Electricity + Control May 2016

LIGHT + CURRENT

Beckhoff Automation – 10 years of success in South Africa

This very exciting celebration took place from the 7 – 9 March in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban and culminated on the 10 March with an ‘Oktoberfest inMarch’ celebration at Gilroy’s Brewery in Muldersdrift, Gauteng. It was proudly hosted by the South African team, including pres- entations by Kai Ristau (Head of International Export) and Kenan Aktas (Area Sales Manager), both fromBeckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG in Germany, as well as by Kenneth McPherson, Managing Director of Beckhoff Automation in South Africa. The festivities took on the form of a Champagne Breakfast at all the coastal venues. At the ‘Oktoberfest in March’, everyone was greeted by German waitresses and served Gilroy’s hand-crafted, international-award-winning beer. (The Gilroy brewing process

is characterised by no filtration, no artificial carbonation and no preservatives – something very special to experience.) Both events kicked off with McPherson welcoming all and appreciating the relationships that had led to Beckhoff’s success over the past 10 years in SA. Ristau then gave a review and an outlook of Beckhoff globally.Thereafter McPherson gave away a few “Secrets to Beck- hoff’s Success in SA”. Aktas rounded up the presentations with an insightful presentation entitled ‘Automation in Focus…What’s New and What’s Coming Up’. Beckhoff Automation is leading the pack as far as realising Industry 4.0 and IoT in the market is concerned. Many projects have been implemented with this futuristic concept, many years ago by Beckhoff already. “Our convergence effort started as early as 1985 with the beginnings of PC Control.This has

continued consistently, right up to the introduction of TwinCAT 3 with Visual Studio integrated and the newest products to use production data for IoT and Industry 4.0” said Hans Beckhoff, Managing Director of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG, in a recent interview in Germany. The week of celebrations were super successful and cemented Beckhoff’s focus on personal relation- ships and partnerships with their clients. Beckhoff sincerely thanks every one of those who attended and celebrated this special occasion with us.

Enquiries: Kenneth McPherson. Email kennethm@beckhoff.com

Kenneth McPherson, Michelle Murphy, Dane Potter, Shaun Potter, Tanja Weissbach, Mike van der Walt, Brendan van der Westhuizen, Adam Carless, Aimée Schumacher, Andrew Reinhold and Rodney Grobler.

Crown Publications’ new deputy publisher Wilhelm du Plessis has been appointed as the deputy publisher of Crown Publications, a position left vacant when Karen Grant became Crown Publica- tions’ publisher. He has been the editor of one of Crown’s flagship publications, Construction World , for almost eight years. Du Plessis has been in the media for 15 years and has been publishing manager and group editorial manager in both the custom and customer publishing fields. Before that he was a university lecturer and has a master’s degree in linguistics. “It is an exciting time,” says du Plessis, “to be in business-to-business publishing. Although it has been largely protected from having to go the online route (as opposed to customer magazines), it has a window of opportunity to find the perfect balance between print and on-line publishing. I look forward to assisting Karen Grant during this next and challenging phase”. Enquiries: Email admin@crown.co.za

2016SAEEC Call for Papers

The Board of the Southern African Asso- ciation for Energy Efficiency (SAEE) invites you to submit an abstract for consideration to speak at the 2016SAEEC. All potential speakers’ abstracts will be reviewed by the Technical Programme Committee based on this submission. The 2016SAEEC features a convention agenda with seminars and an exhibition on a variety of current topics and a comprehensive overview of ‘Energy Effi- ciency atWork’.You will have an opportunity to share your knowledge gained within your sector of energy efficiency. The 2016SAEEC features a convention agenda with seminars and an exhibition on a variety of current topics and a compre- hensive overview of ‘Energy Efficiency at Work’. You are invited to share your knowl- edge gained within your sector of energy efficiency. The deadline for abstract submissions is 15 June 2016 and should be 250 words max. Enquiries: Email support@saee.org.za

Crown Publications publisher, Karen Grant with deputy publisher Wilhelm du Plessis.

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