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Major Life Updates, Texas Moves, and Big Community News · Automation Ladies

• 0:00
  Hey, guys. Welcome to Automation Ladies. This is the first official episode of season six. I think in my last recording, I said season five because I forget how many seasons we have. But, yeah, this is just us today. Nikki, Ally, Courtney. Hi, Courtney. Hi, Ally. Hello. Hola. Hola.
• 0:18
  So we figured we would do one episode to start the season to catch up with everybody, before we proceed with our regularly scheduled lots of guests that we have planned, which thankfully we have a great waiting list of people that we've been wanting to talk to since we decided to take a break at the end of last year.
• 0:37
  But since we have taken such a long break and we've had lots of changes and things things happen, and we've attended events and done cool stuff together. I thought, why don't we take an episode to catch up with Ali and Courtney? We can pretend that they're the guests today. Since if you listen to my little thirty minute monologue of last week's episode, I tried to give a little intro and a little update as to what I've been up to. And, apologies for that not being a produced episode. It was just straight from my phone. But now we are working with Industry Sage Media, so, hopefully, this sounds decent. It'll be produced by the time you hear it. So thank you, dear listeners, for being here for Automation Ladies. Ali, you wanna go first?
• 1:18
  What has been going on? Where are you? What are you up to? So I moved PCE to Texas, but it's it kinda looks like I'm like, I abandoned PCE, but I I didn't.
• 1:29
  PCE is kinda like being, absorbed slash integrated into Kraken, and then I'm gonna help crack because so we're gonna become, like, the the the government contracts division because that's what we really do. And that's our our strength right now is, you know, the people that I have, Sithara and Courtney in Washington. You know, my engineers kinda are trained, and they know how to handle, you know, our government customer. And we do we do SCADA for them.
• 1:58
  And so, yeah, I came over here. We're gonna expand.
• 2:01
  They have a shop, and we're gonna, you know, make it UL certified. I've done that before. I can do UL five zero eight a and six nine eight a. And, actually, I'm kinda interested, and I think UL 12 o five, which is explosion proof stuff, because I never got the training for that, but I have the intrinsically safe one, and I kinda want both so that we can produce you know, we can offer both. But, yeah, anyway, that's what I'm kinda doing over here, so that's why I've been kinda posting as kraken. And there's a lot of, like, play on words with kraken. So there's release the kraken Yes. And then there's let's get kraken, and I'm using both of them because I like them, and, like, everybody loves the octopus. I don't know. I'm getting a lot of compliments for that. They're like, okay. That's pretty cool. And even me, like, I think it's pretty cool. I told, Cindy, one of the owners, that, like, if it wasn't purple, like, I probably wouldn't even be there. But, yeah, it speaks to me. I I told them that, like, put purple is the color of transformation, which I didn't even know until I went to Mexico and on a retreat and, like, learned about chakras and, all kinds of stuff and, like, colors and and, you know, meaning behind that stuff. And I really like the color purple. I always wondered why we liked purple so much because, like, Automation Ladies is purple and, like, OT Skatecon is purple. And I really like this place being purple because I'm, I don't know, spiritual like that, whatever. So, yeah, I just moved here. I we I we filled a 26 foot truck. I got it from Home Depot. I'd thought I only needed a 22 foot truck, and God was like, you're silly. And then he made it so that there was no 22 foot truck, and I only could take a 26 foot truck, which we filled to the brim and still threw crap away. So you really do need to listen to when God's talking to you because stuff happens, and then he's just trying to say something. Right?
• 3:41
  When something breaks, it might be because I don't know. You're not supposed to use that thing or I don't know. There's there's things that happen or, like, you know, you you can't get a ride somewhere and your car broke. It's like, well, maybe you're not supposed to go anywhere. So I'm starting to listen to, God more because, like, I'm seeing that he's trying to talk and say stuff. But, yeah, that's what I'm up to. I, like many others, are trying to get Courtney Fernandez to move here. I did end up I I'm sure she's sick of the pressure. But, yeah, it's just you can get, you know, more you can get more house for your money. You can get a lot more everything for your money here. And, you know, she's got a skill that we need and, like, I don't know. We want her more than California. We'll see. We'll see we'll see what we can do, but, like, yeah, that's, you know, that's where she's from. That's her home, so she's not it's not an easy sell, obviously, but let's see what happens. Like, I think if we could just convince her that, like harder. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But yeah. So I'm I'm making a list, to try to convince her daughter, Rose, to accept our, proposal to move that family here, because she's gonna be the hardest sell. I don't even think it's gonna be Albert.
• 4:49
  Like, Albert would be, like, whatever. The whole family. I think you're right.
• 4:52
  Hey. I wanna take a quick break from today's episode to mention our sponsor, Automate. It's coming up soon, and you know you have to be there. We're always there. It's going to be amazing. It's the biggest automation party of the year. You got robots, cobots, motion, vision tech, AI, you name it. All the cool stuff is gonna be in one place for you to come see. Plus, lots of great companies and people to connect with, including us. So why don't you head over to automate.org, get your tickets, and we'll see you there. I think everyone will follow if we get a roadshow. Gonna be the hardest sell. I think she's, yeah, she's the hard sell, and I think if we can get her, like, happy. I was like, does she like horses? Like, we'll figure it out. Like and NASA's here. Maybe she thinks that's cool. I don't know. We'll give it a shot. We gotta try a visit and just show her all the cool stuff. Yeah. We'll try we'll start with that.
