Connecting Manufacturers & I4.0 Experts to Advance Better Business Results

Good afternoon. Good morning, everybody. I'm Mike Ungar, and I am an Industry 4.0 co-founder. We are here today with our fireside chat to talk with Lucy Ashton. So we'll get to Lucy in just a second, but wanted to introduce the club for a moment. So Industry 4.0 Club, we host meaningful conversations between individuals interested in the implementation and advancing Industry 4.0. We do that several days a week, and, you know, Monday through Thursday, often on Clubhouse, sometimes here on LinkedIn Live, YouTube, and Twitter. So today we're really fortunate to have with us Lucy Ashton. So let me just introduce Lucy and then let her say a little bit about herself as well. So Lucy is the Managing Director for the Internet of Business In this role, she leads the content production and overall business operations for the Manufacturing X.O conference series, formerly known as Internet of Manufacturing. Lead this B2B media and events business, Lucy delivers content and analysis on how technology is transforming the manufacturing sector. She carries out market research and develops strategic partnerships to help those working within the industrial sector understand and implement digital transformation and change management strategies. Prior to her role with Internet of Business, she's done similar work for Informatech, Informa Telecoms and Media, and other marketing and media companies.

Thank you.

Thanks for taking time to join us today.

Thanks, Mike. It's nice to join you. It's good to see you today.

So, you know, people could tell from your accent you're actually coming from London today, aren't you?

Yeah, I'm in London today. I Was based in the US for about 6 years and moved back quite recently.

Well, that's great. So we were talking earlier, I don't want to take too much of your time because I wouldn't want you to miss the evening meal. So anyway, thanks for taking time to join us. So you mentioned living in the US for several years, and then now you're back in London. I know just so far folks get to know you a little bit, you've traveled extensively. Tell me about where you like to travel and What have you enjoyed most in the world and places you've been to, of the places you've been to?

Um, well, there's not many places— well, there's probably nowhere that I don't or wouldn't like to travel. Um, I love big cities, so New York is definitely on the top destination list. I— when I was living in Boston, I used to go there whenever I could. Um, Rio, Sydney, all the— Cape Town. I just— I love the buzz of a city, but I love the outdoors as well and really enjoyed exploring the US because of that. I mean, you guys have so many great national parks like Zion and, you know, other natural beauty spots. Hawaii is definitely on the top list. So yeah, I could go on and on.

Well, that's great. No, that's super. So, um, and how'd you, how'd you settle on living in Boston? Is it just because of work or was that just a favorite place or what?

So I was working for Informa Tech. Informa is the biggest, I think, now media and research company in the world. And they opened an office in Silicon Valley in Mountain View and moved it to San Francisco. And I moved out there to launch a Containerworld event. I was running a cloud technology portfolio in London. And they needed somebody to launch a new portfolio of events. They were growing. They launched the IoT World Series, which is a fantastic show. It's the first and biggest IoT event and expo, and they wanted to expand their reach. So I launched a Containerworld event and then had an offer to help start up Internet of Business. and managed their US office, which was running out of Boston. So that's how I ended there.

Excellent. Well, that's, that's really, that's a great, that's really cool to hear. So you, you've been doing these sort of conferences for quite some time. How'd you get into the business of producing technology conferences?

Like most people, not like maybe like half the, half the world, I kind of just fell into it. I did a history and politics degree, so I was looking for something that I could use, like writing and content skills, but also to continue my love for travel events. And producing conferences obviously aligns with that. So I've— I started by managing aviation events, and I've produced built environment events, public sector events. And then was fortunate enough to move to Informa in 2011. And that was when they were more focused on telecoms and media. And they really evolved as the IoT stack and IoT revolution really took off. So moved more and more into enterprise tech and it just continued to expand from there.

So now today, the Manufacturing X.0 series is focused on manufacturing audiences. When did you really start focusing on that, with Informa or after Informa?

