Podcasts about oems

*the guys apologize in advance for less-than-ideal backup audio that only lasts until 41:57. But it's a fun discussion and worth listening until they swap to primary audio! Thanks for your understanding!* Covering ten OEMs for ‘Peak INFINITI - Lucid,' the guys utilize two different strategies of evaluating the most notable cars from each manufacturer. They generate ideas for Chris D. In West VA, who wants a long term car and needs to keep the parents happy. Then, David is a 100% car enthusiast who lives in NY, but loves country back roads too. He only wants to add quirky, unique and fun to the fleet - what should he buy next? Audio-only MP3 is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and 10 other platforms. Look for us on Tuesdays if you'd like to watch us debate, disagree and then go drive again! 00:00 - Intro 00:12 - Lotus For Me?!? What's That? 6:56 - Hyundai Ioniq 6 Sales Discontinued In U.S. 8:47 - Peak Car (INFINITI - Lucid) 1:14:17 - EDD + HOD Events And Adventures 2026 1:16:55 - Car Debate #1: Pleasing The Parents 1:30:02 - Car Debate #2: Only Add More! Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe to our two YouTube channels. Write to us your Topic Tuesdays, Car Conclusions and those great Car Debates at everydaydrivertv@gmail.com or everydaydriver.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host: Annik Sobing Guests: Jennifer Varney (Volvo Group), Penny Chen (PAX) Recorded at: ICPA Conference, San Antonio, TX Published: March 2026 Length: ~25 minutes Presented by: Global Training Center AI Meets Trade Compliance: From Auto Supply Chains to AI Live from ICPA San Antonio, Annik sits down with Jennifer from Volvo Group and Penny from PAX for an all‑women, International Women's Day‑timed conversation about how AI is actually being used in trade compliance today—far beyond the buzzwords. They explore the reality of AI inside a massively complex automotive supply chain, how duty drawback is being reimagined with AI, and what trade teams should think about before buying or building any tools.​ What You'll Learn in This Episode Session highlights from ICPA Jennifer: Practical implementation of AI to support customs clearance at the enterprise level—how one company uses AI to survive an “ever‑changing and incredibly volatile” trade landscape. Penny: A “beginner‑friendly” intro to general AI tools, how large language models work, and how trade compliance leaders can evaluate AI quality and fit.​ The automotive reality: 1,000+ policy changes and thousands of parts In just the last year, there have been 1,000+ trade policy changes worldwide, affecting about 5 trillion dollars in spend. Most of the real impact comes from trade barrier changes, not facilitation measures. A single vehicle can have 2,000–3,000 parts sourced from thousands of suppliers globally, some in‑house, some external. New demands around Section 232 (steel/aluminum/copper), forced labor, EUDR, connected vehicle rules, dual‑use, etc. mean OEMs must know their supply base down to raw material origin and processing, sometimes 5–6 tiers deep.​ Why human-only workflows can't keep up Many tier‑1 suppliers don't even have the data OEMs now must report, or consider it proprietary. Trade teams are drowning in documentation, entry creation, and ever‑changing regulatory demands—falling behind risks blocked shipments and massive cost. Jennifer's view: AI is less about replacing people and more about augmenting limited resources before they're “buried under all of the legislative changes.”​ Where AI fits in (and where it doesn't) Example use case: consolidating multiple documents (PO, invoice, BL, shipping manifest) to build a single 7501—AI reads different formats, extracts the right fields, and populates data so humans review instead of retyping. Penny's rule of thumb: if it's a task you'd happily delegate to an intern, it's a candidate for automation or semi‑automation. AI frees people to focus on high‑value work: audits, wider coverage (5% → 99%), forecasting regulatory changes, and adjusting systems/processes for what's coming next.​ Starting your AI journey: practical adoption path Step 1: Use free or existing tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot) for summaries, data cleaning, and simple tasks. Step 2: When needs get more complex, consider specialized AI tools (like PAX's AI‑powered duty drawback service), but pair them with solid ROI analysis: cost vs. time savings vs. recovered dollars. Step 3: For large enterprises, begin with defining pain points and a data strategy: Where do you spend the most time? Which activity is eating 90% of your bandwidth? What data will go into AI, and what exactly do you want back out?​ Overcoming fear and building buy‑in Penny's take: curiosity is your best ally—if you don't know how to use AI, start by asking AI how to use AI. Jennifer's advice: Engage stakeholders early; give them a voice in how the tool is designed and used. Set realistic expectations—even with aggressive automation, maybe only ~30% of workload can be automated today. Focus human effort on strategy and change management, not repetitive admin.​ Choosing the “right” AI for your team Not every company needs every AI—e.g., if you classify one item a month, a classification platform may not be worth it. For trade leaders, tool selection should be guided by: Where you lose the most time or money. Data type mix (text + structured data). Compliance/guardrail needs and vendor transparency about models and controls. Conferences like ICPA are key: they surface real use cases, connect trade and tech experts, and help teams refine what they actually need.​ International Women's Day Spotlight This episode also celebrates International Women's Day and highlights women leading in trade, tech, and compliance—from OEMs to AI startups. Annik closes with a shoutout to all women in trade who are building, leading, and pushing the industry forward.​ Credits Host: Annik Sobing Guests: Jennifer (Volvo Group), Penny (PAX) Recorded at: ICPA Conference, San Antonio, TX   Listen & Subscribe Simply Trade main page: https://simplytrade.podbean.com​ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simply-trade/id1640329690​ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/09m199JO6fuNumbcrHTkGq​ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8de7d7fa-38e0-41b2-bad3-b8a3c5dc4cda/simply-trade​ Connect with Simply Trade Podcast page: https://www.globaltrainingcenter.com/simply-trade-podcast​ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/simply-trade-podcast​ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SimplyTradePod​ Join the Trade Geeks Community Trade Geeks (by Global Training Center): https://globaltrainingcenter.com/trade-geeks/  

Podcast: Industrial Cybersecurity InsiderEpisode: IT SOC vs OT SOC How & Why They're DifferentPub date: 2026-02-25Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationCraig and Dino tackle the critical differences between IT and OT Security Operations Centers, revealing why traditional IT-centric SOCs are failing to protect manufacturing environments.Drawing from real-world examples, including a global beverage company that discovered they were only monitoring one-third of their OT assets, the hosts expose the fundamental disconnect between IT security teams and operational technology environments.They discuss why IT SOCs struggle with OT visibility, the challenges of asset inventory in dynamic manufacturing environments, and the critical importance of localization in security operations.The conversation covers practical barriers like line changeovers, PLC modifications, remote access vulnerabilities, and the need for OT-specific incident response protocols.Craig and Dino emphasize that effective OT security requires IT teams to become embedded in plant operations, working collaboratively with OEMs and system integrators, and understanding the unique operational context of manufacturing assets.This episode is essential listening for CISOs, plant managers, and security professionals trying to bridge the IT-OT security gap.Chapters:(00:00:00) - The Two-Thirds Problem: When Your SOC Can't See Your Plant Floor(00:01:00) - The OT SOC Asset Visibility Problem: A Case Study(00:03:00) - Why IT SOCs Can't Manage OT Assets(00:05:00) - Line Changeovers and Operational Context(00:07:00) - First Responders and Incident Response Challenges(00:10:00) - The WannaCry Response Gap(00:12:00) - Asset Inventory and Baseline Challenges(00:15:00) - Incident Response and Phone Trees(00:17:00) - Organizational Accountability Problems(00:19:00) - Greenfield Opportunities and Standardization(00:22:00) - The IT-OT Collaboration Challenge(00:24:00) - Think Global, Act Local: Embedding IT in PlantsLinks And Resources:Want to Sponsor an episode or be a Guest? Reach out here.Industrial Cybersecurity Insider on LinkedInCybersecurity & Digital Safety on LinkedInBW Design Group CybersecurityDino Busalachi on LinkedInCraig Duckworth on LinkedInThanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Industrial Cybersecurity Insider? Have some feedback you'd like to share? Connect with us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube to leave us a review!The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Industrial Cybersecurity Insider, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Most people think turning around a 60-year-old public company is about cost cuts, headcount reductions, and financial engineering. But real transformation doesn't start on the income statement. It starts when you realize the house you just bought, the one on the great street, in the great neighborhood, with decades of history, isn't a light renovation, you have to tear it down to the studs. That's the reality of turning around a legacy business. When John Cuomo stepped into the CEO role at VSE Corporation, he inherited a 60-year-old company that was overly diversified, culturally hierarchical, and strategically unfocused. Most leaders would have protected what was there, instead, John simplified.  He divested non-core assets. He focused the company almost entirely around aerospace. He reshaped the executive team. He flattened the organization. He made cultural fit, not just performance a gating factor for leadership. And he rebuilt the business around an OEM-centric aftermarket strategy, choosing partnership over short-term arbitrage. The result: over five years, VSE's market cap grew from roughly $300 million to over $3 billion. In this special replay episode, I sat down with John to unpack what it really means to take a 60-year-old company down to the studs, and rebuild it for the next 60. You'll also learn: -Why tearing a company “down to the studs” can be the only way to unlock long-term value -How simplifying a diversified structure accelerated growth instead of limiting it -Why VSE avoids PMA and stays tightly aligned with OEM partners -How to evaluate acquisitions beyond financials, and why cultural fit is non-negotiable -What most executives misunderstand about integration versus portfolio management -How to scale without losing nimbleness and execution speed -The real risks in today's aftermarket M&A environment and why “everything shiny” isn't always valuable -Why presence, not policy, is the foundation of empowerment and execution   About the Guest John Cuomo is the President and CEO of VSE Corporation. Appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2019,  he brings 21 years of experience in distribution and the aftermarket services industry. John previously served as Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Distribution Services Inc. Before Boeing's 2018 acquisition of the Aerospace Solutions Group of KLX Inc., John served as its President and General Manager (since 2014). From 2000 to 2014, John served in multiple roles and functions at B/E Aerospace (parent company of KLX, Inc. until 2014), including Vice President & General Manager and Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Marketing & Business Development. Before joining B/E Aerospace, John served as an attorney at a large multinational law firm practicing commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, and litigation. Connect with John on LinkedIn.  About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker, and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers, and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years' experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women's Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association.    Podcast CTA Check out this episode on our website, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and don't forget to leave a review if you like what you heard. Your review feeds the algorithm, so our show reaches more people. Thank you!

