

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I know it’s early in the CSIA conference. We’re just finishing up day one here. Well, first of all, I’d like to give congratulations to you and the CSIA team for a wonderful conference in beautiful San Diego. Everybody I’ve talked to is just loving this year. Great lineup on the speakers. I loved this morning, I loved how it was just so actionable and real people being vulnerable, so congratulations on that.

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Thank you.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Are there any insights or takeaways you’ve had so far or anything you’re especially looking forward to?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

You’re right, still got a ways to go in the conference. We have a big transition going on, so I’m on the Board of Directors with obviously Jose moving on and be announcing our new CEO Adrienne Meyer coming in. So I’m really excited about the future of CSIA and just that appreciating all the work that Jose has done and then really what we’re excited about, what Adrienne can bring to the future as well. And for me, the connections, making connections both in my role at Interstates and as a board member, to me, that’s what has been so far the most valuable and what I’m really looking forward to. I’m looking forward to the economic update tomorrow as well, that’s always a highlight.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I love that, yeah, I love Alex. Anything else you’d like to share?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

It’s an exciting time to be doing what we’re doing and there’s a lot of challenges out there, but to me, that’s what I would like to share. I think how do we continue to get younger people in school into the type of work that we’re doing? I mean, I studied accounting and finance. I didn’t study engineering, so this was a whole world that I really almost didn’t know existed until about 15 years ago. And so I think that’s something that we all need to try to do to get younger folks, get them excited about engineering, get them excited about technology, and how to then apply that to real world problems. We all see that in the kind of the more consumer space, but the industrial space, there’s just a lot of opportunity to transform things here the next couple of decades, and I think it’s an exciting time.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

It’s funny you say that, we were having a conversation at lunch today how manufacturing is just kind of an invisible industry among young people. We don’t have a lot of people who are aware of it that it’s not on their career radar. And I’d love if that were changed because it’s so vital to our country.

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I studied business and accounting, but I went to work at manufacturing. When I got out of school, I actually thought I’d work at a bank or I’d go get my CPA, those were the things that I thought about. But when I got working in manufacturing for one, it’s working with people. People are in every industry, and so if you like connecting with people, manufacturing is a great place for that, and just the challenge, the pace. I don’t know, It’s just something I would’ve never thought that I would’ve spent now 20 years of my career this spring in, kind of involved in manufacturing one way or the other.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

How can people connect with you?

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Hit me up on LinkedIn. Daren Dieleman. Happy to connect with anybody that’s out there that wants to talk, either from my role at Interstates or as a member of the Board of Directors and wants to learn more. We want to hear from partners, from members on how we can keep having the association and events like this conference adding more value.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Great. Well, thank you so much.

Daren Dieleman – Interstates:

Thank you very much.

 

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself, your name, title, and company.

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Yeah, my name’s PC Romano. I’m president of Avid Solutions. I’m the owner, AVID Solutions has been doing work in the process industry for 37 years now.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Nice. Is there a geographic region that you work in? Are you all over the country?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Yeah, so a lot of our work is in the southeast. We’re headquartered in North Carolina, and then we do a lot of work in the Houston energy area. And then about a third of our folks are in Brazil.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

I think long-term, certainly labor, finding great people has always been a challenge. Just this year, I think, there’s been a lot of uncertainty around the economy and around tariffs and how they’re going to impact our manufacturing clients. And so we’re seeing a little bit of softening. I think our clients are unsure as to how or whether or when to spend their capital dollars. So a lot of wait and see, but overall things are going okay.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Understood. Are there technology innovations that you’re excited about in the future?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Well, a lot of ’em just have to do with communications and remote work. I mean, we’ve come so far since COVID. Most of our people are mostly remote. We have people in 10 states in the United States, and so just the technology that enables a lot of those things for our employees and our customers have been the biggest game changer in the last few years. At the same time, being mostly remote has its own challenges, and so we do spend a lot of time thinking about ways to make sure that communication is happening proactively and that the collaboration’s happening.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Do you have any tips on that you want to share?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Well, I think it means putting a lot of effort into it in a lot of different ways. One thing we’ve been doing is we have clusters of people in different areas and we try to get them together three or four times a year, face-to-face, some kind of social activity or charity event. That’s one thing. We’re also doing lunch and learns, virtual lunch and learns. Those have been well attended and it’s a good way to share information as well. And then lastly, we did our first AVID day a little over a year ago where we brought all of our US employees and their significant others into North Carolina to spend a couple of days. And so I think it’s just a combination of things to get people together.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Those are some good ideas. Rivergate marketing has always been remote, and we are concentrated in New England now, so we’re at least able to get together once every few months in person. But what we’ve also implemented is a retreat, a once a year retreat for a couple of nights where we’re all together and go through some in-depth strategy sessions. But I’m going to adopt some of your ideas as well.

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Yeah. In fact, I’ve been thinking about retreats recently. A peer group I’m in does an annual retreat, and in that case, we rent a house, we cook our own food all together. So yeah, maybe we’ll do something like that.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Oh, peer groups. I heard there’s a peer group going out on a cruise tonight, I had no idea. Sounds like fun.