Well, Informa, I was producing enterprise tech events, so we obviously catered to a range of sectors, anyone really that was buying and adopting cloud technologies and IoT technologies. And then Internet of Business was a startup that had launched to provide vertical-specific conferences. So it was focused on different vertical industries. We had different conferences for different sectors. We had a retail conference, we had an insurance conference, we also had a purely technology conference about the IoT stack. And then as we developed, like most startups, we found what worked, what didn't work, and we decided to follow manufacturing because, you know, there's so much to discuss in just that one sector itself. It's obviously a growing industry, and we've just gone from there. We started with one event in Chicago, and we saw, because we were catering to just the end users, we saw that most of our audiences were local to Illinois and Michigan. So we thought, why don't we launch an event in Texas? So we launched a Southwest event And then, as you know, more recently when we were coming back to producing in person, we launched an event in the Southeast, and we've really had great success in producing regionally focused events, bringing together manufacturers from the states that we're working within, but also bringing national case studies. Like, we don't, we don't just host on stage manufacturing stories from within that state. We want to bring everyone together Yeah, we want to bring the best case studies we can to this stage, and we're not limiting ourselves to one area.

That's really great. I was— I think I shared with you before, and I'd like to share with our audience, we were in the event in the Southeast, and I remember one of the industry leaders from South Carolina, as we were heading out of the room to a break, she was talking about the quality of the presentations and how great they really were. in comparison to the other conferences she's been to. That's really great to hear. Our Industry 4.0 Club, we have the purpose to engage the power of diverse worldwide talent to accelerate the global evolution to Industry 4.0. It really does sound like our mission, if you will, our purpose really aligns well with these conferences from what you just described. Because you're really bringing together expertise, a few key sponsors and manufacturers to learn together. Is that— do I have that right, kind of what the goal is?

Yeah, that's definitely the goal. The business was launched at a time when technology events and exhibitions were growing and growing, and maybe the focus on smaller conferences was declining. So we saw an opportunity to bring together smaller, more selected audiences of just similar job titles and similar industries. And our kind of objective was always quality over quantity. We're not huge, we're never gonna be huge events, but we just wanna make sure that we— I don't— we're not exclusive because that seems like we exclude people.

Right.

But we make sure that we match people up. So we make sure that, similar job titles are in the room, similar interests, similar learning needs are all brought together. And we spend a lot of time talking to our audience, like spending days on calls, researching their learning needs, their networking needs, and then we go out and try and match them with the case studies that are available in the manufacturing industry. And we bring together, obviously, the technology providers too. But we do limit the number of technology providers in the room. We make sure that the majority of the audience are manufacturers, so 60 to 70% of the audience are always manufacturers, so that it is a real peer-to-peer learning environment.

Yeah, we had a question from one of our listeners I wanted to put up on screen and just ask you about. So what changes did you make or things you've learned from during COVID that are going to be things you take with you as you move forward with your conferences?

I think the pandemic and COVID spurred us to do things that we'd always thought we should be doing. And it's funny, I've heard that said at a lot of conferences from manufacturers as well. We always knew that, you know, to build a real audience and community, as it were, that that we should be providing content in different forms throughout the year. We just never focused on it. And COVID gave us the opportunity to step back and really rethink what we were doing. So when the pandemic broke, everybody obviously had to flip to delivering virtual models. We obviously did a virtual event, but we also did things like we had a monthly content calendar. So we would go out and look more written case studies. We have a publication that we could publish industry content on. We did industry interviews, we did happy hours. We really tried to put together an all-round annual schedule, so a month-to-month meeting place for people within our audience and community. And I think, you know, nothing will replace an in-person event, As you will know, and as you would have seen at the South Carolina event, people are really happy, really, really pleased to be back meeting face to face. But that being said, you know, people's schedules, the attitudes to travel will change going forward, new environmental considerations. And I think there are opportunities for more digestible virtual content pieces. I don't think, in my opinion, that you can replace the networking and the marketing fulfillment that sponsors get from an in-person event. But I do think there are other things you can be doing throughout the year alongside in-person conferences.