Automation media, trade shows, and digital content are reshaping how the industrial automation industry connects. In this episode, Sarah shares insights from covering manufacturing and packaging events, building relationships across OEMs and integrators, and how social media and content creation are influencing the future of automation, engineering, and industrial technology.Support the show__________________________________________________________________

Peter Giddings of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership joins to discuss the UK’s industrial growth plan for offshore wind, the five priority supply chain areas being targeted, and how OWGP helps businesses scale from small suppliers into globally competitive manufacturers. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall: Peter, welcome to the program.  Peter Giddings: Thanks for having me out.  Allen Hall: The UK right now is just a global leader in offshore wind, which I think a, a lot of us in the United States don’t even realize that, but the UK is a. Giant leader in offshore wind. Uh, but we keep hearing about the supply chain constraints that are threatening some of the timelines here. What are some of the fundamental problems that the UK offshore wind supply chain has today?  Peter Giddings: We are in a great situation for supply chain, but the 2000 companies, some of them with 25 years experience. At the scale where we can deliver the four gigawatts a year for the next five years that we need to hit our 2030 deployment targets and to keep that deployment rolling. So we are [00:01:00] brilliant at the UK of planning, developing and deploying wind farms. We have a really strong maintenance base. We do some great supply chain work, and IWGP Offshore Wind Growth Partnership has helped those businesses grow, but we don’t have as much capacity as we would like. For the major items. So we have a great set of facilities making blades. We have good facilities, uh, great facilities in JDR making cables, but we don’t capture as much of the manufacturing value of our deployment as we would like. That means we create fewer jobs, we create less economic benefit, and those developers are exposed to more supply chain risk. Specifically, we want to build globally competitive supply chain capacity. We, we we’re, we’re not a charity. We are building businesses that can win contracts. They are attractive to the procurement teams and they’re sustainable, they grow, right? Competitive capacity is what we’re after. Um, and that’s, that’s really what [00:02:00] we’re after. Allen Hall: And if the UK doesn’t really address these problems now, what does that look like for the supply chain? Because you’re talking about moving from roughly 16. Gigawatts in the water to approximately 50 gigawatts, 45, 50 gigawatts by 2030 and beyond. So that’s, you know, it’s roughly a tripling of the amount of capacity in the water supply chain becomes then really critical to that and in order to feed that. But what happens here, if the supply chain has not grown locally,  Peter Giddings: it’s a missed opportunity. I mean, the businesses that are here today would be an incremental growth. And that’s not bad. That’s an okay outcome. But if your deployment is a huge opportunity and you get an okay outcome, that’s not acceptable. That’s not a way to run an industry, right? We have this massive opportunity in front of us. There’s a huge amount that we could do that the UK is great at that the opportunity is to stretch [00:03:00] and help communities all around the coast have. Hundreds, thousands of jobs that are there. They’re stable, they’re good quality, and they are prosperous. It’s a real community initiative. Those towns, which are probably seeing a decline in oil and gas revenue or are strapped to tourism or kind of don’t have an industry, those towns, those people as humans are gonna have a much better future. There’s a, actually a really nice exemplar, um, it’s not. The biggest component, but Cable protection Systems is something that the UK is already globally renowned for. If you open up a tender pack, if you’re allowed to in other markets kind of anywhere, and you look to the CPS package, you would more than likely see a couple of, if not all four of CRP techmark, sub C and Balmoral, right? They, they serve the UK market real well, but they are globally renowned. [00:04:00]That’s, that’s one example. We are looking to do that for the priority sections of the industrial growth plan. You know, we’re going to pick and are picking the areas of the supply chain where we think the UK can be genuinely competitive and we have something to offer. A developer is not gonna choose a substandard product that’s a bit more expensive, but we can build up supply chains that offer fantastic products. Cable protection systems, and we can capture big market share there. Develop a product that can be exported, or if it’s a bit too far to ship, develop a business which can open up a new base. You know, so we, we get that, um, combination of local demand being served. And when I say local, I mean like the North Sea in Baltic and that global opportunity. So it’s, but it’s not gonna be everything. You know, people might. I might get a little bit heat for this, but [00:05:00] if you spread the jam too thin, it doesn’t taste very good. You haven’t committed to win a few things rather than come second and third everywhere. We have to choose what we win at.  Allen Hall: Let’s get into the industrial growth plan, ’cause I wanna understand that a little bit better and how OWGP. Fits in that as the delivery body. Right? So you have this industrial growth plan, OWGP is, is sort of administering it and, and taking action on it. How does this system work and, and why is it different than other attempts at supply chain development?  Peter Giddings: Uh, a couple of years ago, 2023, um, most of the major institutional stakeholders came together and said, oh, that we see this big opportunity coming. We want to make sure that the UK benefits from having all that deployment. So if you’ve got a bunch of demand and you [00:06:00] don’t have much supply, you don’t have as much supply as you want, that’s an obvious gap to fill. And the Crown of State, the Crown of State Scotland, the departments from government, the Offshore Wind Industry Council, a consortium of developers in the uk, uh, came together. Um. And funded a piece of work that allowed, um, a team to bring in lots of industry input. Look at what the big opportunities were in the market. So where is there substantial value? Where is there substantial demand? And match that up to where does the UK have capability and where could we grow a competitive advantage? So. What prizes are worth winning? What prizes can we win? And we’ve matched those up and there’s kind of five priority areas that we’ve selected. Um, it’s kind of the first things we’re gonna go after. Um, [00:07:00] they’re, they’re quite broad, those five. It’s advanced turbine technologies, deep water foundations, cable and electrical systems, uh, smart environmental services, and, uh, smart operations and maintenance. If you kind of open those boxes up, there are some very specific supply chains that are prioritized. So I’ll take the one that, uh, is the first one that we’re looking at. Advanced turbine technology. Uh, we talked just before we started recording, um, that the UK has real strength in blades. Blades is a big opportunity. We have a really well established composite industry. We have a great facility up in Hull. We have an r and d base and an onshore, um, factory on the isle of White with Vestas. And I think the thing we don’t really say is we have chief engineer for blades of Vestas in the UK structures lead. The r and d team is 140 strong down on the island [00:08:00] and we have a really productive facility in Hull. Um. That is putting product out, has been making, um, recyclable blades, is making the one 15. We have depth, so it’s a good opportunity. We have strength, we have a massive innovation ecosystem, so that’s a really obvious win. And we’ve been through the rest of the supply chain taking cables, good capacity, excellent experience from oil and gas, and so that’s a priority area. Okay. Going through those supply chains, finding big opportunities that the UK has, the ability to win contracts in, and then mapping out what do you need to do to make that capacity happen? How much capacity, at what cost, with what performance? And that’s, that’s kind of the OWGP role is owning that plan, bringing input from industry, [00:09:00] bringing input from experts. Turning the ambition of we want to have the ability to supply 50% of UK demand and export into a tangible plan of, cool, these businesses need this investment by this time to stand up a facility so they’re ready. It’s not just a blade factory. Right. That’s, um, that’s important. It’s the 20 businesses that sell product, that sell services into that. We talk about pyramids, right? You’ve got one facility at the top and a big wide base with lots of people who are employed in that big wide base. And I think, you know, it’s natural. Everybody looks to the top of the mountain. We’re looking to build the whole thing, and that’s a really powerful reason for industries to stay for the long term. So I think tracking back to your [00:10:00] question. What’s our role? We own that plan. We bring together the expertise and convert it into a set of measurable steps really. And that kind of second part is coordinate. Everybody needs to be playing the same game, aiming at the same targets. And that’s a really important part. Allen Hall: Well, I think for a lot of people outside the UK, it’s hard to envision the amount of industry that exists. In the UK you’re about 70 million people, so you’re roughly maybe a quarter of the population size of the United States roughly. But you’re, you, you have internal industries there and other areas that have that supply chain growth. So you’ve watched it in aerospace, which is one I’m familiar with, but in other industries, you, automobiles and a number of other areas, uh, you have that supply chain. So you know how to, the UK knows how to do that, but, but that hasn’t really necessarily happened in offshore wind, which I think is where the [00:11:00] opportunity is because I think watching. Being around this industry for as long as I have. One of the key elements is that, uh, the, the smaller businesses are sort of tier twos or tier threes that make the tier ones possible are kind of forgotten about. But the UK historically has looked at tier two and tier three as being the fundamentals to a successful product delivery and, and a, a global marketplace. Is, is that where the initial focus is? Because just listening to. And going to your website, uh, which I encourage everybody to do, you see where there’s smart decisions being made to create that base and what does that look like? And when you’re trying to attack that base on offshore wind, obviously cables and turbine technology, anything to do basically with being in the water, which the UK is great at. Do you see that being a relatively quick exercise because the UK has done it before in other industries? Or [00:12:00] is this problem just a little bit different because of the scale of it?  