The Invite Only Event for Plant,
Digital and Operations Leaders
May 6-7, 2025
| Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort, Austin, TX
Main Conference Day 1
7:30 am - 8:00 am
Registration & Coffee
8:00 am - 8:05 am
Welcome From Conference Director
8:05 am - 8:10 am
Chair’s Opening Remarks
8:10 am - 8:40 am
Opening Keynote Panel: Integrating Connected Worker Technologies into your Plant to Drive Sustained, Future-Focused Growth
Darwin Jebha -
Vice President & Chief Information Officer,
Thermon Inc
Soma Venkat - Chief Information Officer, Cooper Standard
Walter Pesenti - Vice President of Manufacturing Excellence, NovaChem
Joe Carroll - Chief Information Officer & Head of Cybersecurity, CITGO
Innovative connected worker solutions can streamline communication, enhance collaboration, and boost productivity across your plant operations. In this opening panel, thought leaders from Novachem, Cooper Standard, and Thermon Inc. will share insights on how this technology can achieve unprecedented operational visibility and drive data-driven decisions for massive productivity gains and continuous improvement.
- Identifying the specific business challenges that can be solved by connected worker solutions
- Clearly defining the objectives for connected worker technologies; improving efficiency, enhancing safety or boosting worker engagement
- Assessing technical and cultural readiness for large scale digital transformation
- Piloting projects to test technology and assess potential ROI
8:40 am - 9:10 am
Case Study: Bridging the Gap between Engineering and Operations: Using Data Management Solutions to Break down Silos and Connect Teams with Real-time Insights
- Creating a centralized data foundation to deploy and scale operational excellence
- Investing in a data management solution to streamline the process of integration, cleansing and governance
- Connecting your existing systems with data models, AI, and machine learning to uncover valuable insights
- Developing consolidated views of critical operations for condition monitoring and advanced analytics
9:10 am - 9:40 am
Keynote Presentation: Leveraging a Bottom-up, Shop Floor Approach to Uncover Process Improvements and Gain Competitive Advantage
Joanna C. Cooper -
General Manager,
Daimler Truck North America
y adopting a bottom-up approach to digital transformation projects you can harness the insights and creativity of your employees and identify process improvements across your operations. This approach fosters buy-in and critically drives user adoption. In this presentation, discover how Daimler successfully engaged their employees to leverage their knowledge and drive project delivery. Join Joanna’s to learn how to:
- Engage frontline workers in identifying opportunities for improvement and leverage their insights to gain a competitive edge
- Use pilot projects to test connected worker technologies in specific areas and demonstrate the benefits to end users
- Establish a culture of continuous improvement and celebrate frontline workers' contributions to motivate ongoing participation and innovation
- Build momentum and encourage user adoption by communicating success stories
9:40 am - 10:10 am
Networking Break
10:10 am - 10:40 am
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:10 am - 10:40 am
THINK TANK: Selling the Business Case and Quantifying ROI for Connected Worker Technologies - Getting Buy-in From the Board
JT Vaughan -
Vice President Applications & Integrations,
Denali
Connected worker digital transformation projects are a costly investment and selling the business case to your board can be a difficult process. Join this interactive think tank led by Denali to share challenges and brainstorm strategies to successfully drive investment in connected worker technologies.
10:40 am - 11:10 am
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
10:40 am - 11:10 am
THINK TANK: Fostering a Culture of Innovation for Seamless Digital Transformation
Mark Prosser -
Industrial Mobility Advisor & Digital Manufacturing Lead,
ExxonMobil
Creating a culture of innovation is essential for the successful implementation and adoption of any new digital initiative. Lead by example, embrace new technology and encourage experimentation across your workforce. Inspire your employees to innovate new ideas by providing the autonomy to explore and giving them the ownership of projects. Join this interactive think tank to share challenges and success stories with your peers on creating a culture of innovation that drives a successful digital transformation.
