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

Sam Hoff, Patti Engineering

Christine McQuilkin:
Please introduce yourself, your name, title, and company.

Sam Hoff:
Yeah, I’m Sam Hoff, I’m president and CEO of Patti Engineering. Let me just clarify, despite the fact of being president and CEO, in no way do I pretend to be the boss of Patti Engineering. That would be Patti, my wife.

Christine McQuilkin:
What are your thoughts on the keynote presentation from ITR Economist Alan Beaulieu?

Sam Hoff:
Alan is absolutely one of my favorite speakers. I can tell you the first time I saw Alan talk was at the CSA conference in 2006, and he pretty much predicted the great recession almost to the month at that time. I’ve been following Alan ever since, and his analytics and his predictions about the future of the economy are always spot on. I put a lot of stock into what Alan says. We pay the money to ITR trends to be on their mailing list, and each month we get updates on leading trends and all this stuff, and it’s invaluable information for our business.

Christine McQuilkin:
He’s also one of my favorite speakers, and I remember back in CSIA 2019, he told the audience, now is a great time to buy a second home. Now you love to have a second home that has doubled in value in five years. I wish I’d acted on that.

Sam Hoff:
And the interest rates in 2019, right?

Christine McQuilkin:
Exactly. What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Sam Hoff:
The biggest, I go into a lot of manufacturing plants, a lot of distribution centers, and I love it. And people that work in those facilities, they’re heroes. They’re the backbone of America. We kind of have some dynamics that are in contradiction with each other. Automation systems have become better, more complicated over time, but the resources and the people to keep the equipment running, you can’t, because there’s so much different technology on all these machineries or all the different systems that you have in your plant. Nobody can keep up with it. So how do you give those people that are trying to get their OEE out of their facility, the best tools to do that? It comes through diagnostics, it comes through data analytics, it comes through controls, upgrades. I’m going to steal a line from a real good friend of mine who I had on my podcast recently, and he said one of the problems is, is that when somebody buys a piece of equipment or a system, the day that they buy it from the supplier and the supplier leaves, they think that’s the best that system will ever run. In reality, they need to go with the mindset that that’s the worst the system’s ever going to run because they can constantly improve it and get better production and better OEE out of that equipment.

Christine McQuilkin:
And by the way, give us a plug for your podcast.

Sam Hoff:
Oh, our podcast is Down with OEE. Monthly we have somebody I talk to and it’s either internal from Patti Engineering, external from somebody we’ve worked with in the past, and a lot of great insights on the modern challenges of controls, robotics and automation.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. Are there any technology innovations you’re particularly excited about?

Sam Hoff:
Absolutely. I think everybody’s trying to get a handle on AI. I mean, it’s already impacting, we’re already seeing cases of AI, but how we can use it to help those people in manufacturing, in distribution, working inside four walls, how we can use AI on the data that they’re producing to help them run more efficiently.

Christine McQuilkin:
Okay. Well, shifting gears, how has your approach to marketing and business development evolved in recent years?

Sam Hoff:
I have a great company that I work with that we work with to generate the content for our website, a company called Rivergate Marketing. You should look ’em up, probably Google ’em. They do a great job, and it’s really about trying to put a lot of our great case studies and a lot of great information so that anybody can go to our website and maybe learn some stuff.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. Thank you for the plug. So what’s the most valuable insight aside from the economist earlier today that you’ve had from the A3 Business Forum? Anything interesting?

Sam Hoff:
Well, the astronaut last night was a terrific, and I really thought the panel that we had today with some of the leading edge robotics and some of the humanoid robotics and the robotic applications was very interesting. And of course, my mind’s, how can we use, could we use that there? You know what I mean? And that kind of stuff. Learned, had meetings on some cool technologies that we’re going to bring back to my team to kind of check out and that kind of stuff.

Christine McQuilkin:
Anything else you’d like to share?

Sam Hoff:
Ah man, any really great parting thoughts? No, not really.

Christine McQuilkin:
Well thank you so much.

Sam Hoff:
Alright, you guys, take care.

David Mathews, Barn Owl Robotics

Christine McQuilkin:
Please introduce yourself, your name, title, and company.

David Matthews:
Okay. I’m David Matthews. Title is I’m the founder, that is CEO of Barn Owl Robotics.

Christine McQuilkin:
And what does Barn Owl Robotics do?