Peter Giddings: It’s really similar to, uh, the way supply chain’s been supported in aerospace, for example. Um, the Airbus has a deep supply chain in the UK and has a very strong voice into government. Their supply chain is supported. They’ve built that base. Um, and so from the outcome, that’s gonna be pretty similar? I think so. We, we have a template. I’ve worked in aerospace, many colleagues, um, that we’re, we’re calling on have, um, I guess the difference is, uh, maturity of industry. So the developers are very mature businesses. They’re global. They have been big for time. They know how to do supply chain development from oil and gas, where you build enormous unicorns. Exactly. Once, [00:13:00] then move on. You know, an oil and gas project is, is a one time deal. It’s tremendous, but you don’t have to make a hundred of them and it’s slightly different. So you end up with a, a single point, and if you are. Experience and your, um, relationship with government sits with developers that can create some really, um, it, it takes time to build up your supply chain so that they have the same experience of running, um, large development programs. They have the stability as businesses to kind of build through. It’s really important to remember that turbine OEMs and the tier ones haven’t had 30 years of stable business modeling wind. Because 30 years ago, wind wasn’t really a big industry, right? They have had plenty of success scaling their business, and we’re just entering the phase now where you can, um, pretty credibly say that wind is [00:14:00] a global business with a long-term future. And it needs to find the right way for those OEMs, those big tier one manufacturing businesses to support their business in the long term. That is, I would say quite new. Um, hopefully I don’t get pilled for saying that, but Airbus, spin Airbus for 2, 3, 4 generations. Right. So they know their game. Same with roles, same with, you know, Nissan and Toyota. It’s, it’s gonna take a little minute for the manufacturing part of the wind industry to settle and learn what works. We think OWGP and our partners, GB Energy, crown State, we think. We have a good starter for 10. You know, it’s modeled off what we’ve done in other industries. It provides stability, provides capital and a plan. I think that’s a really good mix. Um, [00:15:00] and I think it’ll just take a bit of time to mature those relationships and get everybody comfortable. Um, the developers have been really supportive. The OWGP money comes from. A developer contribution. So they are playing their part. Absolutely they are. We need to find the right way for manufacturing businesses to scale and then start pumping in innovations into that capacity so it stays competitive. You know, it’s a build capacity that’s competitive today. Feed it with innovation so it stays competitive and gets better and better and better.  Allen Hall: How far off the technology chain do you want them to be before you consider them to be part of the supply chain  Peter Giddings: today? Uh, 21st of January, 2026. There is good money for people that are within about a year of getting their technology to market. So that’s the, the approximate. Um, you’ll notice I dodge TRLI don’t think it’s super helpful. Um, time to market is, uh, is, is [00:16:00] really a good indicator. Yeah. Alan’s, give me the thumbs up of someone that’s done a TRL assessment or two. Um, we, we are looking for businesses that are commercially. Viable. They have relationships with customers. Um, they’re trading the earliest currently, and it’s currently, um, is like a year, maybe two years to market at the outside and up, um, we’re working with. And so that’s not just OWGP, that’s across the funding streams that are available. Um, and there are many we are working with and hopeful in the next week or two to have, um. A positive result from the UK government on earlier stage innovation funding so that we can align the early stage innovation at the problems that really count for making businesses competitive. You know, to be super clear, that’s not gonna be OWGP Cash. Our hope is that it’s OWGP derived questions [00:17:00] delivered by the innovation institute’s offshore renewable energy catapult, the high value manufacturing catapults. Academia, innovative businesses. Those guys do the innovation and we work together with them and with industry to really find the questions that count and we can focus our attention on commercializing that and scaling up the things that are commercial.  Allen Hall: Peter, walk us through how a UK supply chain company actually engages with OWGP. Uh, what does that. Uh, look like. And what are the, sort of the different options to, to engage with OWGP?  Peter Giddings: So I, I think the first thing to say is you, you don’t have to be UK today. We would love to attract businesses from overseas. Um, you can start a UK entity quite quickly. The first people, first place people tend to engage is in our, um, business, uh, support services. So we help, uh, businesses orientate themselves commercially. Understand how the contracting works, understand who [00:18:00] their, their pot potential customers are. Um, and that’s, yeah, it’s on our website. It’s Business Transformation Services, the West Program, wind Expert Services. There’s a t in there, there’s something else. Um, but that’s really the entry point for businesses that need to orientate themselves in the UK market. And we, and that. Intensity and the, the depth of the commercial support kind of ramps up through base and up to sig sharing in growth. Um, and you’ll also see us in the next year or two, um, take a, a more proactive approach to supporting businesses commercially. Um, I’m actually down with a, a fantastic business in the blade supply chain, um, composite integration in Saltash, helping them build a strategic, um, business plan. So a little more than just going, oh, this is where you get your contract. Actually helping them model what a future bigger business would look like and what they will need to do to, to reach it. You know, commercial support is growing for us. I think it could be really important, right? It’s [00:19:00] new for us, so, you know, we’ll learn. But the first point of call, go to the website, get in touch with the team, um, and often people choose that commercial support, the business transformation. We also run grant funding. Um, we have innovation calls. Um, we have a whole range of different calls going from innovation up to development into Dev X. So manufacturing, um, facility support program, they’re all grant. You can choose to pay them back. You do need to be UK entity, but you need to be quite close to market that one to two year zone with commercial traction. Um, and again, information is available. There is a team of people. Who are really great at taking those triaging, figuring out what’s right for you, what’s not, and if it’s not something from us, we do and we are delighted to pass you on to other people. You know, if you talk to us, we will make sure you find a home.[00:20:00] I think that’s really important to say.  Allen Hall: I think that’s very critical and one of the more difficult. Periods for, uh, it’s a smaller company to become bigger and be part of this massive supply chain, is that sort of 1 million pound, the 5 million pound kind of business, which has a technology which has proven itself and is delivering something or very close to delivering something. That transition is incredibly hard and getting some help there and some advice even would make the transition so much shorter and more efficient than what it typically is. That’s what OWGP does. So it’s not just the money. Obviously money helps everything generally. It’s the context, it’s the advice, it’s the knowledge that, uh, OWGP brings to the table that helps you grow your technology, your small business, into that mid-tier business and takes that mid-tier business into that gigantic world leader business. Those are the things that are, [00:21:00] are so hard to quantify, to put some, uh, some people in place. Boy, OWGP can really ramp up and has, the UK in general has done this many, many times. So I, I, I just encourage everybody who’s listening to this podcast to think about OWGP as a contact point and reach out. And Peter, how can they do that? What are the first steps to contact OWGP?  Peter Giddings: It’s always best to come in through our website. So my contact details will be in the, um, in the show notes, but you, you can look at the different programs there are contact US buttons all over it. Um, it also gives you sight of the industrial growth plan, um, and the priority areas. We are trying where we can to focus our efforts on those priority areas, and we would absolutely be delighted to hear from businesses active in the IGB priorities. Um, if you are, if you are not in one of those, you’re not excluded, come talk to us and we, we are supporting ambitious [00:22:00] businesses. We’re just focusing most of our efforts on the ones that are aligned to priority. We’re, we’re on your team. We would like to hear from you. Um, yeah, do, do start with the website. Hit one of the contact buttons you’ll come into to one of the team and we will connect you in. Um, I think that’s probably the, the best way  Allen Hall: and the website is ow gp.org.uk. Very easy to get to. You can just Google it and it’ll come right up. There’s a ton of information on that website. Peter, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really appreciate this. Learned a lot and very excited for what the UK is about to do.  Peter Giddings: I’m looking forward to talking to you again.

