Whether you're sailing around the globe, cruising miles of tradeshow aisles, or running a manufacturing business, ease of navigation is crucial to survival and success. So, in response to input from former visitors to National Industrial Automation Show (NIAS) and National Manufacturing Week (NMW), organizer Reed Exhibition Co. (Norwalk, Conn.) has made some adjustments to improve this year's experience.

The 2001 edition of the four-part event will be more closely organized around related product areas, and will ensure visitors know they can move freely among all four areas. In fact, the whole NMW 2001 event will emphasize its status as a unified show, instead of focusing on its four component areas, namely NIAS, National Design Engineering, National Plant Engineering MRO & Management, and National Industrial Enterprise IT.

NIAS is scheduled to include more than 250 exhibitors in 120,000 ft²of exhibit space. Last year's event drew more than 15,000 engineers and technical professionals representing 21 process and discrete sectors of the $150-billion automation and control market.

Collectively, NMW is expected to include more than 2,000 exhibitors in 575,000 ft² of space. Last year's show drew nearly 56,000 attendees.

One of the most significant new features at NMW 2001 will be the Engineering Career Expo, presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME, New York, N.Y.). Located in the grand ballroom at McCormick Place's south building, Career Expo will include representatives from 100 firms, and will allow NMW visitors to:

• Meet recruiters and hiring managers;
• Consider thousands of engineering job openings;
• Submit resumes; and
• Learn what skills and capabilities potential employers are seeking, which can aid future job searches.

Several new and revamped pavilions and halls will highlight NMW 2001. These concentrated technology areas include:

• Open Control Architecture (OCA)—sponsored by Lutze Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.), OCA pavilion unites all fieldbus supplier technologies for networking control components that conform to an open standard. It will demonstrate how users can reduce costs with open architecture-based hardware and software;
• Motion Hall—newly relocated for maximum exposure on the main floor of McCormick Place's north building, Motion Hall showcases solutions and products from more than 100 motion, power transmission, electromechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, and control system suppliers;
• Microsoft Partners—includes Microsoft-compatible manufacturing applications from independent software and service providers.

This year's conference includes 52 targeted sessions in six tracks. ASME and NMW's overall sponsor, the National Association of Manufacturers (Washington, D.C.), are presenting three of the six tracks. The six tracks are:

• Automation & Control—case studies and discussions on system integration and PC-based automation;
• E-Tooling Manufacturing—presentations on e-commerce transformations, e-marketing tools, and supply-chain management; (See "Cyperpage" for more details.)
• Plant Engineering—topics include achieving zero maintenance downtime, technical management tools, and return-to-work solutions;
• E-Business for Manufacturers—presentations and discussions on B2B solutions, supply-chain technologies, and the e-commerce revolution;
• Design Engineering—sessions focus on risk assessment, property rights, and personal finance for engineers; and
• Design for Manufacturing—topics include design for machining, conceptual design, and product design.

Besides the six tracks, the conference will include presentations by Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wa.) on Microsoft.NET, a new, Internet-based operating system designed to free users from the artificial constraints of computer hardware and corporate servers. William Fong, Microsoft's worldwide manufacturing industry manager, will present four sessions on Microsoft.NET for Manufacturing:

• Plant Operations—web enabling process manufacturing and enabling end-to-end integration;
• Automation & Control—web enabling discrete manufacturing to become faster, leaner, and more flexible;
• E-Business Supply Chain Agility—integrating, orchestrating, and collaborating to achieve optimal results; and
• Design Engineering & Collaborative Design—designing better products and bringing them to market faster.

Also, the day before NMW begins, winners of Control Engineering's Editors' Choice Awards will be announced and receive their awards at an invitation-only ceremony on March 4 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Chicago. (See the winners on March 5 at www.controleng.com.)

For more suppliers, go to www.controleng.com/buyersguide; for more information go online at www.controleng.com/freeinfo.

• Company Website (booth#)
• ASME www.asme.org
• Baldor Electric www.baldor.com (2212, 6533)
• Banner Engineering www.baneng.com (5157)
• Cognex Corp. www.cognex.com (4515)
• Crossbow Technology www.xbow.com (4645)
• Danaher Controls www.dancon.com (620)
• InterlinkBT www.interlinkbt.com (5157)
• Lutze www.lutze.com/LutzeUSA (5350)
• Microsoft www.microsoft.com/net (5511)
• NAM www.nam.org (5921)
• Olflex www.olflex.com (4311, 4411)
• Omron Electronics www.omron.com (4511)
• Pepperl+Fuchs www.us.pepperl-fuchs.com (4907)
• Phoenix Contact www.phoenixcon.com (4500)
• Turck Inc. www.turck.com (5157)
• Weidmuller www.weidmuller.com (4926)