Two must-see presentations at the 2025 ARC Industry Forum promise to deliver on this year's theme of winning in the industrial AI era.

Will you be joining Opto 22 and Inductive Automation at the annual ARC Industry Forum in Orlando February 10-13, 2025? There you'll see groov EPIC controllers and groov RIO edge I/O in action—working with the Ignition software included in the groov family of products.

In addition to live demos in the Inductive Automation booth, you'll hear two guest speakers presenting their first-hand experience with this collaborative technology. Here are the applications they'll be sharing and the kind of results you can expect.

On Tuesday, February 11th, 4:00 p.m. EST, make plans to attend: 

Best Practices in Smart Manufacturing in the Industrial AI Era

Each step of an industrial company’s digital transformation and sustainability journey requires that they take a smart manufacturing approach. But what exactly is smart manufacturing, and what kinds of best practices, technologies, tools, and solutions are available to help manufacturers progress in their digital transformation and sustainability journey in the industrial AI era?  Manufacturers must successfully deploy and scale a smart manufacturing approach to be able to not only adopt the latest technologies, but also navigate any technical and cultural challenges.

In this session, speakers from leading manufacturers will go over various case studies and highlight what were the best practices, technologies, tools, and solutions that have helped these companies successfully deploy a smart manufacturing approach as part of their digital transformation and sustainability journey.  They'll also discuss what hurdles were faced and overcome, what significant business value was created, and what lessons were learned to provide the audience with knowledge that can help them improve and enhance their own factory’s digital transformation and sustainability journeys. 

Featured Speaker: Toby Varland

Toby Varland is Vice President of Technology at Varland Plating, a third-generation, family-owned electroplating business in Cincinnati, OH. With a deep background in industrial automation and software development, Toby has led transformative initiatives that integrate modern technology into legacy systems, enhancing operational efficiency and business agility. Currently, Toby is spearheading a strategic upgrade from legacy PLC systems to modern systems, enabling expanded capabilities that drive innovation and growth.

At Varland Plating, Toby oversees full-stack design and development of automation strategies, from hardware selection to custom software, human-machine interfaces, and data archival systems. This expertise allows the company to tailor its operations to customer needs while leveraging data-driven insights for continuous improvement. His holistic approach stems from years of hands-on experience, starting on the plant floor and advancing through various technical and leadership roles.

Get a preview of Toby's presentation by checking out this recent Opto 22 case study. It highlights Varland's digital transformation initiatives that utilize groov EPIC, Ignition Edge, and Ignition Historian—along with some other cool tools like InfluxDB and Grafana.

The next highlight on your schedule takes place Wednesday, February 12th, 2:00 p.m. EST:

Operational Resilience: Critical to Survive and Thrive in the Industrial AI Era

One of the most critical objectives of an industrial company’s digital transformation and sustainability journey is to ensure resilient operations that improve its capability to overcome any potential business risk and survive and thrive in the industrial AI Era. This objective is driven by the fact that the only certainty is uncertainty. Business risks faced by industrial companies include increasing cybersecurity threats, new regulatory compliance mandates, supply chain disruptions, extremes in weather, geopolitical issues, and more strenuous plant and personnel safety requirements, all of which are driving demand for Operational Resilience solutions.

In this session, speakers from leading manufacturers will go over various case studies and highlight how their companies are successfully increasing their Operational Resilience, covering what were the best practices, technologies, tools, and solutions that were successfully deployed, what were the technical and cultural hurdles and challenges that needed to be overcome, as well as what were the actual benefits realized versus the expectations.

Featured Speaker: Don Hofmann

Don is the founder of Aqualogix, a pioneering company dedicated to advancing water conservation through innovative cooling tower optimization and alternative water utilization strategies. With a rich career spanning over four decades in industrial water treatment, Don has cemented his reputation as a leading international consultant and the former president of a prominent regional water treatment firm. His extensive expertise has benefited a diverse array of clients, including co-generation plants, paper mills, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and various commercial and institutional entities.

Additionally, Don is the co-founder of Southport Associates, a consulting and design engineering firm which initially focused on providing consulting advisory services to building owners and operators. Under Don's leadership, Aqualogix has developed and implemented groundbreaking water savings projects across numerous federal buildings, military installations, and commercial sites. He is the creator of Aqualogix® remote monitoring software and the Aqualogix Water Savings Systems, holding a patent for the innovative Aqualogix blended makeup control technology.

Since its inception in 2013, Aqualogix has garnered recognition from major federal agencies. The company was chosen by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Energy's (DOE) High Impact Technologies (HIT) initiative for a technology evaluation conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at the GSA Proving Ground (GPG). This collaboration resulted in two NREL-published papers that highlight the effectiveness and potential of Aqualogix technologies, further establishing Don's contributions to the field of water conservation.

The Opto 22 team is looking forward to Don sharing his expertise not only in Opto 22's SNAP PAC system, but also how he redesigned their new commercial offering, Aqualogix Lite, using groov EPIC. 

All session attendees are encouraged to stay for the Q & A Panel at the conclusion of each presentation. You'll find Opto 22's Director of Technical Marketing, Dan White, participating in both panels—there to help answer questions and provide a deeper understanding of the technology behind the applications.

We're looking forward to seeing you in Orlando! Get more event details and review the complete agenda.