Yeah, thank you for that. No, I agree with you. I, you know, having started to come back to conferences as well and having done a lot virtually, Virtual has been great. I mean, I think we've advanced ourselves, you know, several years. Kind of the silver lining with COVID is we figured out how to work in a virtual environment well, accelerating that well past what it would be otherwise. But it's not the same as actually being in person. There are things that you, you think about, can discuss, and, and, and just have a chance to, to talk about with folks. It just doesn't happen over Zoom. So I agree with you.

Yeah, and you also don't have that, um, when you're at a conference, that's where you are. You're present for 2 days. I know that people do go off and, you know, have meetings and calls, but I would say that the attendees are more present and in that moment, and they, you know, requested time off or they've requested their travel, you know, they've requested the company to cover the cost of their time there, so they really want to make that time worthwhile. Whereas what we found when running a virtual event, it's really hard. People don't turn off their— they didn't shut down their Outlook for the day. They didn't put that on their out-of-offices. Kids still need picking up. So it's hard to have that 8-hour engagement with your attendees.

That's a good point. No, I'm smiling because I was thinking yesterday, I was listening to a particular conference and I know I was in and out of a couple other things at the same time. And you're exactly right. It's not that I wasn't wanting to listen, I did listen to it. But, you know, to steal 5 minutes and do something else was, was easy for me to decide to do. So I think that's a great point. So can you, if I, if we look at and talk a bit more about the, what people are getting from the conferences, are there any success stories that you'd like to share, or that you're, that you're aware of that have occurred as a result of these conferences you've been having?

Yeah, well, we obviously have success stories from our sponsors. We have sponsors that return year on year because they've met clients. I mean, that's the business we're in, and they're fantastic to hear the fantastic stories. One of the speakers at our event in Midwest, in Chicago in June, he is a manufacturer, Michael Murkowski, and he actually said, you know, I think I need to take part because it was one of your first events that actually was the catalyst and gave me the motivation to like get started with my digital transformation. So that was, that just put a smile on my face because I was like, well, that's what we're all about, isn't it really? It's giving people the confidence and giving people the tools to actually go and do what they may have been thinking about for a while. And also giving people the contacts. I mean, that, you know, people come to meet partners and to meet peers who can help them with their careers and with their digital transformation endeavors.

Yeah, that's a really good point. You know, one of the things that a lot of us are talking about today— in fact, I was talking to somebody earlier today about how do we help small to mid-sized manufacturers really get started. And I think what's really great is, you know, they don't necessarily have the resources internally. And here, if I think about the conferences you provide, in a very short period of time, 2 days, they can get a very great understanding, meet some folks that can help them, and oftentimes kickstart, as you just alluded to, their whole Industry 4.0 journey. And I think that's a real benefit for certainly for a small to mid-sized manufacturer who can't afford all the internal resources a large company might be able to afford.

Yeah, definitely. And I think also, sorry, just going back to our regional model, That's a good point. Like, being so focused on just a few states at a time means that we are able, with the help of partners, like the partners that we work with in South Carolina, the industry partners were so fantastic with, in helping us to spread the word and to recruit small and medium-sized manufacturers to our events. And we really do feel like they're the ones that appreciate the learning experience, like you said, and are made aware of trends that they may not have even have known were going on.

Yeah, that's great. And you mentioned Chicago in your first— you know, Mike mentioned his first event. So I think Chicago, this will be the 6th year, 6th time you've done it live. How has the content for these events evolved since you began 6 years ago?

So, the content that we create is very much based on the calls we have with manufacturers. So, to that point, as technology evolves and technology becomes more widely adopted, more and more people ask for case studies in it. For example, I was looking at one of our 2017 agendas, and there was no mention of a digital twin on there. But now, I, you know, on almost every call, it's like, oh, I want to hear a real-life story in digital twin adoption because people are becoming more aware of what other manufacturers are adopting and which technologies are advancing. I do think, you know, reflected in the fact that we changed our branding and our name when we started, we were more focused on IoT data sensors, real-time information. We've expanded to focus more on Industry 4.0 and digital transformation as a whole. So therefore, we don't just cover IoT, we cover things like people trends. We also reflect things that are important to society and manufacturers, not just manufacturers exclusively. So ESG goals are very important in how technology plays a part in those. those goals. Obviously, you know, our content reflects what manufacturers are struggling with at the time— supply chain issues, workforce management issues, labor shortage issues. They, they, those types of trends, they change as the trends in the world change.