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Yeah, I’m in a peer group within CSIA. There are eight large integrators in North America, and we get together once every three or four months, and we’ve been doing it for 12 or 13 years now.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Oh, that’s great. There’s a lot of benefits to being in CSIA. I know it’s early in the conference, but are there any insights or takeaways or is there a session you’re particularly looking forward to from the conference this year?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Unfortunately, I’m going to miss the hot stove session. That’s always my favorite, but it’s the networking. I did the speed networking for the first time this year and it was actually really good. Met a lot of folks, made a lot of connections.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I agree. I love speed networking. Anything else you’d like to share?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

I’ll just say that it’s been about 23 years that I’ve been coming to the conference and been really engaged with CSIA that whole time, and we’ve certainly gotten a lot more than we’ve given. And so I would encourage folks, if you haven’t been to the conference come next year, that’s where the magic really happens. And those relationships, those connections, whether it’s with partners or other system integrators, they can carry throughout the year, but it has to start somewhere. And I think this is the right place to do it.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I agree, I love coming to the conference every year. How can people connect with you?

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Well, certainly on LinkedIn, that’s probably the easiest way. There aren’t a lot of PC Romanos running system integration companies, otherwise you can go to our website, avidsolutionsinc.com, come and connect with us that way.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Thank you so much.

PC Romano – Avid Solutions:

Thank you.

 

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

Hey, I’m Travis Miller. I am the president of Miller Resource Group, an executive search firm that specializes in industrial tech automation and manufacturing. Companies are turning to us when they need to be certain that they’re interviewing the absolute best candidates for their most critical needs. I am also the host of HIRED! The Podcast, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Yes, big fan of your podcast. So what are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

That’s a great question, Christine. I’m seeing two camps. There are companies that are still waiting to see, and this has been a trend for a lot of companies for a long time. There are always this list of wait and see excuses. We’ve got to wait and see what’s going to happen with inflation. We’ve got to wait and see what’s going to happen with the election. Got to wait and see what’s going to happen with tariffs. And there are other companies that are just saying, screw it. What happens, happens. What happens to me is going to happen to my competition, so I can’t wait around. And I have heard so many companies this week at CSIA say that things are looking really good. They’ve got a great backlog of projects that are coming. They’re busy now, they’re growing. And then I talked to other companies, they’re like, well, things are okay. We’re just kind of unsure of what’s going on. We’re going to kind of wait and see what happens. And so the two trends I see are companies standing still and companies taking advantage of their competitors standing still and making the move and really pressing forward on growth and advancement and investment.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

That’s an interesting insight. Are there technology innovations you’re excited about for this industry?

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

It’s probably a cop out, but to see the continued growth of AI and how organizations are using it is really incredible. I mean, there are just so many ways to utilize this new technology to make our jobs easier, to make them more enjoyable, to take the busy work off of our hands. This analogy is a couple, probably about a year old. I feel bad that I can’t attribute it to the person who said it because it is so great, but for so much of AI, it’s not going to replace your job. It’s not going to replace you. AI is $17 an hour intern who occasionally shows up on mushrooms. It can take a lot of those tasks off your desk, and that’s crass. I mean, I use AI for so much programming capabilities and data and sales analytics capabilities that I would never be capable of doing, but occasionally it’s really dumb and really wrong. So to see what it continues to advance to and what it continued to do for the industry, I’m really excited to see.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I agree, you do have to look over it shoulder all the time, and you have to be able to know what’s a reasonable answer and isn’t.

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

That’s a great point. How are you using it in the marketing world these days?

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

It is like that. In turn, we use it to streamline our content creation. You don’t use it to write content because it’s really bad at writing content. It’s very generic. There’s a lot of words that just come up over and over and over and over, unlocked, leverage, blah, blah, blah.

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

So many em dashes. Why are there so many em dashes?

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

I know, I know. I use it for preparation for content interviews to help me, a little background on the information, write a few questions I’ll tweak. So no, it doesn’t give us finished work, but it does streamline the content creation process. It’s early in the conference, I know we’re just finishing up day one, but do you have a valuable insight or takeaway or something you’re looking forward to?

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I think day one is really about getting people into the conference. There’s a lot of networking. There’s the speed networking, there’s the expo, and we’ve really only had two pieces of intellectual content. And tomorrow it’s almost all industry information and knowledge. And that’s what I’m really excited for because I think that’s what so many of us are here for, along with the networking industry growth. But it’s to be able to try and look into the future to see what the industry is probably going to look like in six months, a year, two years, so that we can get ahead of the curve. And I think so much of that is going to come tomorrow. Day one almost feels like a warmup for day two.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Agreed, I’m looking forward to tomorrow as well. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

No, the only thing that I’d like to add, I don’t mean this to be self-serving coming from a recruiter, but I hear so many companies… hear and at every other conference I go to, saying that people is their most important resource. And it makes me sad when I hear so many talk to so many candidates, talk about their companies not investing in them as a resource. I guess that’s my last message is to the people who are out there who are saying that their people are their most valuable resource, it can’t be surface, your people know it. And if you truly do value the future of your organization and the people who choose to work for your organization, because in this market that is a choice, they are choosing to work for your organization. Value them, value what they do, value who they are, and value who they want to be, and how they become a part of the future of your organization.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

How can people connect with you?

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

LinkedIn is probably the easiest place. I’m all over the place. Travis Miller on LinkedIn. You can also find my contact information on our website, millerresource.com.

Christine McQuilkin – Rivergate Marketing:

Thank you so much.

Travis Miller – Miller Resource Group:

Thank you.