Industrial Talk is onsite at PowerGen and talking to Max Meegan, Head of Sales, North America at FPT Industrial about "Powering the future of industry". Scott Mackenzie interviews Max Meegan, Head of Sales North America at Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT), at the Power Gen event in San Antonio, Texas. FPT, a leading diesel engine manufacturer, produces 300,000 engines annually, ranging from 30 kW to nearly 800 kW. Meegan highlights FPT's innovative solutions, such as an exhaust break to prevent underloading issues in rental and prime power generators, and their advanced after-treatment system that avoids the need for a DPF. FPT's flexible offerings include various engine packages and a service network of 300-400 dealers across North America. Meegan emphasizes the growing demand for rental assets and the importance of uptime in the rental market. Outline Introduction to Industrial Talk Podcast and Power Gen Event Scott Mackenzie introduces the Industrial Talk podcast, emphasizing its focus on industry professionals and their contributions.Scott welcomes listeners to the podcast and highlights the importance of industrial professionals in solving problems and making the world a better place.The podcast is broadcasting live from the Power Gen event in San Antonio, Texas, where industry professionals gather to discuss solutions for power generation.Scott introduces Max Meegan, head of sales for North America at FPT, and mentions the company's involvement in the event. Max Meegan's Background and Role at FPT Max Meegan shares his background, mentioning his technical degree in engineering and his 12-year tenure with FPT.He explains his transition from quality engineering to customer management and then to sales, highlighting his people skills.Max provides an overview of FPT, describing it as a diesel engine manufacturer with a significant global presence.He details FPT's product portfolio, which ranges from 30 kilowatt to almost 800 kilowatt engines, serving various industries including on-road, off-road, marine, and power generation. FPT's Market Presence and Customer Collaboration Max discusses FPT's participation in the Power Gen event, noting the increased attendance and interest in the show post-COVID.He emphasizes the importance of collaboration with customers and OEMs to understand industry trends and meet market demands.Max highlights FPT's flexibility in offering various engine options, from unregulated engines for export to tier four final engines for mobile and prime power applications.He explains FPT's approach to customer service, offering options from self-servicing to a standing service network across North America. Challenges and Solutions in the Power Generation Market Max identifies two main challenges in the power generation market: underloading of rental and prime power generators and the demand for data center power.He explains FPT's solution to underloading issues through an exhaust break system that maintains engine performance and reliability.Max discusses the growing demand for rental assets and the importance of uptime for rental yards to maximize revenue.He highlights FPT's ability to provide short lead times for smaller generators, which can be used in parallel to meet higher power demands in data centers. FPT's Unique Technology and Market Differentiation Max elaborates on FPT's unique technology, which focuses on optimized fuel combustion to minimize particulate matter and avoid the need for a DPF.He explains how FPT's stage five technology is widely adopted in North America due to its efficiency and reduced maintenance requirements.Max emphasizes the importance of FPT's after-treatment system as a key differentiator in the market.He encourages listeners to reach out to him on LinkedIn for further discussions and information about FPT's products and services. Conclusion and Final Thoughts Scott Mackenzie wraps up the conversation, expressing his appreciation for Max's insights and the importance of the power generation market.He highlights the growing demand for power solutions and the role of events like Power Gen in bringing together industry professionals to address these needs.Scott encourages listeners to stay tuned for more conversations from the Power Gen event and to follow the Industrial Talk podcast for more industry updates.The podcast concludes with a reminder of the importance of collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving in the industrial sector. If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2026. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy! MAX MEEGAN'S CONTACT INFORMATION: Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-meegan-2970a19b/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpt-industrial/ Company Website: https://www.fptindustrial.com/en PODCAST VIDEO: https://youtu.be/O_T-1sfiVI0 THE STRATEGIC REASON "WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST": OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES: NEOM: https://www.neom.com/en-us Hexagon: https://hexagon.com/ Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ Fictiv: https://www.fictiv.com/ Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/ Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/ Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/ We the 15: https://www.wethe15.org/ YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX: LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/ Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/ Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free License For Future Industrial Leader): Business Beatitude the Book Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? 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Podero builds software that enables European utilities to trade device flexibility—EVs, heat pumps, and batteries—on energy markets, generating trading revenues while reducing consumer bills by 20-30%. The company navigates a uniquely complex B2B motion: they must sell utilities, secure API access from device OEMs, and ensure utilities successfully roll out consumer-facing products—all simultaneously. In this episode of BUILDERS, Chris Bernkopf, Co-Founder and CEO of Podero, breaks down how they escaped pilot purgatory with innovation departments, built a "10x better than doing nothing" business case that reaches commercial stakeholders, and why their 2026 strategy centers on radical simplification through deletion.Topics DiscussedOrigin story: from Raspberry Pi heat pump experiment to YC-backed utility infrastructure softwareThe "three miracle problem" go-to-market challenge and how they de-risked all three dimensions in parallelSales cycle mechanics: 6-12 month closes, avoiding innovation department traps, and multi-stakeholder orchestrationMarket structure: 2,000 addressable utilities in Europe, 120 customers required for unicorn trajectoryChannel strategy evolution: cold outreach to re-engagement focus in a contained prospect universe2026 GTM thesis: simplifying value propositions by deleting products and messagingHow YC learnings posted on bathroom doors maintain organizational disciplineThe grid capacity fork in the road: expensive scarcity vs. cheap abundant renewable energy

AI is reshaping what it means to be a modern manufacturing professional.When a 30-year veteran retires, decades of expertise used to leave as well. How they ran a machine, which feeds and speeds worked, and all the practical knowledge that separated good from great. Now, Mastercam's AI co-pilots can capture that information and make it instantly accessible. The learning curve that used to take years can now be compressed into months, making manufacturing careers more accessible to the next generation.Chris sits down with Russ Bukowski, President of Mastercam, to explore how CAM technology has evolved from manual G-code programming to AI-powered systems that are fundamentally changing manufacturing accessibility.The conversation covers the business side of manufacturing transformation, why mid-size machine shops and tier-two suppliers are no longer at the mercy of large OEMs, the leadership lessons Russ learned from Walt Disney and why manufacturing salaries are starting at $80K+ for CNC programmers.In this episode, find out:How CAM systems act as a 10x multiplier for manufacturing professionals.The evolution from manual G-code programming to AI-powered CAM systemsWhy Mastercam's AI co-pilot is bridging the knowledge gap left by retiring manufacturing expertsHow post-COVID supply chain vulnerabilities are driving companies to vertically integrateThe power shift giving mid-size manufacturers leverage in negotiations and exclusive supplier agreementsWhy manufacturing needs to be promoted as a viable white-collar careerHow technical expertise creates leadership credibility The importance of visiting customers and talking to shop floor employeesWhat Mastercam's acquisition enabled in terms of investment, innovation, and customer relationshipsEnjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes:“AI's not a silver bullet. It's not going to replace a program or replace an operator, but it is going to enable them to do more and to move more quickly in the business.”“CAM is really that enabler. Without it, the digital design to physical machine process is slow and error-prone. It removes the cognitive burden and makes complex manufacturing possible. It's that 10x multiplier for somebody in manufacturing, making somebody a 10x manufacturing expert because they're able to deliver results so much faster by using computing power.”“I always like to ask myself this as a leader, if nobody was looking, if there were no repercussions, would I still make the right decision? From a sustainability standpoint, from an ethical standpoint, that's how I hold myself accountable.”Links & mentions:Mastercam, CAD/CAM solutions that are trusted to deliver superior and reliable machining performance with advanced productivity tools and AI-enabled CAM capabilities Tree House Brewing Company, brewers of Julius and pioneers of hazy IPA, Tree House produces world-renowned beer in Charlton, Massachusetts Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.Mentioned in this episode:Mfg Happy Hour's Rust Belt Renaissance TourManufacturing Happy Hour is hitting the road this spring, hosting live shows Cleveland on 3/24, Rochester on 3/25, and Pittsburgh on 3/26. Get your tickets today.

