Michael Ference Fluid Power Marketing

The September issue of Fluid Power World is now available for everyone to read.   Here is a link. I say groundbreaking because the cover story is about a groundbreaking hydraulic hybrid.  But even with that said, Fluid Power World is something of a groundbreaking publication and media network.  In addition to our print magazine featuring informative and interesting fluid power content, we offer much more. Our five websites include Fluid Power World, Pneumatic Tips , Mobile Hydraulic Tips , Hose Assembly Tips , and new in 2016 Sealing & Contamination Control Tips .  Each of these titles also includes a monthly e-newsletter with the great content found on the websites being sent out directly to our opt-in audience. Our custom offerings include webinars, white papers, video, our Fluid Power Technology Conference, and more.  2017 is an IFPE year and we have a special promotional package leading up to the event.  So, fluid power marketers, pl...

After missing a few years, I had the privilege of attending the 2016 FPDA/ISD Joint Industry Summit in beautiful Savanna.  For more information about FPDA visit their website . I wasn't sure what to expect because I had been away from the event for a few years and I was very pleasantly surprised to find out the the FPDA is alive and well.  The meeting provided some networking opportunities along with interesting topics and speakers.  Again, visit the FPDA website for all of the details. The leadership of the Board of Directors went from Tim Gillig of Livingston & Haven to Andrea Tysdale of JEM Technical.  Thanks to Tim for a year of leadership and best wishes to Andrea. The keynote speaker who created a lot of positive buzz was Herb Meyer in a session titled What in the World is Going On?  A Global Intelligence Briefing for CEOs.  I missed the session but heard that it was memorable.  That was followed by the UID-in-a-Day Workshops,...

This week, the IMTS show is taking place at McCormick Place in Chicago, in fact, it wraps up tomorrow.  This year's event featured hundreds and hundreds of exhibits and over 110,000 attendees. There were several Pavillions and co-located events at McCormick Place too. I can remember when only the East Building existed at McCormick on the shores of Lake Michigan. Now there are several show halls and IMTS took up every one of them!  Wow.  In fact, there are North, South, East, and West buildings all attached by sky bridges and the Grand Concourse. The co-located shows include Industrial Automation, MDA, Surface Technology, Industrial Supply, ComVac, EDM, Controls & CAD/CAM, and Quality Assurance.  These were held in the good old East Building, that brown, big roof structure that I visited in the 1970s for the very first time. There was an NFPA Pavillion at the show featuring exhibits from fluid power companies in the MDA portion of the event.  To get the...

One of the challenges of launching a new website is getting the critical mass of content posted to that site to make it interesting and attractive to new viewers.  We are getting there with our new website Sealing & Contamination Control Tips. We launched this website just this year to address matters of sealing and contamination in hydraulic and pneumatic systems.  As our content grows overall at Fluid Power World , our content involving sealing and contamination or filtration issues grows as well. Now we have a place to host information specific to seals and filters.  It is more than that though.  This new website contains content about the components but also about system designs and materials used to effect better sealing and cleanliness in fluid power systems. So, if your company has such content, send it to us for posting on our new website.

Well first of all, no, I don't think so.  While we have been experiencing a difficult few years in fluid power, we are still a stable industry with applications across many markets with new innovations every year.  However, that was a good lead in to my discussion about the book "Our Iceberg is Melting" by John Kotter which I listened to this week. This is a book about dealing with change and you can learn much more about Mr. Kotter's works on this subject by visiting his website .   Our fluid power industry is always in a state of change and many companies have dealt with the changes very well while some have not.  There have been challenges from other technologies, from other countries, and from changes in the marketplace. If you read or listened to this book, your company will probably benefit from the insights about dealing with change in business as portrayed there.  Give it a look.