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ISA Show Goes to Houston

08/16/2004

Although the ISA Show continues to show signs that it is fading in popularity among major exhibitors and attendees, it remains the biggest exhibit of instrumentation and process control equipment in North America. This year’s show, held in Houston, October 5-7, will host 500 exhibitors packed into about 300 booths, and expects to attract visitors from 70 countries.

Missing from the show are leading control and instrumentation technology companies such as Emerson Process Management, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and ABB. The other prominent players--Honeywell, Siemens and Invensys—have trimmed back their presence and have booked only 30 x 40 ft booths, a mere shadow of the giant exhibits they once fielded, dominating ISA shows of the past.

The biggest booths are being taken by Fieldbus Foundation, Hoffman, Profibus, HART, Microsoft, Magnetrol, Yokogawa, Wika and Krohne. Many of the pavilion-type booths, such as Microsoft’s, host booths from smaller companies who otherwise could not afford to exhibit at ISA.

If you attend don’t forget to check out the smaller companies exhibiting in the smaller booths tucked away in the back of the show or in pavilions--they typically unveil major breakthroughs in software, hardware, and sensing technologies long before the majors do.

With the established companies pulling away from the show, are we witnessing a changing of the guard? You’ll have to come to the ISA Show to find out. –Rich Merritt