In this episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, automotive sales expert Sean V. Bradley is joined by Kalina Bradley and Tianna Mick for a powerful conversation on leadership, family business dynamics, and the evolving future of automotive sales! "Don't be afraid to reach out and get the help that you need to make yourself successful." - Kalina Bradley This episode explores what it truly takes to thrive in today's competitive dealership environment, from mastering dealership processes to leveraging data mining, equity mining, and customer retention strategies that drive consistent profitability! Drawing from their experience at the NADA Conference, the trio shares insights into emerging trends, innovative dealership tools, and the strategies top-performing stores are implementing to increase throughput and gross profit. "Nature or nurture?... It's definitely both." - Tianna Mick Kalina highlights the measurable impact of a structured trade-up program and how dealerships can unlock hidden revenue within their existing customer base. Tianna dives into the importance of personal branding in automotive sales, balancing professionalism with authenticity, and standing out in a crowded marketplace. Together, they unpack how women in automotive leadership are reshaping dealership culture and influencing the next generation of sales professionals! "If we get better, our audience will demand that we get bigger." - Sean V. Bradley Whether you're a dealer principal, general manager, sales manager, BDC leader, or automotive sales professional, this episode delivers practical insights and forward-thinking strategies to help your dealership grow sustainably in a changing market.   Key Takeaways: ✅ Mindset and Balance: Kalina underscores the importance of a positive mindset in achieving success and the balanced dynamics of working alongside family. ✅ Embracing Opportunities: Tianna emphasizes leveraging the opportunities within the automotive industry and employing resources like training to excel. ✅ Value of Data Mining: Kalina shares actionable tips on how data mining and equity-mining campaigns can yield tangible results for dealerships. ✅ Family Business Dynamics: The episode showcases the interplay of family dynamics in running a successful business, highlighting a robust familial synergy. ✅ Constant Improvement: Inspired by anecdotes of industry stories, Sean discusses the perpetual need for personal and professional growth within the automotive realm.   About Kalina Bradley Kalina Bradley is an experienced professional in the automotive industry with a celebrated career traceable to her early start in sales. She has gained multifaceted expertise through roles in sales, loyalty and customer retention, finance, and dealership management. Currently, Kalina has joined Dealer Synergy, contributing her rich industry experience to enhance the company's training and consulting services. About Tianna Mick Tianna Mick, also known as T Got Your Keys, is a recognized figure in the automotive sales training realm. Aside from her influential work with Dealer Synergy, Tianna's reputation extends to her prowess as a professional speaker, consistently offering insights on dealership strategies pertaining to modern sales techniques and customer relationship management. She thrives in leveraging social media and digital platforms to revolutionize the traditional dealership model.     Navigating the Automotive Industry: Lessons in Family, Leadership, and Innovation Key Takeaways: Embrace family dynamics in business to foster a supportive and resilient work environment. Prioritize continuous improvement over quick growth to ensure long-term success. Harness the power of mindset and adaptability to thrive in evolving industries. Exploring the Role of Family in Business Success In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the concept of a "family business" often conjures images of small, corner stores or boutique operations. However, as demonstrated by the Bradley family's enterprise, Dealer Synergy, incorporating family into business can lead to substantial success, even in large-scale operations. Tianna Mick and Kalina Bradley illustrate this dynamic in action, noting, "It feels like a small mom and pop, right? But we're literally helping multi-billion dollar organizations partner with OEMs like Toyota." The unique advantage here lies in the innate support system and motivation derived from working with loved ones. As Sean V. Bradley articulates, "Every day, I get to go to work with my wife for the last 19 years… so when I am on my deathbed, I am not going to be complaining. I wish I had a couple more seconds." By fostering such an integrated family-business environment, the Bradleys not only strengthen their personal bonds but also amplify their business impact. This synergy is particularly evident in how effortlessly Tianna and Kalina collaborate, drawing on diverse strengths to drive Dealer Synergy's mission forward. The implications of this family-oriented approach extend far beyond personal satisfaction. For the automotive industry and businesses at large, integrating family dynamics can concurrently nurture a resilient company culture and a unified vision, both pivotal in navigating the challenges of today's market. Leveraging family ties in business also ensures that an organization's values align seamlessly from leadership to execution. Continuous Improvement as a Strategy for Growth A standout theme in the transcript—and in business more broadly—is the emphasis on improving rather than just expanding. This mindset is encapsulated in Sean V. Bradley's anecdote about Chick Fil-A founder Truett Cathy, who famously stated, "I don't want any of you to talk about how we're going to get bigger and faster. The only thing I want to hear about is how are we going to get better." For businesses in the automotive industry, this philosophy underscores the importance of focusing on enhancing operations, customer service, and internal processes, rather than simply chasing after sales. Kalina Bradley echoes this sentiment when discussing her experiences in the automotive industry: "Learning something new is hard… Anything worth doing is going to be hard." By prioritizing excellence in these areas, businesses position themselves to naturally attract more customers and opportunities. This strategic focus is not only applicable to dealerships but can be adopted broadly across industries seeking sustainable growth. As echoed in the transcript, "If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting. You get complacent with mediocrity." Therefore, a commitment to constant improvement is crucial for achieving enduring success and staying ahead of the competition. Mindset and Adaptability as Keys to Thriving The discussion also highlights the profound impact that mindset and adaptability have on one's success in any career. Both Tianna and Kalina credit their upbringing with instilling essential principles that have guided their professional journeys. As Kalina observes, "Your mindset is your reality," drawing from the teachings of self-improvement methodologies like "The Secret" and the principles of the law of attraction. The significance of mindset extends beyond personal growth; it fosters an organization's adaptability, a critical trait in dynamic industries like automotive sales. Embracing a flexible and open-minded approach allows businesses to harness innovations and quickly adjust strategies in the face of changing trends. As echoed in the transcript, "The year of the human… we're really evaluating the amount of value that we provide for our dealers." Cultivating such a forward-thinking mindset within teams can also drive innovation, empower employees, and enhance problem-solving capabilities. As LA Williams from the transcript aptly summarizes, "You are who you spend the most time with." Surrounding oneself with positive influences creates an environment where individuals can grow collectively, contributing to the continuous evolution and success of the organization. Kalina and Tianna's narratives help pave the way for a deeper understanding of how personal experiences and beliefs shape professional endeavors, ultimately reinforcing the symbiotic relationship between an individual's mindset and their business acumen. In looking at the Bradleys' stories, it becomes evident that the heart of their business success lies in a holistic approach encapsulating family, constant improvement, and an empowered mindset. These principles not only guided their journey through the automotive industry but offer valuable lessons for businesses eager to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. Moving forward, organizations across various sectors may do well to adopt these insights, fostering environments where family dynamics, relentless self-betterment, and adaptable thinking are prioritized. Such an approach, mirrored by the Bradleys, stands to yield positive outcomes, positioning businesses for momentous achievements in the future.     