Report on the Seminar in Brunn, Austria

The Fieldbus Foundation Central and Eastern European Marketing Committee (FFCEEMC), together with fieldbus experts from the Fieldbus Foundation headquarters in Austin, Texas, and trainers from the certified training centers in Brielle (Netherlands) and Miskolc (Hungary), hosted a fieldbus sales training and end user seminar at the Austria Trend Hotel in Brünn, Austria from October 21-22.  The events were hosted by Mr. Jürgen George (Chairman – FFCEEMC) and members of the FFCEEMC.  Larry O’Brien, marketing manager of the Fieldbus Foundation was in attendance as well as Dr. Bindert Douma (certified FOUNDATION trainer – STC Group, Brielle, the Netherlands) and Mr József Subert and Victor Füvesi (certified FOUNDATION trainers – University of Miskolc, Hungary).

Demo Unit from University of Miskolc

Juergen George does an excellent job organizing and executing these seminars across Central and Eastern Europe. Bindert Douma from STC Brielle has years of experience engineering fieldbus projects and is one of our certified trainers under the FCTP program. It was a great chance to hear him share his experience on fieldbus projects.  József Subert did excellent presentations on how to design a fieldbus system and take advantage of control in the field. It was also good to connect with various end users and suppliers, roughly 40 attendees from all over CEE, not just Austria. We have many FOUNDATION fieldbus installations throughout CEE, including the MOL refinery in Hungary. Our trainers from the University of Miskolc FOUNDATION Certified Training Program partner had a nice demonstration set up where they showed access to diagnostic data, control in the field, and more.  

Audience Members

With a program specifically designed to support sales representatives and internal sales support staff responsible for fieldbus products, services and projects, the sales force training session took place on the afternoon of October 21st and included the following topics:

• FOUNDATION fieldbus overview
• Implementing FOUNDATION fieldbus projects
• How salespeople can most effectively approach end users
• Value of selling FOUNDATION fieldbus (from the sales person’s perspective)
• Open discussion and question & answer session

The end user seminar took place on Tuesday 22 October from 09.30 until 16.00. The end user seminar program offered attendees a comprehensive agenda of technical presentations and the opportunity to share end user experiences. It offers a good opportunity for local fieldbus partners to spend the day with customers and other interested parties and fieldbus experts. The presentations at the End User Seminar day included:

• Introduction to the FFCEEMC
• Update on activities at Fieldbus Foundation and resources for training and education
• Strategies for managing data from fieldbus devices
• Planning the fieldbus infrastructure (including explosion protection and safety instrumented functions)
• Commissioning the hardware; implementing fieldbus projects; diagnostics and trouble-shooting
• End user experience
• Open discussion and question & answer session

For more information on FFCEEMC seminars and activities go to their web pages.