Michael Ference Fluid Power Marketing

I have been around the fluid power industry for several decades and I remember when the engineering workforce was made up of mostly men.  It just seemed like that was a traditional role for men, to enter into the field of engineering.  However, over the decades, the interest level has increased dramatically for women as well. To recognize the many achievements and contributions of Women Engineers, the November issue of Design World will celebrate some of the most inspiring women in the design engineering field.  Our editorial team will highlight women engineers who have influenced design technology or engineering practices. Your company can spotlight a Woman Engineer in this special issue, showing their dedication to corporate inclusivity and diversity and recognizing great leadership on their own team.  We will feature a profile of the specific engineering professional and discuss their accomplishments in a special section of our November issue. We are off...

WTWH Media announces the LEAP Awards and that stands for Leadership in Engineering Achievement Program.  It celebrates the most innovative and forward-thinking products serving the design engineering space including Fluid Power.   All commercially available products released after June 1, 2016 are eligible.  Products with updates also may qualify, though the upgrades must be significant design and function. This is a great opportunity to highlight your key technical innovations especially as we have a pneumatic and a hydraulic category.  Now is the time to submit your interesting products for consideration as we will have an independent panel of judges reviewing all entries.  The deadline for submission is September 1, 2018 and the winners will be showcased in the December issues of Design World and Fluid Power World .  The winners will be invited to a special presentation in Orange County, CA on December 11, 2018 to receive their awar...

In my travels to many fluid power companies throughout the year, I often am asked about the current state of the fluid power industry.  It is a very reasonable question because not only do I hear the macro economic information that many industry professionals hear, but I hear directly from fluid power companies about how their year is going. My first answer is almost always ... well this is what I heard at the NFPA Industry and Economic Outlook Conference ... This has been one of my favorite events for many years and for several reasons.  For the details, I am going to refer you to the NFPA website where more information is available.   But there are more reasons and I would like to mention a few. There are great networking opportunities.  When you have been in the fluid power industry as long as I have, you meet and renew many friends and acquaintances at the IEOC.  That part is really cool!  Secondly, the event is always very well organized a...

The Fluid Power World digital network consists of Fluid Power World, Hose Assembly Tips, Sealing & Contamination Control Tips, Mobile Hydraulic Tips, and Pneumatic Tips.  Each title has a website and a monthly e-newsletter. This gives us the flexibility to customize an advertising program for our clients based on their product offerings and their target markets.  For example, if your company sells hydraulic filters used in mobile equipment, we can put together a program where your banner ads appear on Sealing & Contamination Control Tips, Mobile Hydraulic Tips, and Fluid Power World. Your ads can also appear in each of those three e-newsletters.  We can build a custom e-mail campaign with your sales message to supplement the sales leads generated.  We can place some print ads in sections of Fluid Power World where your technology is featured, such as Agricultural Machinery or "What to Know About Spin-on Filters." Additionally, we can use our webina...

Plans are underway for the 2019 Fluid Power Technology Conference.  It will be held on May 13-15, 2019 at the Kern Center at the Milwaukee School of Engineering MSOE.  Our planning team, the Program Committee, has begun plans for the 2018 event with our first meeting held yesterday at MSOE. We will be meeting regularly until the event next year to review, the schedule, topics, keynote speakers, panels, and everything related to the Fluid Power Technology Conference.  We will be reviewing what worked best and what needs improved from the 2018 event.  Our committee is made up of the staff members at WTWH Media involved in managing the event, MSOE, and exhibitors in this year's event.  If you would like to join the Program Committee, please let me know. We are carefully planning every aspect of the 2019 Conference to optimize the experience for our attendees and exhibitors.  We are considering all suggestions to make this three-day event most usef...

Here is a request for all marketers of fluid power components and related products such as controls and materials: Do you have any press releases, product reviews, or application stories that you would like to share with our audience.  We could post these on our websites and perhaps in our magazine, Fluid Power World?  There is no charge for this. We will post your content on our websites, see below: Once your press release or application story is posted on one of these websites, the content is available for picking up for one of our five e-newsletters with the same titles as above.  Also, the content can be picked up for our print issue. So, what are you waiting for?  Send me your content.

Here is a link to our June issue of Fluid Power World The June issue of Fluid Power World is our first with new Editor, Mary Gannon, and you won't want to miss her first Fluidlines page found on page 2 of the issue titled "Our future lies in engaging in the littlest engineers among us." Also in this issue, we offer our audience features titled "Building a world-class pump" for our mobile hydraulics feature.  "Innovative pneumatic designs" is our main pneumatic feature in June.  On the industrial hydraulics side we report on "Safety in industrial hydraulics."  Our product spotlight for the issue is Seals with "Material matters:  Understanding wear ring benefits." I hope you will enjoy learning from our latest issue.  If you are not already a subscriber, please sign up to have the printed issue or digital version delivered directly to your mailbox or inbox.  As always, thank you for reading!

Using an integrated advertising campaign is the best way to reach your prospective customers with your sales message in my opinion.   The package of integrated tools continues to expand.   In addition to the longtime standard - print magazines - we offer websites, e-newsletters, e-blasts, webinars, in-person events, social media management, PPC management, video production, and more. I have selected some of those tools to put together into a package that would be of interest to companies that market mobile components such as cylinders, pumps, valves, motors, fittings, hose, and more.   Better yet, it is put together at a package price to make it even more attractive. With this special advertising package, you will be using print issues August and December which both will feature mobile application stories in Agriculture and Mining.   You will also be utilizing the e-mail based channel with our Mobile Hydraulic Tips e-newsletter as well as a singl...