SPS Show – Nurnberg

SPS-Show-Nurnberg
Yes, it’s my fault. I arrived home from SPS 2009 a week or so ago and I still haven’t recapped the show in my blog. I’ve got so much to say about it, but I brought home a pretty massive sinus infection from Germany that has kept me down and out until now. If you’ve been on a plane with any kind of congestion you know how miserable that was. I literally got home, walked into the house and collapsed on my bed without even taking off my coat. What I forgot to do was to take the phone off the hook. My “restful” sleep was interrupted by about 10 phone calls.

I actually developed my sinus infection right there in Nurnberg though not at the show. On Wednesday I decided that a good 20 to 25 minute run through the old town would be fun, so off I went. At home, you see, I run up and down “kettles”. For those of you who are not from Wisconsin – those are hills made by glaciers. I live in the midst of hundreds of them. When I run the next hill is always a short distance away. It’s agonizing but a really good workout.

In Nurnberg there are no hills. Just level ground with beautiful thousand year old castles and eight hundred year old restaurants. It was a fabulous morning run. Right up until I got lost. And I mean not just lost, but really lost. So there I am drenched with sweat, freezing in 40 degree weather, standing on a street corner in Germany trying to figure out if I go forward, backward, left, right or just stand there until someone comes along that will speak English. Well, 45 minutes later, I’m back at the hotel with my Sinus’ preparing for all out war with my head.

Sinus infections are the kind of thing that hit you hard, and keep you down for a while. I was able to answer a few emails but just didn’t have the energy to do much of anything else. Today, it’s a week later and I am just starting to get my old energy back. I even went for a bit of a run yesterday to prove I still had it in me.

Here are my top surprises of the show. I will go through them in detail in the next blog:

  1. It’s HUGE – Eleven odd shaped halls with hundreds and hundreds of vendors
  2. Their big into food. I’m talking full blown restaurants right there in their tradeshow booths.
  3. A lot of Germans haven’t really mastered English – that was a surprise to me
  4. Lot’s of Ethernet and not much CAN. In fact, a lot of EtherNet/IP – as much as Profinet IO, which surprised me.
  5. Only a little wireless
  6. Lot’s of students
  7. Few Women
  8. European Loyalty