• 5:43
  Visit and see what you think. Yeah. Start with that. So I went on a sales call or sales call. I don't know. Cindy was smart. She was like, hey. Come show me your HMIs to get me about this strategy too. She was She's she's clever. Yeah. She's a clever lady, which I think is why we all like her. In addition to being clever, lots of other good things. But I also just was I love the vibe there. It drew me in. The Kraken logo and the the fact that it's purple and the fact that one of your engineers, Courtney, has, like, made a bunch of paintings with octoput octopi, I guess, is how you say that, on it. That I just Yeah. She has, like, an octopus tattoo. Just like there's I don't know. There's invisible connections being made here, and I I remember just as soon as I left there, I had to call you and be like, hey. I just visited this place. And I think whatever. You're gonna wanna meet them. It was too good to be true, and I was just, like, really weary because of the way that you like, how happy you were with it. I was just like, I was scared genuinely. I was like, no. Like, because I've seen this before and, like, I've been burned been in Texas for, like, a week. Yeah.
• 6:55
  This all happened in a span of, like, a week. I know, and it's been nuts. Like, I was in Alabama Birmingham, Alabama, right, yeah, for, like, a couple days, and I feel like you just grabbed a new job while I was in Alabama, and it it's awesome. And I'm really I'm really happy for both of you because not that you didn't have a you know, part of moving down here was to get in you know, do something new, get expand PCE's business, get into oil and gas applications. And I think this is a a really exciting and fantastic way to get that started. Like, kick it off literally. What? Like, you came here on a Friday, and you've started on the Monday.
• 7:36
  Like, that's insane in a good way. Yeah. She she had me come It takes time. On a Monday, and I started on a Tuesday.
• 7:43
  Yeah. She's like, so what do you think? And I was like, okay. And she's like, is that it? Like, what are you gonna what's the counter? And I was like, I don't know. I'm good. Yeah. I like I like the first thing you said. I was like, oh, looks good.
• 7:57
  To be good. Yeah. Yeah. Although, maybe in the future, we should we should negotiate more, but I think sometimes something is just handed to you that you want. And, you know, we've been we've obviously, all of us, I think, have worked really hard, and we've struggled through a lot of stuff in our careers. And we're starting to manifest a lot of what we want, and that feels really good. Like and I'll just say, I guess, you know, I manifested two best friends by making this podcast, and then I managed to manifest a, across the street neighbor by sending you an insane text middle of last year with a picture of the house across the street from me going, I think you're gonna live here one day, like a total weirdo, and it happened. So So what do you think the lotto numbers are gonna be?
• 8:46
  Just curious. I should start to find, other other things to manifest. Yeah. Maybe ones that actually make me wealthy. That would be cool. But I am really happy with my, I don't know, my mental health riches at the moment. I feel like I'm in a really good place, and I've had a really great opportunity for everyone. For anyone. Yeah. Since transitioning from my last job at QuoteBeam, which I loved, and I loved working with that team, but I kind of also knew that it wasn't gonna be forever. And so the timing worked as such that we parted ways close to the end of last year, and I was definitely on, like, a burnout path with that.
• 9:24
  Not that it was in any way their fault. It was just it was a it was a, you know, big job, and I had a lot of other big things going on at the same time. And I was on a a a call earlier today or, like, a session, like, a mastermind session with Emily Honor Hubbard from Empathic Engineering, and we will hopefully have her on as a guest this season by talking about ADHD at work and what a superpower it can be, but also, like, some of the challenges, right, that are associated with that. And the ability to jump on big ideas and execute, start executing things is is kind of one of those things that is associated with that a lot of the time. And so I've started to, like, learn more more about myself and why we do things, why I do things maybe. But that was that was pretty cool. And it the tendency to start too many projects and then get overwhelmed is something that's really common with that. And and so I I no longer feel like it's just a me thing. Like, oh, I have this huge problem of, like, wanting to do all the things all the time, and it's just a personal flaw. It's now I I understand a little bit more. There's people out out there like me that do that, and we tend to excel a lot, but we also, like, can overload ourselves extremely and get burned out. So finding a balance somehow, somewhere. But I think a big part of that is having a team, right, that can run with some of your ideas and close them. So you can keep bringing in new ideas, keep, you know, doing really cool things.
• 10:48
  If you're surrounded by a team that can help you execute those things, you're you're less likely to get overwhelmed, which is why I love that, you know, we have as automation ladies, as the show, we have now a little bit more of a infrastructure with Industry Sage Media so they can handle some of the day to day podcast stuff, help us do this.
• 11:05
  Right? We get to show up. We get to record, and then they, you know, can publish it and stuff like that. And then we can do more of the peripheral things that automation ladies loves to do, like more live demos this year. I wanna see more tech demos, on LinkedIn, and I wanna have more panel discussions. So we're gonna be doing more cybersecurity stuff this year with Ashley. Maybe having some more correspondence with different industry expertise than we do, right, between the three of us. Right. But, anyway, that's, enough on my side. Courtney, you wanna give us a clue as to what you're up to? Because I know you've got all sorts of things cooking as well. Oh, yeah. There in California even though we're trying to get you out of there. It's a it's a love hate relationship in California. And just, with the year we've had and the costs in California being just what they are, it's not always, as much love as, say, previous years. Yeah. But, you know, California has always treated me good. I just It's a beautiful place for sure. Pay a lot of for gas. Yeah. It is. I pay I pay too much in gas and too much in rent and too much I just pay too much. You know? That's just all it is. It's just too darn expensive. I think I mean, I I love Tennessee. I love Texas. I love, you know, the South in general. There's a lot of places I would love to move to, and every single one of them are like, god. Don't get no.
• 12:29
  No. Don't come here from California. Please don't do it. I promise I have guns. I I swear. I'm not back in California. And it's just it's getting expensive here, and I'm I'm getting more and more open to it, you know, every year. But the hardest like Ellie said, the hardest sell is gonna be my daughter Rose. She loves it. Loves her friends here. You know? In a beautiful place. I mean, I when we visited you last year during automation fair, getting to stay, you know, at your place, seeing your neighborhood, the walk to school, I don't blame you. I don't blame you for for loving it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff I love. Yeah. Houston seems really diverse, and Houston seems to have really good food. That's my big thing is, California keeps me stuck with sunshine and really good food.