David Matthews:
Well, we started as an R&D company focused on education. We’re here at this conference because we’re transitioning toward automation, and so that’s exciting and challenging all at the same time.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. What the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

David Matthews:
It’s really the wild west. It’s hard to label one particular trend, one particular challenge. If I had to label a challenge, it would be education. Right now as a community, people have spent a lot of time reading science fiction, going to the movies, and so it’s a challenge to get people to zoom out from what they see from Hollywood and to focus on really where is the technology, what can it do? More importantly, what can it not do? How can we set expectations to be appropriate? That technology is just a tool and every tool has its place and there’s a time to take it out of the bag and use it, and there’s a time to leave it in the bag. Yeah. But we’re on the front end of some really exciting times.

Christine McQuilkin:
That’s great. How has your approach to marketing and business development evolved over the years?

David Matthews:
The approach to marketing, I’ll address that first. We’re really on the front end of marketing. We’ve really been inward facing, focusing on technical development. We certainly have to have a business use case. Why are we exploring and building what we’re building? But it’s more about bills of material and designing printed circuit boards and trying to figure out what we can accomplish. And the business case, it’s vitally important, but right now that’s lagging a little bit because yeah, why build it if you can’t sell it, but you can’t sell it if you can’t build it. So it’s a little bit of chicken and egg. And so does that mean that we’re saying, oh, we’re focusing on the egg? I guess it does, maybe. So there you go.

Christine McQuilkin:
We’ll have to unpack that later.

David Matthews:
Unpack that later.

Christine McQuilkin:
What’s the most valuable insight or takeaway you’ve had from the A3 Business Forum this year?

David Matthews:
This is our first conference that is a traditional A3 conference. We did attend the Humanoid Robotic Forum in Memphis last October, but the biggest takeaway would be networking opportunities, because as I mentioned the wild west earlier, the one thing that’s constant are the people, the groups, the organization, in this case, A3 that are looking to address the needs and opportunities.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. And how can people reach out to you?

David Matthews:
Oh, LinkedIn’s probably the best way. So you can certainly search for burnout more easily would be just search for David C. Matthews, Matthews with two T’s, and I should bubble to the top, so there you go.

Christine McQuilkin:
That’s great. Thank you so much.

David Matthews:
Oh, you’re welcome.

Jennifer Palumbo, E Tech Group

Christine McQuilkin:
Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and company.

Jennifer Palumbo:
I’m Jennifer Palumbo. I’m the Vice President of Marketing for E Tech Group.

Christine McQuilkin:
And what does E Tech Group specialize in?

Jennifer Palumbo:
Well, E Tech Group is a control systems integrator, but we like to call ourselves a main automation partner for our clients.

Christine McQuilkin:
What industries are you in?

Jennifer Palumbo:
Our focused industries are primarily life sciences, mission critical. That means building automation for data centers, primarily food and beverage, consumer packaged goods and metals, mining and aggregate business.

Christine McQuilkin:
How has your approach to marketing and business development evolved over recent years?

Jennifer Palumbo:
I would say for E Tech Group, compared to a lot of other SIs, we have a very robust sales and marketing program. We have a pretty large sales organization, primarily of business development managers. They’re located all throughout the country. I want to say we have around 20 marketing and sales professionals currently, and these folks are not just focused on sales, our business development managers, they’re really focused on being partners for our clients, helping our clients plan out their digital transformation strategy, helping them solve their problems. Again, that main automation partner concept, it’s really what E Tech strives to do. We’re not just looking to get in and do a quick one-off project. We’re really looking to get in, understand what the client’s business needs are, what their challenges are, what their goals are, and come up with the most comprehensive solution for them. And then from there, we really want to be an ongoing partner in supporting their facility. We offer 24/7 remote support. We offer regular ongoing maintenance and assisting capital project spend as well.

Christine McQuilkin:
Wow, great. What’s the most valuable insight or takeaway you’ve had from the A3 Business Forum this year?

Jennifer Palumbo:
Well, so this is my third year, I believe. Being here, I always learn something new. I always enjoy the economic presentation. We actually even use it. We go back to our company, we use it in our company update as well. It’s been really useful in employee communications, just kind of giving everybody some context for our business, what the economy is looking like. Matt Wise, our CEO, he uses that content all the time. Actually, we use it in our strategy planning sessions as well, just to give a background for what the industry is seeing and then what the overall economy is doing.