Resources + Our Proud Sponsors:   ➼ The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group: Join the #1 Automotive Sales Mastermind Facebook Group with over 29,000 automotive professionals worldwide. The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group is the go-to community for car salespeople, BDC agents, sales managers, general managers, and dealer principals looking to increase performance, income, and leadership skills. Inside the group, members collaborate daily on automotive sales strategies, lead handling, phone scripts, closing techniques, CRM best practices, dealership leadership, and accountability systems. Learn directly from top automotive trainers, industry mentors, and high-performing sales leaders who are actively winning in today's market. If you're serious about growing your automotive career, increasing car sales, and building long-term success, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today! ➼ Dealer Synergy: Dealer Synergy is the automotive industry's #1 Sales Training, Consulting, and Accountability Firm, with over 20 years of proven dealership success nationwide. We specialize in helping car dealerships increase sales, improve processes, and build high-performing Sales, Internet, and BDC departments from the ground up. Our expertise includes automotive phone scripts, rebuttals, CRM action plans, lead handling strategies, BDC workflows, Internet sales processes, management training, and accountability systems. Dealer Synergy partners directly with dealership leadership to align people, process, and technology, ensuring consistent results and scalable growth. From independent dealers to large dealer groups and OEM partnerships, Dealer Synergy delivers measurable performance improvements, stronger teams, and sustainable profitability. ➼ Bradley On Demand: Bradley On Demand is the automotive industry's most advanced interactive training, tracking, testing, and certification platform for car dealerships — built to develop top-performing teams across Sales, Internet Sales, BDC, CRM, Phone Skills, Leadership, and Management. In addition to LIVE virtual automotive training classes and a library of 9,000+ on-demand dealership training modules, Bradley On Demand now includes AI Phone Roleplaying and Coaching to help salespeople and BDC agents practice real dealership conversations before they ever get on the phone with customers. This AI-powered roleplay technology strengthens phone scripts, objection handling, appointment setting, lead follow-up, and closing skills, while providing measurable coaching feedback for continuous improvement. Bradley On Demand empowers dealerships to train faster, coach smarter, improve call performance, increase closing ratios, and sell more cars more profitably — all through structured, trackable, modern automotive training.  

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1283: Oil markets are on edge as global conflict pressures fuel prices and supply chains. Meanwhile, BYD may have cracked the code on five-minute EV charging, and CarMax becomes the first U.S. auto retailer to launch a shopping app inside ChatGPT.Oil markets are on edge after military action involving the U.S. and Israel disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. While automakers aren't seeing immediate shutdowns, rising energy prices and potential shipping reroutes are adding another variable to an already complex year.Roughly 20 million barrels of crude flow through the strait daily, along with LNG, aluminum, steel inputs and key plastics used in vehicle production.Oil briefly jumped nearly 7%, with analysts warning prices could top $100 a barrel if the conflict drags on.Automakers rely heavily on Asia–Europe sea lanes for semiconductors, battery materials and electronics—any expansion into the Red Sea or Suez would be “significantly disruptive.”“It certainly adds risk [for OEMs] and you've got to be thinking about rerouting anything that's going to go through that part of the world,” said AlixPartners' Dan Hearsch.If range anxiety has been the headline problem for EV adoption, BYD may be attacking it at the source. The Chinese automaker is testing a 1,500 kW “flash charging” network that looks less like a parking lot and more like a traditional gas station.The demo site in Shenzhen features liquid-cooled charging guns and pull-through lanes, allowing drivers to plug in and roll out—no backing into stalls required.Leaked specs suggest up to 1,500 kW on a 1,000V architecture—potentially adding 249 miles in about 5 minutes. For context, most U.S. and European fast chargers top out at 350 kW.Testing is currently limited to select BYD models with a “Flash Charge” badge, with charging reportedly starting within 10 seconds of plug-in.Pricing at the demo site is around $0.18 per kWh, a fraction of many Western public charging rates.CarMax just became the first U.S. auto retailer to launch a car-shopping app inside ChatGPT, bringing both buying and selling tools directly into the AI platform. It's another signal that conversational commerce isn't coming—it's here.Customers can browse CarMax's 45,000+ vehicle inventory using natural prompts like “SUV with third row under $25,000” or “small AWD car with good tech.”The app also allows sellers to check their vehicle's value and connect directly to CarMax's online offer tool.CarMax says the goal is to reduce the overwhelm of used-car shopping by meeting customers on a platform they're already using.Today's show is brought to you by iPacket Value. From accurate MSRP validation to smarter merchandising decisions, iPacketJoin Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

"Offshore wind comes with its own risks."In this episode, Stewart Mullin speaks with Marta Januszewska, New Markets and New Services Lead at OSRL, about the importance of emergency preparedness in the offshore wind industry. They discuss the challenges faced by the industry, the need for collaboration among stakeholders, and the role of technology in enhancing emergency response.Marta shares her background in oceanography and political science, highlighting her passion for energy transition and environmental protection. The conversation also touches on the impact of climate change, the responsibilities of governments and industry, and the future of offshore wind markets.GWEC's Offshore Wind Podcast is hosted by Stewart Mullin, GWEC's Chief Industry Officer, and Rebecca Williams, GWEC's Deputy CEO, who leads on all GWEC's Offshore Wind work.The podcast, or 'show' as Stewart still likes to call it, features leading voices from across the sector, whether that is large OEMs, key supply chain manufacturers or political leaders driving policy, to talk about how we can all work together to deliver on offshore wind's enormous potential.Follow Stewart on LinkedIn hereFollow Rebecca on LinkedIn here and Instagram hereFollow GWEC on LinkedIn here and Instagram here

Allen, Rosemary, Yolanda, and Matthew discuss highlights from Blades USA including the carbon blade debate. Plus TPI Composites’ bankruptcy sale hits major obstacles as partners dispute over $100M in claims. And Europe’s offshore and onshore wind developers clash over state aid, with WindEurope’s new CEO urging unity. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! [00:00:00] The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by Strike Tape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit strike tape.com. And now your hosts.  Allen Hall 2025: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host Alan Hall, and I’m here with Yolanda Padron, Rosemary Barnes and Matthew Stead. Yolanda and Matthew have just wrapped up a couple of days at the Blade USA forum in Austin, Texas. Maybe we should start there. Thoughts on the forum this year? Things that were highlights?  Matthew Stead: Yeah. Lightning Root de bond. One positive was that, um, there are a couple of startups there, so, you know, kudos to them for, you know, making the investment. There was a. There was a startup around, you know, data analytics and, you know, bringing machine learning in. And then there was also another startup looking at recycling. [00:01:00] Um, really trying to get that, that food chain through of, um, you know, grinding and then turning into some sort of valuable product. Um, yeah. However, I think someone also from EPRI said that, you know, at the moment, you know, the recycling path is, you know, eight times more expensive than the, um, the landfill path. There was a lot of carbon discussion actually. So, and, um, yeah, a lot of discussion about repairs, a lot of discussion about testing, uh, a lot of discussion about, you know, how maybe a carbon blade can last 40 years. Um, so a lot of discussion about lifetime extensions around carbon. Um, but, but, but, but, you know, really, really hard to repair.  Allen Hall 2025: That goes back to the comments Rosemary and Morton Hanberg made about carbon blades. Should we be making. Carbon blades are not. And I think Morton’s opinion, and maybe Rosemary’s, I don’t wanna speak for her, was carbon blades are okay, but they are really difficult to repair. Almost impossible to repair. And is it [00:02:00] worth even building them?  