• 13:17
  Yeah. We had both of those, although they're not exactly the same. Yeah.
• 13:21
  It's like it's, like, different flavors of each, the sunshine and the food. But it's Yep. I mean, I I do enjoy actually, like, traveling and coming home and, you know, both both sides of it. I'm I'm open to the idea at this point in my life, but we'll see. I wonder if they have Coco Ichibanya in Texas. Oh, is there one? I don't know.
• 13:43
  That would be cool. I would have to look that up. Well, let's just find if this one what's the closest thing? Have one more toy on the sell me born. Let's find Japanese curry in Tuesday. The best the best curry ever.
• 13:57
  But, Like you found Ali, we've got, like, a million pho places within a five mile radius of my house. I like Sushi, pho, Thai, Indian.
• 14:08
  It doesn't matter. Yeah. Ramen. All of the foods for all of them. For Japanese curry. Yeah.
• 14:16
  Let's let's look for that. Been as open to it as I have been recently just because the personal life roller coasters get it. The the ride's getting, like, crazy bumpy, and I'm not the only one on it anymore. So it always kinda makes me step back and be more cautious than I would have when I was younger. I mean, I don't wanna delve too far into it. We lost a couple of pets, and, like, it was hard on the family for a little bit. And then you guys sent me that cool video from Bam. That was like I feel like that video is genuine when his Yes. I think I mean, I didn't I did not expect that. I Yeah. Like, when his wife jumped in and was talking about, like, the dog, I was like, this is yeah. So they sent me, like, a really cool, cameo video where Bam Margera, like, sent his condolences about my pit bull, and that was really cool because I know for a lot of people, it's just a dog. But, like, that dog was my best friend for, you know, almost thirteen years.
• 15:10
  And, like, there's, like, a lot of stuff that suddenly changes, you know, when you like, you grieve him almost like you would grieve, you know, a human family member. So there's, like, a lot of stuff missing, and it leaves a cavity. And, like, everything was still piling up. So, you know, it's like it's one, it's an unexpected cost, and then, you know, an unexpected time suck, and then you can't just go back to functioning like normal. So, like, you know, just stuff just keeps piling up. So at some point, you know, things got far enough behind, you know, at work that I started actually considering all options. And it's not all bad because sometimes when bad stuff's happening, it makes you more open to the possibilities around you. And so, like, I started trying to see, you know, other opportunities, wherever I could because the only other option is to just sit there and be sad and get deeper into debt.
• 16:00
  So, like, you gotta start, you know, trying to see these things that maybe you wouldn't see before. And I don't like survival mode, but it does make you very creative. So seeing, you know, I I don't wanna overshare another colleague's situation, but, you know, a big space became open, you know, for me and and Greg. And, it's, like, like, right at the right time where we were talking about Empire Automation and Automation Excellence Center and these basically, these ideas where we could showcase, hardware and also be more about, like, education and giving back to the community. And that's kind of something that Greg and I are both about, something that came up literally right around the same time. We were traveling to Azriel, and we were talking to them about this other, group that I can't recall the name of right now. Maybe one of you guys do on the East Coast that's doing something Yeah. No. I don't remember their name at the very moment either, but they're a systems integrator that has a space that they're used for community education, for showcasing, and they got a system from Azerill for this reason to put it in there. And then we were kinda we brought it up, right, when we were there.
• 17:14
  And they're like, oh, yeah. We've done a thing like that with somebody else. Like, this concept exists, although not not exactly the same as yours, but pretty close. And they were like, yeah. We're in. So it's crazy how yeah. Somewhat sometimes you're The timing is weird. Maybe Yeah. I wouldn't have noticed that or thought of that or may I don't know. Because I I put things out there. I I take note of your your mastery of manifestation. So I've just gotten more vulnerable lately. I'm like, I'm just gonna say the things, you know, and you can just shoot me. People could shoot me down, or I could just shoot myself down and never say it. So, yeah. You know, there's, I guess, two schools of thought for to that sort of thing. Some people say, like, don't ever tell anybody about your thing until you're done with it and ready and, like, it's it's done because people will doubt you or drag you down. I can't handle that. I don't do that. I think we have the opposite mentality where, like, tell everyone, and that'll force us to make it happen. And then sometimes it doesn't. You know? Like, last year, I was on a live stream with Megan and some people, and they were like, what do you have, you know, for this year? And I just threw this out there.
• 18:18
  I was like, we're gonna have a podcast studio, a physical podcast studio by the end of the year. And I just said that out loud, and I was like, I'm gonna commit to this. I'm gonna make it happen. And that's one of the things I didn't manifest last year at all. But at the same time, I think it probably wasn't meant to be because it doesn't necessarily make sense in how we do the podcast. Like, what would I sit in this podcast studio and our guests would just be phoning it in, like, on the Zoom? Or in this case, like, StreamYard or whatever.
• 18:46
  Like, then what's the point of me sitting in a physical studio if I'm the only one of two or three or four people on the show that's in a professional studio. And I don't think that we would, make sense to limit ourselves to local guests only, and we're certainly not at a point where millions of people listen to us so that we should have people traveling to come, you know, sit in our studio.
• 19:08
  And you know what? I I do think a lot of people can end up traveling to Houston. Yeah. I do think a lot of people end up telling you that. Yeah. But we can just have them come to your house. An awesome day.