Well, that kind of leads us to another question I got from Carol in our audience. She just wants to know, so I know you talked about how you've evolved, but how do you keep in touch with it? How do you predict what you'll need? Let's say, I know we're doing— you're doing a conference later this year in Texas and then planning for even next year in South Carolina and beyond. How do you stay in touch with what the needs of manufacturers actually are in planning your agendas?

It's constant research calls, constant conversations. I mean, we We do research our event agendas, like we write them ourselves and they're all based on calls that we have with the industry. We do at least 50 research calls per event to understand what manufacturers are looking for, what they need to learn, and who they want to meet. Who do they want to connect with that we can bring to the event?

That's great. That sounds really important. It obviously keeps it very relevant too. So, and especially when you talk about the 50 calls, you know, that, that opens the door for the other 450 who, who have the same answer to know they've got something they can look forward to. That's great. So I know that we had the question earlier about COVID and I know the last couple years you did some different things. Recently in South Carolina, you had both virtual and live at the same time. Are you going to continue that hybrid approach or, you know, will virtual kind of have its own lane going forward? What do you think?

I think there's definitely the opportunity for a hybrid approach. And I think it just really depends event to event and audience to audience. Some audiences prefer, or might be, some audiences might be 50% virtual, and some might be 50% in person. What we found in South Carolina is that at least 90% of the audience was in person. So if that trend continues, we probably will do a purely in-person event and then continue to offer digital media, um, assets and content throughout the year in, in different forms.

Okay, no, that's good. Um, I know it's always a bit of a challenge to try to do those things together, so I was curious to see What you thought about that.

Well, it's a tech challenge sometimes, but yeah, that's what we're all about.

Yeah, no, that's good. Um, so what are some of the things that you've heard manufacturers say that have helped them to implement Industry 4.0?

Um, so I thought— I was thinking about some of the phrases that, that are common to our events. Um, I hear probably that most of our conferences start with the business outcome first. Don't do technology for technology's sake. So really mapping out the business or customer outcome that you want to achieve before just going after a technology because that's the technology of the moment. And also the people and planning, getting buy-in from not just the decision makers or the, you know, the people paying for the technology, but making sure that you're engaging teams and people correctly and communicating the use of the technology. That, that is always such a strong message at our events, and, and there's been lots of discussion about how to avoid pilot purgatory just by communicating and, you know, building that relationship between tech and, and the people within your workforce. Um, yeah, I would say, I would say definitely of late engaging your workforce has been a really strong, um, theme and discussion point at all our events.

Yeah, that's a, that's a great comment. It's one of the big challenges with any change in a manufacturing facility is where do you start? You know, do you start with the senior leaders? Do you stop with the shop floor? Do you start with middle management? And the answer is really all of them in some ways, you know. Um, so I really appreciate what you said. I think you've got to have the buy-in of the leadership that you mentioned, and that starts there, but If you don't have the buy-in from the shop floor, you're going to go nowhere. That's a really good point. So you've got to bring that together. Of course, the folks in the middle, they also need to know how they're affected, right? The middle managers. So it's a real, it's a real interesting dilemma. And you got to almost know your culture to know where to begin. So that's, that's really, really wise about that. I appreciate that.

And also just another point, Mike, that you brought up the middle management. It's also like getting different teams working together, like getting those middle management who are working in IT, you know, talking to people who are running the factory floor, you know, working with R&D too. So I feel like within every manufacturing business, um, it's different people responsible for different parts of digital transformation. And when we speak to our sponsors and vendors, they often say the same. Every business, um, has different job titles responsible for the overall project. So it's really, I suppose, building that communication between people that wouldn't be used to working with each other.