Rosemary Barnes: I think if you consider the blade in isolation, then it probably is adding more headaches than it’s worth. But carbon fiber is a bit of an enabler for improvements across the whole system of a, a wind turbine. ’cause when you take, like you can take a lot of weight out of a blade by using carbon fiber. I mean, it’s never been cheaper to make a blade with carbon fiber than an equivalent blade with glass. You do, you buy the more expensive carbon fiber blade because it’s lighter, a like, a lot lighter, and then you can take, um, weight. It, it reduces the requirements for basically every other component in the wind turbine, but especially stuff like the pitch bearings. Um, so you solve a lot of other problems, but you create blade problems. So. I think if you ask some of the only works on maintaining blades, then you’re gonna be like, why would you make a carbon fiber blade? It is so much headache. Um, but that’s not the reason why they were ever made in the first place. [00:03:00] So you’d need to talk to, you know, somebody on, uh, I dunno, front end engineering. Someone from the sales team about why it is that they are going with a more expensive carbon fiber blade. Even acknowledging that they probably underestimate how many problems there are with o and m with, uh, carbon fiber blades. But even so, like they’re already aware that there are trade offs. Um, and yeah, there’s non blade reasons for, for taking, taking that pain.  Allen Hall 2025: Are there other fibers that could be substituted besides carbon? There, I, I know fiberglass. A, a good, relatively strong fiber and carbon obviously is much stronger. But are there things in the middle that could be substituted that are non-conductive? Rosemary Barnes: Uh, y yeah, there are, but carbon fibers, it’s not just strong. It’s really stiff. And that’s what its benefit is. Um, like there’s Kevlar but it’s not very stiff. So you would, we would make a really heavy blade if you used Kevlar. It would be probably bulletproof though. So I guess that would be a plus. I, I haven’t looked into it recently, but nothing is [00:04:00] at the, um, like got the performance specs and the cost specs that you would need to, um, make it replace carbon fiber. Matthew Stead: So one thing that I picked up I thought was pretty, uh, interesting was that by having a stronger, you know, carbon protrusion, you know, the, you know, the backbone of the blade, um, it took a little bit of pressure off the skin. And so therefore, um, you know, the life, life of the blade, um, and the ability to keep running it ’cause the skin is not so critical. Those seem to be a real, a real plus as well.  Rosemary Barnes: I don’t know, people talk about this in like absolutes, but everything is just a con continuum, right? Like you can make an all glass blade that would last a thousand years if you really wanted to. You just, you know, you just have to make it very, very strong. ’cause it’s, you know, it’s all based on fatigue lifetime. And the smaller that your, um, strain on every component in the blade is, then the less, um, the less fatigue damage is gonna accumulate. Making it a little bit stiffer will actually increase the lifetime by [00:05:00] a a lot. I think the main benefit to protrusions is just that you avoid all of the um, or you avoid a lot of the possibilities for manufacturing defects. It’s easy to control the manufacture ’cause carbon fiber, like much more so than glass fiber. It’s so, um, it’s so dependent on the fibers being perfectly straight. If you have a little wrinkle, like a little wrinkle is bad in glass fiber, but it’s like really bad in carbon fiber. So protrusions mean that you won’t get wrinkles. Uh, and you can, you know, control the manufacturing process a lot better, but they are barely repairable, right? So that’s the trade off. You can do some small repairs, but you’re not gonna be just. Um, if you’ve got a, a, a full thickness crack or something, it’s, you know, it’s gonna be game over. You’re not gonna be building that up again. Allen Hall 2025: Delamination and bottomline failures and blades are difficult problems to [00:06:00] detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids and cracks. Traditional inspections, completely. Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades. Back in service, so visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early  Yolanda Padron: will save you millions.  Allen Hall 2025: Well keep going on the, the subject of blades. Imagine if you were selling your house and you told the bank you owe nothing on it. Then the bank shows up with a bill for over a hundred million dollars. That is essentially what’s happening right now in the TPI composites bankruptcy. Uh, the wind blade manufacturer canceled its [00:07:00] February 17th asset auction after only one bidder came forward. A firm called ECP five LLC, which is, uh, part of Energy Capital Partners, which is based in New Jersey. Uh, but before TPI. Can hand over the keys. It has to settle up with its business partners. TPI told the court many of those partners were owed little or nothing. Uh, the partners check their books. Strongly disagree. Now, the judge has a mountain of competing claims to sort through before the sale can close. And everyone, I mean, the, the claims are big. Uh, there are several large names listed, and if you go through the filings, uh, Siemens C Mesa is probably the largest one, and it, it claims TPI owes about 84 million plus an unpaid inspection, repair, and replacement costs. Plus under 22 million [00:08:00]under apparent guarantee. Others include Aurora Energy Services stating it is owned about $5 million, uh, for post-bankruptcy services, plus 38,000, uh, for before the filing of bankruptcy. The landlord up in Iowa for the TPI facility there is objecting because they’re owed some rent. Some other ones include, uh. Oracle, uh, which is, uh, has a lot of software licenses that TPI currently has, and they’re saying those licenses will not swap over to the new owner. So there, this is a series of these filings going on at the minute, and they’re pushing back the closing of the, uh, sale hearing until March 9th. So they got about another two weeks as we record right now. This is a big deal and, and although I have seen almost nothing about it in the press. Because it’s hard. One, it’s hard to find, and two, it’s really [00:09:00] difficult to sort through. Uh, but it is a major milestone for TPI that they’re gonna be able to sell the, or at least transfer ownership to, uh, energy capital partners. And the none of the buyers investors had bought part of the facilities. But GE Renova or Siemens cesa, for that matter, are not involved, at least at the top level. Which is really to, in my opinion, odd. I thought GE Renova would’ve been involved, at least at some level. They have been supporting TPI through this process. But in terms of going forward, doesn’t look like too much is going on with Renova or Siemens Ga Mesa in, in terms of the operations of these facilities. Thoughts.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I agree. It’s strange that they wouldn’t have taken that opportunity and that makes me wonder what I don’t know that, you know, ’cause obviously it’s not a strange decision to the people who have made it so. They’ve got more information, a lot more information than us. So what is it that made it unappealing to them? That’s, um, that’s my question. [00:10:00] Yolanda Padron: What did TP, I think was gonna happen with all of that money that they owe everyone?  Allen Hall 2025: Well, it’s a bankruptcy hearing. Obviously they like to wipe that debt free and so would Energy Capital partners. They don’t wanna pay the a hundred million plus of whatever, uh, the court would ict, but. You just like to get the assets. If you can do it, that’s your cheapest option if you’re Energy Capital partners. But do you see Energy Capital Partners running the facilities? There’s a lot of organization within TPI that manages those facilities and controls the operation. From the quality side engineering side, there’s, there’s a lot of pieces to TPI here. Do you think they’re just gonna pick it up and run, run the company as it stands today? Or, or,  Rosemary Barnes: oh my goodness. I would be so nervous to, um, buy blades, uh, from them in that situation. I mean, we’ve seen so many examples in the last few years of decisions being made by senior management that have really compromised the quality at the end of the day. Like in theory, yes, the factory, you know, all the processes are in place to do things. Um, to do things [00:11:00] right, but you know, as soon as they get the next new project, which they’re doing constantly, right? It’s not like they just make a blade and they just make it over and over again. They make many different kinds of blades. There’s decisions to be made and you’re trying to get the price right and the quality right. And then, you know, given that we know that TPI was not profitable the way they were doing it before, they’re gonna have to spend less money. Then somebody who isn’t from the industry is making those calls about where to save it. It just seems like totally implausible to me.  Matthew Stead: Can I just add though, you know, TPI was mentioned multiple times at, um, at Blades, USA, and so, you know, a lot of people are relying on them or have relied on them and so forth. And so maybe this is a strategy about supporting the industry into the future. Like I think Alan, you, you said that they’re involved in, um, this investment business has other wind assets, so maybe it’s just like. Securing supply chain and, which I mean, that’s a pretty logical approach, isn’t it?  