Christine McQuilkin:
It’s a huge favorite. I agree. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Jennifer Palumbo:
I think the interesting thing that I’ve noticed here at A3, when we started coming to these, there weren’t a ton of integrators who were attending. There are still a handful of integrators who are attending. It’s a really great opportunity for integrators to come to A3 events. Like the Forum, like Automate. It gives you a chance to network with providers of other elements of automation. There’s just a lot of interesting technology, so it’s really valuable. And even just to get a larger picture of what automation and what is happening in the space.

Christine McQuilkin:
Yeah, there’s a huge variety of companies that come. I agree. In the show, attendance has really gone up over the last few years, so there’s many more people to meet.

Jennifer Palumbo:
Yeah, I feel like for system integrators, again, for us, this is a no-brainer because when we really want to be a main automation partner, that really has to go beyond just the controls aspect of a facility. You really have to be able to get that bigger picture. So for us, the diversity in applications and technologies that are offered here is really good for us.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. And how can people connect with you?

Jennifer Palumbo:
People can connect with me on LinkedIn. It’s Jen Palumbo, or you could reach out to me via email, jpalumbo@etechgroup.com.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great, thank you so much.

Jennifer Palumbo:
Thank you.

Liam Flynn, Ruland Manufacturing

Christine McQuilkin:
Please introduce yourself, name, title, and company, and what your company does.

Liam Flynn:
So my name is Liam Flynn. I am a business development engineer at Ruland Manufacturing, and we’re based out of just outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

Christine McQuilkin:
Alright. Tell me about your company’s products.

Liam Flynn:
We are a manufacturer. We make shaft collars and couplings for the motion control industry. We’ve been around for almost a hundred years now, and we’re a family owned company.

Christine McQuilkin:
Wow, that’s great. So what are the biggest trends or challenges you’re seeing in the industry right now?

Liam Flynn:
Right now, it’s been a little slower, but we’re seeing a lot more inquiries come in and we’re very excited about some new projects we have upcoming. So we think things are going to pick up in the near future, so we’re very excited about that.

Christine McQuilkin:
Do you sell into one particular industry more than others?

Liam Flynn:
Two of our biggest industries are medical and semiconductor. We have some larger accounts, OEM, end users that we will typically sell to. And those are the biggest ones right now that are growing, and really there’s a lot that’s exciting in there.

Christine McQuilkin:
What technology innovations are you most excited about?

Liam Flynn:
Personally, I would say the medical industry has a lot of exciting stuff going on. We have some of our applications that have to do with surgical robots, and to me that’s something that’s just very cool and I’m hoping that there’s more companies that we get in their foot in the door with that type of application.

Christine McQuilkin:
How has your approach to marketing and business development evolved over the years?

Liam Flynn:
So I’ve been at the company for three years, and that is after covid. I know we did a lot more before covid, but since covid, it’s kind of slowed down. But I’m hoping that now that I’m on the sales team for the last about year, so I’m hoping that we can start to do in-person visits with customers a lot more. That’s something that we definitely think has value and we want to continue getting that going.

Christine McQuilkin:
That’s important. Yes. Well, what’s the most valuable insight or takeaway you’ve had from the A3 Business Forum this year?

Liam Flynn:
I really liked Alan’s discussion at the very beginning, the first speaker of the show. I thought he had a lot of insights into the economy and the next few years and what it’s going to look like, and I think it’s definitely going to help us make some decisions and feel some comfort or stress in what’s going to be coming in the next few years.

Christine McQuilkin:
Yeah, he’s always a popular speaker. Anything else you’d like to add?

Liam Flynn:
No, I just think if you need a shaft colored coupling, you got to come to Ruland because we’re definitely going to give you the best product you have and we’re going to get it to the fastest lead time that you’re ever going to see.

Christine McQuilkin:
Well, obviously yes. Which leads into my following question. How can people reach you?

Liam Flynn:
We have LinkedIn. You can just look up Ruland. My name is Liam Flynn. I’m also on LinkedIn. Our website is easy as well. It’s just ruland.com, R-U-L-A-N-D. We do a lot of work with distributors as well, so you can reach out to your local distributor and they’ll probably have us too.

Christine McQuilkin:
Great. Thank you so much.

Liam Flynn:
Thank you. Appreciate the time.

Founded in 2009, Rivergate Marketing is a full service digital marketing agency, serving small to mid-size B2B companies trying to reach technical and engineering buyers. We are passionate about building strategic and data-driven marketing and PR programs to help our clients compete and be found in a crowded digital space against much larger companies with seemingly endless marketing dollars. For more information, visit us online at RivergateMarketing.com