Yeah, I know that's a— you know, do a lot of— see a lot of things written about the IT/OT connection, you know, and that's— it's really very important. And, um, you know, our— who's the— who's— who in any factory or any company, one or the other can be the obstacle. You know, if they're not careful, if it's not really a team effort there, you know, it really leads me to another question as we talk about the different parts of the factory, of the different levels of the factory. Who are the typical attendees at your conferences? Are they the leaders? Are they the technicians, the engineers? Are they from the floor? Who usually attends the conferences that you host?

So I don't want to— the answer sounds quite wishy-washy and vague, but it really is a mix. It really is. You know, our speakers are mostly VPs, directors, but that being said, you know, if I find a case study, it's not always led by a VP or director. And, you know, to get— sometimes if you want to present the nitty-gritty, you do have people that are, you know, implementing it and working on the factory floor. And I do think that's reflected in our audiences. That being said, 70% are from the manufacturing ops and engineering side, mixed in with R&D, innovation, some IT, but I would say it is usually the manufacturing ops and engineering people that are here to learn how their roles are changing with these new technologies.

Yeah, so that's great when you mentioned that. I remember it's a conference that I was at recently here in South Carolina, there was a really good mix of people that were there from, you know, different levels of the organization. And that all, you know, I found that really made for a rich audience and really great conversations during break, you know, to see what their questions were and hear their, their success stories and their challenges. So that was really good.

Great.

Excuse me. So as we think about going to conferences, what would, you know, if I'm going to attend a conference like yours, how do you get the most from that sort of thing? What if I'm coming to spend 2 days with you? What are some of the things I should think about to get the most out of the event?

I mean, be present and, and, and, and talk to people. I mean, that I think we've all learned that one of the benefits of a conference And one of the things that was taken away over the past 2 years is the ability to, to strike up a conversation in person so easily. And I do think that's, you know, where relationships are formed. And the old, you know, events phrase that most of the business is done at the bar, that, that kind of, you know, might not be true. You don't have to maybe have a glass of wine to do business, but just having those impromptu conversations, um, just taking the time to network, um, That's why you go to an in-person event, and I think to really talk to people. Other things that I would advise doing is doing some research. Like, before I've gone to events, I've tried to set up meetings and try to get to know, you know, who I want to meet before I go and who's attending, which companies do I want to go and speak to. So just take a few hours to prepare for the event so that you're Yeah, that's a great, that's a great suggestion.

I know for me, when I go to an event, or, you know, I went to the South Carolina, and what it was, well, I got the agenda and I looked at all the speakers' names. I went to my LinkedIn profiles, I looked at the LinkedIn profiles, I connected with many of them, and I decided who I wanted to make sure I talked to, um, as a way to learn from them, but also to connect to them for, for future opportunities. You know, who knows what future needs might exist? You know, I saw— I, I think that's some really good advice about preparing. I know a lot of folks just tend to show up sometimes, and it's hard if you're in manufacturing, you're busy, right? You know, so you, you know, you're like, it's on my calendar. I know I need to get ready to go, but I'll go, you know, I'll be there. So maybe that's the best I can do. But your point's right about getting ready.

Yeah. And I mean, I know it's not easy. Networking is not easy. I remember going to an event in San Francisco and going to the drinks reception alone. And just being like, oh, I'm really— and I don't think of myself as a particularly shy person, but I was like, it's just a bit awkward going up to people. And, and I, you know, I suddenly realized what the attendee feels like. So, you know, it is up to the event organizer too to try and ease people into networking, whether it's just a quick speed networking session or roundtable discussions where you, you know, you're able to talk to people more one-on-one. And once you've made a few friends, it's easy to make more. And And just to make people feel comfortable and at ease.

You know, the other thing that— that's great advice. The other thing I saw happen at the conference I went to, but I've seen it other places as well, is a lot of times if a company can swing it, and it's hard for small companies, but is 2 people from the company go. And the reason why 2 people go is, is that they get a chance to talk among themselves about what they're seeing and how it can apply in their company. And so that's another, I think, an interesting practice if a company can afford to send 2 people to allow them to exchange and think about how this might apply in their environment. Yeah, at least that's what I've seen.