11:10 am - 11:40 am
CASE STUDY: Boost Uptime and Productivity with AI-Powered Asset Management for Scalable Predictive Monitoring of Complex Assets
- Leveraging AI to unify data from operational and engineering operations and drive predictive analytics
- Speeding up risk mitigation and troubleshooting for front line workers with generative AI insights
- Receiving advance warning of downtime risks through advanced machine learning models
- Driving efficient decision making with autogenerated failure mode identification and root case analysis
11:40 am - 12:10 pm
KEYNOTE PANEL: Mitigating the Risks and Overcoming the Challenges of Connected Worker Project Delivery
Jan Shumate -
Director, Worldwide Engineering & Construction Solutions and Automation Innovation Center of Excellence,
Eastman Chemical Company
John Foster - Head of Digital Enablement and Productivty, bp
Irlam Aragao - Industrial Director North East Operations, Braskem
Mark Bohn - Vice President, Transformation and Enterprise Portfolio Management, Western Midstream
Studies show that a significant number of digital transformation projects fail to achieve their projected ROI due to issues such as integration complexity and user adoption. Join digital leaders from Eastman and bp as they share the challenges they faced during connected worker project delivery, and the strategies employed to ensure success:
- Getting the required commitment and resources for successful project delivery
- Engaging your employees and understanding how they work, to identify transformation opportunities and drive user adoption
- Dealing with costly failed pilots and delivery pain points during your implementation journey
- Retaining credibility with both senior leadership and end users, during project execution challenges and rising costs
Jan Shumate
Director, Worldwide Engineering & Construction Solutions and Automation Innovation Center of ExcellenceEastman Chemical Company
Mark Bohn
Vice President, Transformation and Enterprise Portfolio ManagementWestern Midstream
12:10 pm - 1:10 pm
Networking Lunch
1:10 pm - 2:40 pm
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
1:10 pm - 1:40 pm
THINK TANK: Harnessing GEN AI to Unlock Significant Operational Benefits: Which Use Cases Will Change the Game?
Many companies believe that GEN AI has the potential to significantly transform their operations by reducing downtime, improving output, realizing cost savings and enhancing user experience. Join this discussion to benchmark potential AI use cases, the implementation challenges they present and how to navigate them for substantial impact.
1:40 pm - 2:10 pm
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
1:40 pm - 2:10 pm
THINK TANK: Mastering Change Management: Strategies for Successful Connected Worker Project Delivery
Gary Dunbar -
Director of Digital Engineering,
ENGIE
Did you know that 70% of organizational transformation efforts fail? However, projects with strong change management are six times more likely to succeed. Join us to discuss how to build a change management strategy that supports project delivery. Plus share the initiatives and the challenges you’ve faced during project delivery that could have been mitigated with a solid change management structure.
2:10 pm - 2:55 pm
EXECUTIVE BOARDROOMS
Join these highly collaborative Executive Boardrooms with a select group of peers facing similar challenges. Like a traditional workshop, just slightly shorter, each session will kick off with a 15-20 min presentation of a success story from a digital transformation project, followed by time to dive into interactive discussions and contextualize your new learnings. This is a prime opportunity to share your Connected Worker insights, troubles, advice, and everything in-between!
Join these highly collaborative Executive Boardrooms with a select group of peers facing similar challenges. Like a traditional workshop, just slightly shorter, each session will kick off with a 15-20 min presentation of a success story from a digital transformation project, followed by time to dive into interactive discussions and contextualize your new learnings. This is a prime opportunity to share your Connected Worker insights, troubles, advice, and everything in-between!
EXECUTIVE BOARDROOM
2:10 pm - 2:55 pm TOPIC A: Using Digital Twins of Assets, Equipment, and Workflows to Boost Operational Efficiency, Cut Costs, Minimize Risks, and Predict Machine Failures before they OccurThis executive boardroom will discuss how you can reimagine business intelligence with digital twins to generate actionable insights across your assets and forecast potential scenarios for remote monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Discussion areas include:
- Examining how digital twins can extract maximum performance and reliability from assets
- Monitoring asset health and performance in real time to identify anomalies and drive proactive responses
- Using AI predictive analytics to identify unexpected asset behaviour
- Connecting information to frontline workers for improved incident response time
Join these highly collaborative Executive Boardrooms with a select group of peers facing similar challenges. Like a traditional workshop, just slightly shorter, each session will kick off with a 15-20 min presentation of a success story from a digital transformation project, followed by time to dive into interactive discussions and contextualize your new learnings. This is a prime opportunity to share your Connected Worker insights, troubles, advice, and everything in-between!