• 19:17
  Of a of a podcast studio that's not specifically ours, but that's still something that we could explore. But, also, last year, at that time, I had no idea that we were gonna do OT Skatecon, so that obviously became kind of a huge priority and a big big part of the efforts that we did last year. Yeah. Yeah. It it did take a it did take a lot of time. It was fruitful, though. And it still does. It was. Can you talk a little bit about OT Scadakon, Ali, and, like, what inspired you to start that, and what is it if people don't already know? Sure. So it's a community conference. You know, we me and Nikki have spoke at, Ignition Community Conference, and, like, we love community stuff, or trying to build community. So, like, the word community is definitely part of a word I would use to describe the conference we're trying to build because you're trying to get there to to become part of a community and for these people to meet each other. But, basically, I noticed a long time ago that recruiters didn't know the difference between the different types of automation engineers. And so, like, I know that that is like, that people get confused. And even myself, like, before I was doing SCADA, I I really believe that because I could do, like, HMI stuff that I was like, oh, yeah.
• 20:37
  I already know the SCADA stuff. Like, that's not the same thing.
• 20:41
  And so, like, I feel like this is a way to expand. Like, if if you're already kind of, like, interested or you're in this space and you're trying to meet people, it's a twofold thing. It's to discover things that might be your passion that you didn't know and a massive networking opportunity because maybe that's stuff that you need for your project that you don't wanna do. And this is another way for you to meet the people that are like, they live and breathe that thing. And so whether or not you just wanna learn that thing and become, you know, that as you like, your job or you just wanna know who to go to to do something, that's kinda what this is for. And so there the speakers are, most of them have their own businesses. So they're entrepreneurial. They value collaboration, and that's why they're doing this. And so they, you know, they're they're very open people, and they want they're educators, you know, but they're also people that have, used these technologies, like, in the field. So whether they were a technician, an electrician, or an engineer, or none of those, like, because it's possible that, you know, d, all of the above. Yeah. You can you can come here and and meet other people that are like you and then meet other people, and learn about things that you may not know. And you may not know that you love them, because I think a lot of people like, I come from process process side. So I don't I have never six I have never in as a job, programmed a robot and and implemented a vision system. K? I am process controls. Like, I I did PLC all day, HMI all day, SCADA all day. I can design, you know, a pump skid. I can size you a heat exchanger. I can, you know, I can do P and IDs all day long, but I don't know anything. I did take a Fanuc, like, intro class, and I was my mind was blown. I was like, okay. This is cool.
• 22:35
  Like, I just felt, I don't know, felt super smart because I was, you know, able to cross over there and understand what they're doing. I was like, oh, okay. Like, motion instructions is nothing like process, you know, programming. It's because we're doing, like, PID loops and, like, it's not the same. It's not motion. There's no I don't give a shit about acceleration. Like, I just care about Hertz and turning a motor on. I don't I don't use steppers steppers or servos or encoders.
• 23:01
  Like, I use full blown, like, turning on and off induction AC motors. Like, that's so I know a lot about VFDs, but I don't know a lot about, you know, servo drives and the controllers for that.
• 23:11
  So that's why I just I I knew I I think in lists because I'm, you know, whatever, neurodivergent, autistic, ADHD, whatever you wanna call it, and this just, like, made sense to me. And, like, to do the the topics that I picked made sense to me because, like, it's kind of, yeah, split up between process, machine, or motion and stuff, and then, like, all the, you know, the software. And so between all of that, like, that is, like, the world that SCADA kind of it's the umbrella. SCADA is the umbrella, but, basically, anything that could connect to SCADA, the technologies behind that, you know, even safety is a thing. But yeah. So we have process safety and machine safety and vision systems and robotics as, you know, their own sections. But, yeah, it's it's it's all the things, and the speakers are from everywhere. Some of them are from Pakistan, Canada.
• 24:03
  They're almost all Americans, but they've all, yeah, diverse backgrounds. Yeah. They're not all engineers. Like, some of them are master electricians.
• 24:11
  Some of them are technicians. They're just they're just really good at one or two couple things, and, you know, they're willing to speak about that topic, and they're willing to, you know, have you pick their brain. And I did notice that there were some people that felt like they shouldn't or they felt intimidated. That was it. They felt intimidated by, like, the smarts. And I did want I did want a high density of, like, smarts, like, together. Like, I but I but I felt that when I was at, Josh Varghese's TraceRouteCon. And I felt I was like, holy shit. Like, there's a lot of smart people in this room. And, you know, and together, it just, like, freaks you out because you can feel that energy because, like and everybody's just, like, wants to do something or learn, and everyone is a builder. And they and we build stuff out there, and we are collaborators and builders and, like so concentrating that many smart people with that sense of community is, like, very powerful.
• 25:12
  And I felt that at his, and I wanted that for us. I I felt that. I was like, I want that for us. And we did it. We freaking did it. We we, you know, we filled our little room. We did it at Phoenix Contact, and people really liked it. But, like, the biggest compliment to me was Josh saying and and a couple other people basically saying two things. One is they've never had a family before, like, outside of their immediate, like like, wife and kids before they had OT Skatecon community. Because, like, we we do talk all the time, like, with each other and about anything, regular life and or automation, like, we mix it together. That and that the speakers, you know, when they're up there and they would freeze, and sometimes they would because they're not all professional speakers, that audience and other speakers would, like, lift them up and support them and just, you know, basically say, like, you got this. Like, it was really weird.
