ISA exhibitors and attendees rally to support America
Research Triangle Park, NC - With a record number of early registrants and an encouraging first-day participation, it appeared that ISA 2001, the annual international meeting of ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, would be a welcome industry success. More than 600 professionals listened to Keynote speaker Jeff Wacker present The Next Big Things in technology and how they would affect our business in the years to come. And there was much optimism on the exhibition floor with 709 companies, 678 from the United States and 31 from around the globe, showcasing thousands of new products, services, and technologies.
Then, before the show and conference began on Tuesday, 11 September, a series of horrific events forever changed our world, and the attention and interests of ISA 2001 participants.
"As information about the attacks against U.S. targets became known, ISA's first and immediate concern was for the safety of show visitors," said Alan Wegener, Associate Executive Director for Meetings, Exhibits, and Corporate Services. " But once it was established that there was no imminent danger for our customers, the focus quickly changed towards how we might keep our exhibitors and attendees informed, and how we might help the victims in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania." Almost immediately, exhibitors began suggesting that ISA provide transportation to area blood centers and to churches and synagogues. ISA also placed television monitors around the convention center to allow all visitors to stay abreast of the latest information regarding the attacks on America.
On Wednesday, 12 September, ISA hosted a Houston, citywide blood drive at the George R. Brown Convention Center in parallel with the ISA 2001 Conference and Exhibition. Thousands of ISA attendees and Houstonians flocked to the blood drive to show their support. "The Gulf Coast Blood Center started 27 years ago and in all of our years we have never seen anything like this. It is by far the largest response ever in Houston for a blood drive," said John L. Drury, Director of Corporate Communications for the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center.
Despite the strong resolve to aid victims, many ISA customers continued to voice safety concerns, the desire to be home with family members, and a need to show respect for the mourning and grief of ISA members and fellow citizens. Based on this overwhelming sentiment for ISA to close the show early, ISA leaders and staff began to analyze options and consider the best course of action concerning the show schedule. After extensive consultation amongst the volunteer leadership, staff, and ISA's Exhibits Advisory Committee, plus a majority response from a poll of exhibiting companies, ISA made the decision to close the show one-day earlier than scheduled. "This difficult decision to close five hours early was made in a very considered manner, although necessarily in a short time frame," said Robert Bailliet, ISA President. "We sincerely regretted the necessity of the decision, but after consulting with ISA leadership and staff, the ISA Exhibitor Advisory Committee, and the ISA 2001 exhibitors, all parties agreed that closing the show after three full days was the least painful option and in the best interests of the majority of ISA customers - exhibiting companies and attendees." To help customers arrive home safely, ISA set up a Carpool Board and provided companies with contact information for local charter bus service providers.
Despite the terrorist attacks, and the toll those attacks took on the United States, ISA carried on for three full days of exhibition, technical conferences, and training sessions. "We hope this year's conference and exhibition was valuable for exhibitors and attendees during the three days it was open," said Jim Pearson, ISA Executive Director. "We were pleased to complete the technical conference and training program as planned." ISA 2001 hosted 17,530 attendees and more than 55 percent of the registrants were engineers or managers that planned to purchase new products and technologies at ISA 2001. However, the buying was not limited to the U.S. market. Some 1300 professionals from 76 countries including the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan, and Venezuela attended ISA 2001 with plans to buy new products and services.
ISA will host ISA 2002 from 21 - 24 October at the McCormick Place South in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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