Yeah, definitely. We do. I mean, we've seen up to 5 people come from one company. If you're really invested in trying to learn, if it's your first tech maybe that you're looking to adopt, it is worth that investment, I guess, for small businesses especially.

Well, and I noticed too, in some of the conferences you have a couple different tracks sometimes, and that allows folks to split up and go to different tracks and learn even more.

Yeah, what we try, what we try to do, before the pandemic, we were trying to put a new track in every year as our audience grew, because, you know, in Chicago every year our audience was growing by about 100 attendees, and we frequently get feedback that we need to offer content for manufacturers at different levels or different stages of their transformation. So that's why, for example, in Chicago we have the 101 Digital Transformation Essentials track, and then we have the advanced track for those larger manufacturers, usually larger manufacturers who are reaching more the end of— I don't know if it's the end, but they're more advanced in their digital transformation journey, and they're now selling technologies, you know, themselves. They want to become tech-first, and they're looking at customer experience, um, how customers', um, buying habits have changed, and, and they're looking to align Industry 4.0 principles with, with those practices.

Yeah, that's great. So whether you're beginning— so the— so, you know, what's kind of neat about these conferences, and I guess really, you know, our folks looking for how do I learn about this, is that finding a conference that can satisfy a broad range of, of someone's needs is really important. And I think that's what you're trying to say, is you try to provide a broad range of information from, um, for people getting started. So you provide information about some technology Also about the people side of it, maybe some supply chain conversations, really to allow folks to maximize their, their time at a conference.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, that's great. Well, so we're— we've been talking for the last half hour or so with Lucy Ashton. Lucy's the Managing Director for the Internet of Business, and she leads the content production and overall business operations for the Manufacturing X.O series. And this series, and if I can, Lucy, there are 3 events you do a year as it stands now, is that right?

Yeah, as it stands.

Yep. So we have, you have one in the Southeast, in South Carolina, that occurred this past April. There'll be one in June, June 21st and 22nd in Chicago. And then you have one in Dallas in November as planned right now, is that correct?

Yes, that's our 5th Southwest event on November 15th and 16th.

Super. And so it's been really great to have the conversation with you about, about the conferences, about the content in the conferences, and really about how people can get the most from attending a conference. I think those principles apply regardless of what conference you attend to— you attend. And it's great to also hear, I think, a little bit about the evolution of the content. I think that's, uh, when we think about how far we've come, it's pretty amazing. And yet, and yet we know that there are a lot of companies, in fact the majority of them, are still really just getting started.

Absolutely.

Yeah, so there's still a lot of work to do. So I, I think conferences like these have quite a future ahead for, for manufacturers who want to get a very cost-effective way to learn a lot very quickly about Industry 4.0 and how to get into that part of their business. Well, this has been a great half-hour conversation. I'm Mike Ungar. I'm one of the Industry 4.0 co-founders. If you have enjoyed listening to what we've talked about this afternoon and this morning, please follow our other conversations. On Monday, we do a Women in Manufacturing program at 12:30 Eastern. Tuesdays, we do the Future of Manufacturing. which focuses on a technical topic. Uh, Wednesdays we do the fireside chat with an interesting business leader, someone like Lucy, usually at 11:30 AM. And Thursdays we do, uh, at 12:30 PM, a conversation around people, process, and culture. That's a— that's also Eastern time. Our conversations will occur either on Clubhouse or here on LinkedIn Live, Twitter, and YouTube. And also, please follow us. You see our website down below at industry4.0.club, industry4oclub.com. Any closing thoughts before we wrap up for the day?

No, just thank you very much for having me. I think it's great what Industry 4.0 Club is doing, and it's been great having you at the conferences, you, Jan, and Anne, and look forward to seeing how you develop and having more of your content on stage.

Well, I sure appreciate— we sure appreciate the opportunity. And really, the way we've really kind of blend or the way our missions come together, and that's to really advance the implementation of Industry 4.0, really makes this an important relationship and an important engagement together. So thanks a lot.

Great. Thanks, Mike.

All right. Thank you.