EXECUTIVE BOARDROOM
2:10 pm - 2:55 pm TOPIC B: Implementing Business Intelligence Platforms to Connect the Right People to the Right Data, driving Agility and Data-Driven Decision MakingThis executive boardroom will explore the business intelligence platforms that can help you make data-driven decision informed by real-time insights, data analytics and AI to increase profitability and drive successful outcomes across the business.
Discussion areas include:
- Implementing a data fabric so that business intelligence platforms can connect the right people to the right data for enhanced frontline decision making
- Integrating business analytics to enable data-driven decisions that are informed by real-time insights
- Empowering business users with AI driven self-service analytics to predict outcomes
- Automating and integrating business planning across your organization
Join these highly collaborative Executive Boardrooms with a select group of peers facing similar challenges. Like a traditional workshop, just slightly shorter, each session will kick off with a 15-20 min presentation of a success story from a digital transformation project, followed by time to dive into interactive discussions and contextualize your new learnings. This is a prime opportunity to share your Connected Worker insights, troubles, advice, and everything in-between!
EXECUTIVE BOARDROOM
2:10 pm - 2:55 pm TOPIC C: Using IIoT-Enabled Machines to Connect your Operations, Devices and Machines for Seamless Data Collection and Production OptimizationThis executive boardroom will explore how connecting machines and data management in smart factories can transform operational data into actionable insights for better business decisions and process improvements.
Discussion areas include:
- Examining the devices that can enable the automation, visibility and analysis of precise data
- Building robust cyber security into your IIoT
- Using data from the shop floor to identify problems and inefficiencies faster and drive predictive maintenance capability across your plant
- Breaking down data siloes and centralizing knowledge to standardize processes to drive continuous improvement
2:55 pm - 3:25 pm
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: Navigating Business Transformation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Success
Stephan Blasilli -
Head of Business Process Excellence,
EDP
Explore the transformative potential within the energy industry and discuss common reasons why most transformation initiatives fail.
This presentation will examine the four step-transformation approach, including:
- Setting goals upfront by understanding the business problem and future state and identifying quick wins to drive early momentum
- Analyzing the process, examining work patterns (repetitive versus unstructured) with the goal to leverage technology effectively
- Selecting the right technology that allows for speed and flexibility to empower employees and drive innovation
- Engaging with employees by fostering a culture of continuous improvement through agile practices like MVPs, rapid adaptation, and actionable metrics
3:25 pm - 3:55 pm
NETWORKING BREAK
3:55 pm - 4:25 pm
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
3:55 pm - 4:25 pm
CHAMPAGNE THINK TANK: Enhancing Workforce Mobility and Asset Performance with Connected Worker Platforms
Join our Champagne Think Tank to explore how connected worker platforms can optimize data, enhance workforce mobility, and improve processes and performance in asset-heavy industries. Discuss challenges and share solutions with peers to unlock critical data, increase collaboration, and drive operational performance.
4:25 pm - 4:55 pm
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS
4:25 pm - 4:55 pm
CHAMPAGNE THINK TANK: Empowering Frontline Workers with Visual, Contextual, Digital Work Instructions to Boost Productivity and Foster Continuous Learning
Digital work instructions can improve employee engagement and productivity, bridge the knowledge gap across the organization, and enhance efficiency, safety, and consistency by providing real-time, accessible, and standardized procedures. Join this think tank and enjoy a glass of champagne as you discuss how to connect your workforce to the critical information they need to do their jobs more efficiently and productively.
4:55 pm - 5:45 pm
WORKSHOP: AI Unlocked: Explore, Experience, Execute
Hao Dinh -
Vice President of Technology,
Enpro
Join this interactive workshop to discover what AI is, experience its capabilities firsthand, and learn practical tools for deploying AI in real-world scenarios. Through a series of engaging activities Hao Dinh will make AI approachable, plus empower you with the knowledge and best practice required to confidently and responsibly integrate AI into your business operations.
Key takeaways include:
- Understanding AI Basics: Gain a clear understanding of what AI is, its key concepts, and how it works in various applications
- Experience: Explore AI capabilities through interactive activities, seeing its potential in action
- Best Practice: Learn practical steps for successfully implementing AI solutions. Examples using Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce and in-house AI deployments will be discussed
