Electricity + Control May 2016

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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
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
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.
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
Crown Publications
publisher, Karen Grant
with deputy publisher
Wilhelm du Plessis.
43 May ‘16 Electricity+Control