• 26:06
  Like, not very not typical for our industry because, you know, engineer types try to tear each other down usually. Especially, like, if one guy is saying something wrong, like, it's just kinda, like, the way to kinda just be like, no. You're wrong and, you know, this is the truth, whatever. And, like, it wasn't aggressive like that. It could have been. It could have been, and it wasn't, and it was just really, really cool, that camaraderie. So we definitely were able to build something that nobody else has anything like. And, you know, I'm proud of that, and I think it's just gonna continue to grow. More people will join, but, like, we had a ton of sponsors. We gave a ton of hardware away. I love giving hardware away. I love getting hardware, so I know what it's like to just be like, I like to play with controllers, and I'm gonna build a Texas sized PLC wall in my new house. But I know that I love that stuff, and, like, other engineers love that stuff. So we're gonna get sensors, PLCs, like, all kinds of automation hardware to give away to you guys, as raffle items. Like, there was so much stuff that everyone took something. Even if it was just, like, a really cool backpack that says sick on it or ABB, there were beautiful, like, swag items, like, and hats and just I mean, I that stuff has always made me excited. I've always liked certain brands. Like, I love Phoenix Contact. There's just it's really cool. It's really cool, and I still travels.
• 27:23
  You should you should come. Ashley still travels with her sick backpack.
• 27:26
  Aw. Yeah. It's a really good brand, apparently. Like, it's a backpack that she would have bought on her own if she had a choice. So that that was really cool. Yeah. Engineers like nice things. No. Just kidding.
• 27:39
  We like good snacks. To be given nice things. Right? Like Yeah. We're gonna do it again. So this was a lot of it was inspired by Josh.
• 27:46
  And Yeah. Like, props to Josh for putting on such a great training. And, I guess, being such a community minded kind of guy that people his customers and his people signed up for the training, started calling it traceroute con, and he ran with it. And it gave us the FOMO to wanna come. And even though I had no business sitting in a two day, network engineering training, he let me come anyway, and I felt that power of those people in the room. I mean, Caitlin Young was there, which we are trying to salvage the audio from her episode that we recorded last year. Typical automation ladies fashion, we got all kinds of issues with our recordings and stuff. And so Trevor over at Industry Sage Media is, bless his heart, trying to, make it something that people can listen to. So Courtney was one of our speakers, in fact, one of our most loved speakers at OT SkaterCon last year. In the in anonymous feedback of who people whose sessions people loved, I think yours was mentioned probably the most. And, Courtney, you're a fully experienced speaker at at conferences.
• 28:53
  How what was your, feeling about Otis Skatecon versus, like, other places where you've spoken before? Oh, it was, way easier to speak at OT Skatecon. The room the size of the room, I think this year would like, this last year was really good. And I think if we go a little bit larger, like, it's still a good sized crowd for We better make sure that the AV works this time though because we can't just shout at at a hundred people.
• 29:22
  We can shout at 300 people. See, I have It's funny. I laugh whenever people have a microphone failure because I'm just Well, luckily, one is more important than the other. I can I can also project?
• 29:33
  Yeah. I can pre like, I it doesn't matter. I mean, if it's a room full of a thousand people, we got a problem. But, you know, like, a room full of 200 people, I can scream at you for thirty minutes.
• 29:43
  You won't like me very much, but I can do it.
• 29:48
  I did find out something, though. It is very hard to have a full voice for karaoke. I started picking new karaoke songs.
• 29:55
  People all day. Like, I'm writing stuff down. I'm like, oh, yeah. I wanna sing this song. You know, public service. I can't sing this one. Like, it's too high pitched or low pitched. Like Yeah. Thankfully, it's supposed to be bad because that was definitely my worst karaoke performance ever. Partially my fault, partially. It was I We can do that. We can do that. Fine.
• 30:13
  You just couldn't hear the actual key. I didn't hear everybody so loud. Yeah. That you couldn't hear where you were in the song, which is hard. Like, butchering is part of it. Yeah. I did not I I I have not I really should get a list together and actually practice singing them and make sure I can because I seem to pick a new one every time and butcher it every time. I really don't think either of those things is a requirement, to be honest, for karaoke.
• 30:39
  Oh, that's true. And we can't let David Garcia go anywhere near the beginning anymore because he's a professional singer, and he's amazing. But that's another thing that we, you know, that Ali and I experienced at Trace RackCon that was new to us, which was going to karaoke with a bunch of engineers.
• 30:57
  And it certainly was in a once in a lifetime atmosphere. Everyone was like, nope. Cold open a a karaoke room where everyone is standing up against the wall and just looking at you awkwardly, totally smart and clearly not wanting to there was, like, no atmosphere whatsoever. And, of course, Ali just she, like, puts on the Spice Girls, and I have no choice but to join her, And we had the best time. Yeah. That was huge. So we made karaoke. You have to set the standard sometimes for the the the level of apps you're supposed to be giving right now. I was like, oh, you are getting way too many.
• 31:41
  The number needs to help me. Then, I have been to karaoke, a couple more times. So there was obviously OT State of Con karaoke last year. And then this oh, last year also at IMTS, Jim Mayer hosted a karaoke night that I went to. But because I was contracted to speak at IMTS and I was, again, talking all day and getting my voice already, I unfortunately could not participate in the karaoke. I've lip synced real hard, to try to be a hype woman for everybody else that was karaoke ing, and I danced. But I also got to experience and hear Megan Zimba do karaoke. She's unfortunately very good at it, and she does Unfortunately. When she sings.
• 32:27
  It's not unfortunate, but don't go first. Like, don't go first. Yeah. Not unfortunate for her. A few bad people go, and then you can go.
• 32:38
  And we are extremely lucky lucky enough to have both Megan and Jim attend to go to Skitticon this year. So karaoke will be lit. And then yeah.
• 32:50
  We've been Garcia. Yeah. And David Garcia who can sing Amy Winehouse, and, like, I I would've, like he's, like, her equal. It's insane. And then we found out, I I guess, after OTCatocon last year that, you know, we've become pretty good friends with some of these speakers and community members, but Frank Lam is in also has a band. He's put out an album. He's an extremely talented musician.
• 33:17
  Thermite too, and so does Scott. So we'll figure it out. Idea of having some sort of house band deal during dinner or just let people kinda Yeah. Jam sessions. It's an explosive. It's an explosive. Yeah.
