Last Thursday we held a marketing RoundTable at our facility to gather like minds in marketing. Jim Beretta, formerly the Marketing Manager at ATS and now the Event Manger for Canon Communications Canadian Show, ATX Canada described it as “professional, high value and creative.” Also in attendance from Canon Communications was the Director of Sales, Events Division Josh Dome who is responsible for over 45 of Canon’s trade shows.

My vision was to pull a group of minds like this together for many years. The intent of this meeting was to share ideas of successes and failures with three specific segments of marketing: print, .com’s and shows. Jim and I have been friends for years and talked about doing this prior to shows, however we never found the time. We finally set a date apart from the shows to get the ball rolling.

The event began the evening prior with dinner the Montgomery Inn Boathouse on the Ohio river. The entire next day was great; we hit topics such as blogging, what the future holds,  email campaigns, the evolution of print as well as the ever important personal interaction and trending of trade shows.

Although the title of the meeting was catchy utilizing the moderators name, the overall theme of the meeting was “personal touch” and how important it is to take the time to actually see and meet with customers. Yes we talked about lead procurement and quality product, however time and time again the meeting drove towards people coming closer together.

Jack Aguero, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing and Brent Meyer, Director of Marketing Communications from Pro Mach Integrated Packaging Solutions joined us, along with Richard Meyer, Senior Program Manager from Fanuc Robots, Bob Pompei, President and Joe Cantara, Vice President of Action Automation, the northeast’s leading industrial automation distributorship. Also joining us were Bill Hornsby, Director of Marketing and Marc Knable, General Sales Manager from Habasit, the largest belting supplier in the world. We invited a strong group of vendors to support our efforts including Don Neumeister from Packaging World Magazine, Michael Perryman, Global Spec, Roger Judson, Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), Lee Sjoquist, Skyline Exhibits and Rick DeMoss, Industrial Research Services (IRS). All these excellent companies contributed a great amount of information.

Many thanks to everyone who made the trip here to QC Industries for their time and contributions to this meeting.

Fanuc Robotics recently introduced their new robot, the M-3iA. It’s an intelligent, parallel-link robot which is designed to maximize speed and flexibility for assembly, small part handling and picking applications. It’s shown here moving product on top of our new Automation Series low profile conveyor. The robot was introduced at this year’s ATX show in Charlotte, NC. Fanuc is currently buying many QC Industries conveyors for their marketing opportunities, demo cells and material handling lab.

• We’ll be releasing our Conveyor Configurator, an intelligent conveyor sizing and quoting tool. You’ll be able to configure your own conveyor — along with its drive, sides, stands and accessories — and request a quote directly from your local distributor
• We know your time is valuable, so we’re launching a new series of short support videos called Quick Clips
• Our distributors will be calling on customers both old and new to show you all our latest innovations

Of course you can also find QC Industries on Twitter, Facebook or here on our Blog. If you come to visit, you can even check in here on Foursquare, Gowalla, or BrightKite.

Always a highlight of the trip is the happy hour followed by an awesome evening at Montgomery Inn downtown overlooking the Ohio river.

The company also would like to thank Mike Buckingham, our lead trainer, and those who supported from our Engineering and Production teams. Special thanks to Cindy Dixon and Chris Thompson for their supportive roles.

Thanks again, distributors!

See the full gallery of images from training.

This design eliminates the problem that even low profile conveyors have which is the transfer points are many times too large. With this new design even smaller parts can make the transfer.

Jody Estes, the Associate Editor says that Manufacturing News has four regional monthly publications specifically designed to reach manufacturing engineers.

So was the show a success for us? Yes, absolutely. It takes a lot of work to make sure you have a success, but this year we teamed up with Provoast Automation, a top selling pneumatic and hydraulic sales force in Southern California and came away with many high qualified projects.

Many potential customers raved about the new Tension Release Tail on our Automation Series conveyors. They included James Lowery, a Design Engineer from ITM in Texas, who said, “…simply phenomenal. Loved it. I can’t wait to talk it up with the other designers and use it as soon as we have an opportunity.” And this was long before I had the chance to show him our new Pivot™ rotatable drives and discuss our five year warranty. But as you know at shows you have all of about 30 seconds and you’re done.

So from our perspective, it was a great show! From the attendees perspective there was certainly a tremendous amount to learn. And as for the “Hand Sitters” well I hope you had a good show too!

Elkhart, as we all know is in the heart of Indiana, and so is Press Automation, Inc., an extraordinary company that is making sweet music in a not so easy time to do so. Their lyrics are a bit different though, “Staying close to customers and listening to their needs,” said Budd Bowman, General Manager, “and oh yea, good old fashion hard work.” The song must be right as this company stands out as one of QC Industries’ top distributors every year and this year will be no different. As I talk to Budd about his business every year you just hear it in his voice, this small town company really cares about their business and their customers.

The family owned business was formed in 1979 by Carol and Don Bowman. Budd, their son is now at the helm and continues to thrive with the dedication of the entire Press Automation crew including the inside support team and the sales staff.

From a manufacturer’s perspective, one line in the song should say something to the effect of “we don’t try and do it all.” They listen to the customer’s needs and align themselves with high quality vendors.

This is a special company, one that probably doesn’t get enough press. They are hardworking, honest and one whose customers and vendors are lucky enough to be very much in harmony with. Sing along everyone, “prob’ly die in a small town, oh those small communities…”

Here’s how the format works:

“If a woman is interested in someone, that man will step aside and wait as the rest of the men go by.  But if another man comes by on the belt that seems better than that woman’s first choice, she can swap out the man waiting off of the belt as many times as she wants until the last man has passed by. If two or more of the women are interested in the same man, the tables turn and the man on the conveyor belt gets to choose which one he would like to wait for. After all 30 men have made it through the ‘Conveyor Belt of Love,’ each woman is left with her final choice as they embark on a date in the hope of finding a true connection.”

While we’ve done conveyors for show-business before, this doesn’t look like any conveyor we’ve ever built (in the first shot you can see a clipper lace splice, which we almost never use). It did however remind me of our own Conveyor Belt of Love, so to speak. It’s a video we shot a few years ago to prove to a customer that their conveyor could easily move — and index — their required load of 1000 lbs.