• 33:28
  So yeah. It's And it blows up really cool colors with magnesium.
• 33:32
  That's why they, like, play with it. Gun shooting. They just they like to blow shit up in Texas. Work that into the official. We need to make it a week long event is what we need to do. Yeah. That's with the magnesium. Do you ever see Breaking Bad? That was thermite.
• 33:46
  What is that? That's blow stuff up. Let's go to Texas and have Texas serious.
• 33:54
  Oh, okay. Yeah. That's what I've seen. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's vector controls and automation. But yeah. Explode. Like, that's all the thermite videos I've seen. It's like, look.
• 34:05
  Yeah. Our host for this year are Vector Automation and Controls group. Vector Controls and Automation group. I don't sorry, Vector guys. I just Yeah. It's some combination of that. I think it's Vector Controls and Automation. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they have their headquarter or no. The their yeah. Their headquarters here in Houston is colocated with Endress Hauser, and they have a beautiful campus down South Of Houston that we visited. Ali and I and Anna, one of the my developers from Kopim at the time, who came from Poland. And we were generously just invited for a visit there by a gentleman named Larry Sims.
• 34:45
  And lo and behold, they have this huge training facility and just offered us to host the con. But I know, Ali, you were pretty stoked about that facility because it has a really big process training unit. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that? How cool is that for someone like you? Yeah. So, it has, I got, like, really impressed once in a cheese plant, in New Mexico because of all of the, like, stainless everywhere, and it was actually really clean.
• 35:13
  But yeah. So this is, like, a beautiful, like, you know, stainless piping everywhere and, like, those, like, blue Endress Hauser, you know, transmitter heads everywhere. So it's just, you know, just reeks of money. Like, I really like that's really beautiful. So that's do have their own little mini brewery too. They cut me off. Some brewery for I have, like, crappy cigar. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that was really cool. They gave us their own beer when we went there for a visit because they have a little They're processed people. Set up on-site.
• 35:42
  Yeah. Yeah. They are. And so that's pretty exciting. And then they turned out to be a rep for Phoenix Contact. So Phoenix Contact friends, are still invited. Everybody's invited. Here's the thing. So OT Skatecon is totally vendor agnostic, but we appreciate so it was Josh's connection that he thought, hey. Maybe Phoenix Contact would wanna offer you a location because we were looking at like, I was looking for conference places. I found this conference place by the airport that I thought would be kinda nice, but they turned out to have a scheduling conflict with us. And so the idea of, like, being at a vendor experience center is something new for a conference like this. And we I think we love I loved it. I loved having the demos, having the technology, like, on the wall behind us while we were doing our thing. I think it adds another dimension that you don't get in a hotel ballroom or whatever, like these just generic places that we go to. It is constraining in size. Right? So I don't think we're ever gonna be able to have, like, 600 person conference or a thousand person conference in, like, a place like that. But at the same time, OTCatecon isn't about that. It's, like, more quality over quantity anyway. But what I wanted to say about that is it has been interesting because some sponsors don't wanna sponsor us because we're at their competitor's location, which I just think is kind of hilarious because I'm like, in what other instance do you get a chance to plaster your logo all over your competitor's building? Like, how do you not see that as an opportunity?
• 37:12
  Hello? And maybe that's just maybe that's just my, like, abundance mindset versus the scarcity mindset of, like, oh, no. I I you know, there's conflict here. But I I thought that was kinda funny.
• 37:23
  And so I'm sorry to help the all the sponsors that are missing out because you're scared of your competition. We're not scared.
• 37:31
  I think there's Yeah. You shouldn't be either, but gained. Do you, boo.
• 37:34
  Yeah. Yeah. You do you and you we do us, and we're not for everyone.
• 37:38
  That's for sure, both the show and the con and everything else.
• 37:41
  Right? No. We're not. And that's okay. We did go to another community conference earlier this year, called the prove it conference, which is run by a totally different community that's been around longer than we have and is more formal and official. And that was a really interesting experience to kinda come into somebody else's community. And even though They swear as much as we do.
• 38:03
  Conference and things. Yeah. They swear more than we do.
• 38:07
  They were. There was a lot of f bombs, and I felt comfortable. I felt I felt comfortable in that too. That.
• 38:15
  Ladies, junior board of directors, if you're listening to this, we apologize for the occasional adult language in this show. We do wanna be good role models.
• 38:23
  But I think one of the things that you learn is, like, you know, there there's application for everything. So as you get older, you can choose to maybe apply these words or not. I can choose where to apply. But they're not for they're not for children. Yeah. But that was also I I was surprised at how much I felt like there was just this independent of the organizers even, there was a huge community feeling to all the people buzzing around the floor meeting each other that have been part of some online community before they got a chance to get together and put their heads together and put make solutions together and, you know, that sort of stuff. It was totally different from our concept of a conference. It the vendors are actually there to present their solutions.
• 39:07
  Whereas at OT Skatecon, we want the vendors to provide support and their tech, but not come present stuff because the presenters are really the doers of the thing, not the sellers of the thing. But that doesn't mean there isn't value in something. And I I really appreciated that as a new format of an industry conference as well is to hold the presenters if there are going to be vendors to some sort of standards of what they present, the transparency and what they're, you know, putting together. They all kind of worked on a specific solution set, and they had guidelines of what they had to put together.
• 39:40
  But the one thing that I that, you know, kind of, I guess, did stand in contrast is one of the vendors one of the speakers didn't follow the rules, and they got put down pretty heavily. It was brutal. You know, I feel like we would be disapproving of somebody not following the rules at our conference too, but I I feel like we would have been slightly nicer about it maybe. Yeah. They made it clear. Who is extremely important in that moment. Yeah. Yeah. But I really appreciated what they did, and I think we'll go again next year. And I think, you know, any community that authentically stands by what they're about and put something together that is for them and by them, I I think is is a huge kind of moment in our industry right now for people to do not just from, you know, the top down kinda commercially. You know, we're trying to sell the best tech.
• 40:33
  It's like and and people learning in isolation and just through paid classes, through their employers. Right? There's so much more opportunity now for people to enrich themselves and their careers and their connections independently of what their job has to offer or maybe some of what what these big shows, are doing. So, anyway, I think that's shows that are up on a tangent. Digital transformation, like, conferences? Because I think that is, like, the digital transformation conference.
• 40:59
  Yeah. I don't think Yeah. It probably is. I think there's one, that we were potentially going to participate in as a media partner last year called m x dot zero or something of that nature. And they I think the the particular conference that we were gonna be part of, they actually didn't have enough participation, so they canceled, but they're doing it again this year. And I believe that they're focused on digital transformation, but it's a much smaller conference, and it is a different format. It's like there's only solutions providers that are presenting, and then the attendees are all end user manufacturers, I believe. So it it just probably withdraw any comments too because in automation robotics, like, I'm there looking for conferences trying to find them and stuff. And in that, I'm just like, I don't know. If it hasn't come across me, then I don't know of it really.
• 41:47
  Yeah. But we so, Courtney, you're heading to Boston soon for a robotics summit. Right? Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing up there? So it's it's robotics summit. I'm going mostly because, mass robotics, is over there, and I really actually just enjoy being present in that place even if just to drink coffee because it's a lot of creative energy. Yep.
• 42:14
  And I just really like the sense of community they have there. And they're basically like a robotics startup company incubator.
• 42:22
  So they end up using, like, community resources. It's almost like a you know, the robotics version of, like, doing HR with a PEO where you're like, oh, I have the Oh, okay. Almost like the, you know, the power of a big, big company, you know, at a start up, but they get to kinda take advantage of, you know, the pool of the community pool of resources over there. And I think what they've done is a cool thing. So I just like going over there to, be present. And then robotics summit is it it looks like it's gonna be cool. It's my first time going.
• 42:52
  I know last year, Megan actually interviewed, Joyce, one of the cofounders over there. Oh, okay. It was a it was a cool interview. And at that time, I don't remember what I had going on, but I couldn't go.
• 43:07
  And it really gave me some FOMO, and I'm actually glad.
• 43:11
  I also had a I also had a conflict. Like, there there was a different conference or something at the exact time. Another conference, I think. Think. I can't remember now what it was, but I had some assembly show self possibly?
• 43:23
  Because I feel like we were in Nashville. It might have been. I can't remember because I had another something I had already, like, financially committed to and bought tickets to and everything, and I just couldn't do it.
• 43:34
  Yeah. And I can't So, I mean, there are too many shows in a year to attend them all for sure, and we understand that. And I think we probably go to more more of them than most people would be able to, because we get the opportunity to do stuff.
• 43:48
  Though. I'm always like, oh, I really wanted to see that. Yeah.
• 43:52
  But at the same time, you also wanna be home with your kids sometimes. Yeah.
• 43:56
  And I struggle a lot with that. Right? Like, I want I can't wait till they're old enough to watch shows. They won't care. They won't want to. But I okay. I went to my first trade show when I was in middle school, I think, with my dad. So my dad used to go to a seafood show in Boston that happened to coincide with our spring break most of the time. Nice. And so one year, the whole family went up there for spring break, and it was, like, snowing. And I got to walk the seafood show floor for a little bit, and I loved it. I mean, it was just super cool to see. We got swag, and we got this one, like, knife that I remember we just had in our kitchen for forever after that. It was because it's like fish processing. They gave away some sort of, you know, fish knife.
• 44:40
  So Oh, that sounds like fun. But I do remember that that trip, as long along with a business trip that I was able to take with my dad to Boston at a separate occasion when I was a little bit older, really played a big part, I think, in me realizing that I wanted to do some sort of customer facing type role where I got a chance to do that kind of stuff, go have business meetings with people, go to trade shows. So I think it planted a bit of a seed for me. And, you know, may or may not do that for our kids, but I'm also excited about the opportunity to bring my kids to these things, which is why also I'm super excited that the junior board of directors are coming to automate this year, and we get to meet you guys in person. If you're listening, I don't expect that you listen to every episode of ours. But if they are listening, Hank, Prueem's daughter is up in Canada.
• 45:32
  We're stoked to meet you, and we're gonna have some cool surprise stuff to do.
• 45:36
  So if you are going to be at Automate, you should also come find us. Come see us. Wintech has a booth, and I think that's kind of gonna be maybe the anchor place where you may be able to find us, when we're not in the Automate live studio.
• 45:51
  And then Ali and Courtney, I'm sure, will be out and about more on the show floor, checking stuff out. Maybe we can do some interviews in booths or we're still figuring out exactly what our game plan is aside from our previously sort of, the things we've committed to, which is doing interviews in the automate live, studio as well as my exhibitor role.
• 46:13
  And then this year, I am also, for the first time ever, going to be, participating in educator day, which I think is on Tuesday. There's a whole day program for educators.
• 46:24
  And we're gonna be meeting up with Danny Murphy, who won a three educator of the year award last year. He's a professor at the Central Virginia Community College. If you don't know him, and haven't followed him on LinkedIn, I highly suggest you do. He has great video content from his classes. Right now, he's having them his robotics students used AI to create hot sauce recipes that then he had the culinary students make the hot sauce, and then he's having the, university faculty take the hot sauce to determine, like, which who's the winner. And then we probably have a hot sauce related automation project coming into the works after this whole section of it.
• 47:09
  So that's pretty exciting. And, yeah, I do want to thank Automate for sponsoring automation.
• 47:21
  We should. I part of me when when Sticker Mule offered, like, they they sell white labeled hot sauce, I was like, we could do this.
• 47:28
  That's just not my favorite hot sauce. It's too sweet, my opinion. So, yeah, we should we should make our own at some point. I think, so I I I will take the militiam hot sauce from, Drew Horsley and white label that because that is so far my favorite hot sauce that I've ever had, and it's made by somebody in our industry. He's a recruiter. He's not gonna be at Automate this year, unfortunately, but he if you're lucky enough to be going to ICC this year, the inductive community conference, he will be there. He will have hot sauce. You should go find him and get that hot sauce. Hi, Ari.
• 48:00
  Oh, we had a little visitor there. That's okay. So I think we're coming up on time. We've been recording for about close to an hour.
• 48:10
  We're waving at Courtney's daughter there, if you're listening to this on the audio. Thank you for your patience, Ari, while we do stuff like this. We appreciate you letting us hang out with your mom. Thanks, Ari. So I guess yeah, we should we should wrap this up. Anything else you guys feel like our audience should know or we should catch them up on or anything that they should be looking forward to, that you guys are thinking about that I haven't droned on about already? Nope. I think, you're just gonna start getting shown UNO cards here.
• 48:40
  UNO. Alright. One of my favorite things Ari. Playing card game. This is my boyfriend, Ari. I'm looking forward to you visiting us in Houston, Ari, and we can play some UNO together. Oh, yes. We're gonna visit. It's gonna filter you out, honey. She can't find the right spot. Okay.
• 48:58
  So if you're if you're listening on the audio podcast, Ari is showing some UNO cards, but because, Courtney has a virtual background, she's kinda going in and out. And okay. That is a virtual background provided by who? I don't how how do you get that on here when we're on StreamYard? Is it provided by StreamYard, I guess? I see. Seen that on Zoom meetings or Yeah. You go into settings under virtual background.
• 49:24
  I threw it on there one episode, and it has been on ever since.
• 49:28
  Okay. So I it's it's it's StreamYard, but it's this it's this house with, like, a a stone fireplace and a piano. And the first time I saw that version in the background, it was Dave Griffith from the manufacturing hub network show with Dave and Vlad. And I thought that he said that it was somewhere that he had been before and that that was hit, like, a picture, and I misunderstood it or something. But then now every time I see somebody use that background, I'm like, oh, you're at Dave's house. Yeah. That's awesome. That's so funny. We had two at one point, we had two people on the same screen with the same background. I was like, this is tripping you out. You're not in the same house, but you look like you are. Oh, shit.
• 50:14
  So, Dave, are you in The Bahamas?
• 50:17
  Yeah. You're you're at Dave's house a lot. Fully unfiltered.
• 50:22
  I know. Everybody's at Dave's house all the time. All these strangers.
• 50:26
  Dave's gotta be the best host ever. We do appreciate our friends, that make content. It's hard.
• 50:33
  It's not easy all the time. It is fun, but it's a lot of work. And so I think, I've I've gained a bigger appreciation for everybody in our industry that has a you know, that makes the effort to make content because it's not super lucrative, and there's a lot of work.
• 50:52
  And so I would encourage you, if you're not already, check out Manufacturing Hub with Dave and Vlad and, Mavens of Manufacturing with Megan Zemba, and there's a bunch of other cool people making content in the industry. And as we've become, you know, closer with them so Vlad is a speaker at OT Skatecon this year, which we're stoked to have him coming all the way from Canada. Like, he's not the only one. Brandon Peters, also comes from Canada to to come.
• 51:18
  And we got lucky and met Vlad up in when we went to go visit Azerill's headquarters in Minnesota, and we got to go to the Mall Of America and get soaked on the log ride who and we just had a demo with CJ, the engineer that got so soaked that he had to go buy new clothes literally after we went on that ride. We did a demo on the live, on on LinkedIn live yesterday of some of their technology, which is really cool. Vlad happened to be in town, and he came to the mall, and he had dinner with us. And it's really cool because, like, a lot of us in this industry travel, and it's nice to be able to, like, be in a new city, maybe working a commissioning job or, you know, doing some client work, and you're like, hey. You're in town. You're in town. Oh, let's meet up and have dinner. And you're gonna meet those types of people if you come to OJ Skater Con, the kind that will meet up with you for dinner if you're in town. We also met I I was just in Birmingham, Alabama couple days ago, had, breakfast with the one on our speakers, Patrick Bunn. And, yeah. So we would love to meet you for breakfast or lunch or dinner. So if you're a listener, if you're part of our community, DM us or something.
• 52:27
  Let's be friends, and we wanna hang out. So with that, thank you so much for being part of our community. Thank you so much for listening to the show. If you have any feedback for us, you can send us messages on our website. It's automationladies.io. And please try to get your tickets to OT Skatecon before they sell out. We are only admitting a hundred people, and we're about 70% sold out. And the website for that to get tickets is www.0tskada.com.
• 52:57
  And tickets are still on sale, and we'd love to see you. We'd love to meet you. And if you're not gonna be at OT Skatecon, but you're gonna be at Automate, or Robotics Expo up in Boston, And we have several other shows that we're probably gonna be going to this year. Please come, you know, meet up with us.
• 53:15
  We love it when we meet listeners of the show. Although it does feel a little weird that, you know, you have heard us, and you may feel like you know us and we don't know you. But trust me, we wanna know you.
• 53:26
  So, yeah, that that's that's all I got, I think. So thank you, guys.
• 53:30
  It's nice to catch up, and I look forward to talking to lots of cool people this season. And if you guys wanna be guests on the show, also hit us up for that. You can send us an email at hello@automationladies.io.
• 53:44
  Alrighty. With that, see you next time.
• 53:48
  Bye.