Allen Hall 2025: Oh, it would be. Uh, they’re about 50% owners of Ted’s US onshore fleet and a number. There are [00:12:00] other projects they’re involved in a number of renewable projects. Uh, so it would make sense for them to try to keep the supply chain going. But the largest purchaser of GB GE turbines that I know of is NextEra. So you would think NextEra would want to step into the mix too and at least in all the court filings, I haven’t seen much from NextEra or nothing from them at all. It if Osted US is wanting to keep their supply chain and Energy Capital partners wanted to keep the supply chain going, that would make a lot of sense to me. However, I just don’t know if they have the infrastructure to manage it. As Rosemary has described on numerous occasions running LM wind power is not easy. There’s just a lot of moving pieces, supply chain problems. You’ve got people problems, you have quality problems, you have repair problems, warranty issues. It’s a lot to that business. It isn’t like you’re stamping out widgets. You, you have a responsibility to that product after it goes out into [00:13:00] service. So if you have problems out in service, you’re, you’re kind of on the hook for all those warranty claims. It’s complicated.  Rosemary Barnes: You make it sound like I was running lm  Yolanda Padron: Rosie runs the world. Rosemary Barnes: I just wanna make it clear I was not running lm  Allen Hall 2025: Not yet. Rosie. There’s still time.  Rosemary Barnes: I was ru running one very tiny, tiny corner of it.  Yolanda Padron: I’d almost be curious ’cause like since ECP is so much into risk management and just, just in general, they have so many things that they are like part owners in, but they don’t necessarily manage the day to day hands on. Uh. I’d almost be curious to see if maybe they take a page out of Rosie’s book and try to make one thing. Well,  Matthew Stead: mm, that’d be novel, wouldn’t it?  Rosemary Barnes: It has actually been tried before. Um, you know, it’s, it’s uh, not something that has escaped the notice of blade engineers, uh, that if you make one thing, you can do it right. And wind turbine blades are a pretty similar there. No, you know, like great [00:14:00] differentiator between. How well performing the blades are from one company to another. I know at, at least at lm, they did have a blade that they designed, and their plan was to sell just heaps and heaps of those to multiple different manufacturers and just no one wanted it. Um, so it just quietly died. Um, so yeah, the, the concept is good. I think it’s. A little bit harder to pull off than you would hope. There are also some Chinese companies that are kind of selling just parts, generic parts. And so if you wanted to make your own wind turbine, um, company, if you wanted to be a wind energy o and m Yolanda, you could just buy an assortment of parts from Chinese manufacturers and put a. Yolanda Wind energy sticker on it and um, and, and, and you could be an an OEM. So it is, it, it, it is possible. I haven’t seen any of these out in the wild. Um, I have [00:15:00] heard of, you know, people considering it for, you know, certain aspects of certain types of projects. So it kind of exists in a way.  Matthew Stead: But the financial aspect, I mean, that’s accounting 1 0 1, I mean. You gotta know your assets and to owe people a hundred million dollars, that’s absolutely shocking. Really?  Allen Hall 2025: They owed a lot more than that before the bankruptcy. It is a lot of money.  Matthew Stead: How do you miss that?  Allen Hall 2025: Well, I don’t think they missed it. I just think the warranty claims and some of the repair that was going on and the, the, it sounded like price discounting was happening to some of the OEMs just caught up to ’em. But at the end of the day, I, I, I guess the question is. Does TPI as an entity remain? Obviously the Vestas portion will, because Vestas is gonna make them Vestas factories in a sense, and, uh, integrate as part of their overall operations. But Renova is not, Siemens is not interested in doing it, at least as we speak. No one’s [00:16:00] making any noise over at Nordex. It, it does leave these assets questionable as to what the real value is. We haven’t heard how much, uh, ECP has paid for them yet. The Vestas factories that were purchased, I think the, the two TPI factories in Mexico, I think Vestas paid about $10 million for each factory, which is a really inexpensive price to pay for new factories because Vestus had talked about at one point a year or two ago, about standing up a new factory saying it would cost him roughly a half a billion dollars to do. So buying a, that same asset for $10 million is a discount, a deep, deep discount, which maybe Vestas figures, Hey, it’s 20 million bucks, plus they got the India operations. Uh, it’s not that much money. If it all goes sour, it’s not that much money and we’re okay. Whereas Ver Nova decided to not to participate in that. As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it difficult. That’s why [00:17:00] the Uptime podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit p ps wind.com. Today, over in Denmark, a fight has been brewing between offshore and onshore wind developers and. Sted once State Aid brought back for offshore wind auctions, onshore developers say that would tilt the playing field against them. Well, some have even walked out on their own trade group, uh, over it. Now the new CEO of Wind Europe, Tina Van Stratton, uh, is stepping in the middle of that discussion with a simple message. We need both. Don’t let offshore and onshore wind divide us. Nearly 90% of Europe’s installed wind capacity sits currently on land, and [00:18:00] she says that is not going to change anytime soon. Uh, so there, there is a big dispute about this right there. There does seem to be a, a amount of money being poured into offshore wind and requests of governments to support offshore wind at the same time. Onshore wind, which has been the primary growth market for wind in Europe, is getting the cold shoulder. In a sense. How does this play out everyone? Is there a, a good solution to it or is the need for offshore wind so great that, that they have to ignore onshore wind development for a couple of years?  Matthew Stead: I think we should just all be friends. So, I mean, really. Yeah, we need both and, um, I mean for the diversity and, you know, uh, I’ll leave all the technical topics to Rosie, but, um, um, really I think we need both. I mean, so what, it’d be crazy to, to drop the onshore, onshore industry.  Yolanda Padron: Yeah. I mean, it makes sense that, or said, especially Orid Europe doesn’t have any onshore anymore. Right. So it’s just [00:19:00]offshore. It would make sense that they really wanna push for help for themselves. And it’s, it’s great. It, it’s, it’s great to help, but I, I agree with Matt. Allen Hall 2025: Well, the Northern Europe and Scandinavian countries are talking about 100 gigawatts in the water by what, 2050? Something of that sort. So that’s a lot of energy in the water. In order to do that, you have to devote a number of resources to it, which. Will mean onshore wind is not gonna get the support it probably deserves, even though it has a proven track record. Rosemary Barnes: I just think it, it’s really interesting because I guess wind is, um, a very Europe. LED industry. Um, and so yeah, in Europe, e everything big and exciting is in offshore and the volume is in offshore. Um, I feel like that’s kind of filtered through to other regions though, because I mean, in Australia we don’t even have any offshore wind yet. We are probably getting some, but you go to any wind energy event, it’s gonna be. [00:20:00] More than 50% offshore wind and sometimes like 90% offshore wind, um, focused, which is, I think crazy when onshore is, is exists and has plenty of problems that need to be solved, and we need to be building more, a lot faster. I, I do actually wish that. If we could spend as much of the, you know, like some of the effort and the political effort that’s going into paving the way for offshore wind, I think would be much better spent on solving the problems. Um, the obstacles stopping us from rolling out onshore wind faster. Because we’re not on track in Australia to meet our renewable energy targets if we can’t get that under control. And then in the US yes you have some offshore wind, but it is not a growth industry at the moment or it’s not very appealing at the moment, at least. Right. So, and I dunno how much you talk about it there, but I do hear a lot of, like a whole lot of talk about offshore compared to how important it is for regions outside of Europe. Yolanda Padron: I think it’s important too to [00:21:00] note that. When you have a lot of offshore wind in your fleet, like you can sometimes test out products onshore that maybe they’re, of course not the exact same conditions, but you can test out products to a degree onshore. And I’ve seen, you know, owner operators that have to go across continents just to test that product because it’s cheaper to do that onshore than to do it offshore in your home site, in your backyard. So I mean that that would really benefit from an RD standpoint. It would really benefit everyone. If  Allen Hall 2025: they gave it up attention  Yolanda Padron: to onshore.  Rosemary Barnes: When I was at lm, one of my, well my key team member who was an electrical engineer, he had, um, done a bunch of work for a system that was only implemented on an offshore wind farm. And it sucked up so much time when stuff started going wrong with that, like even small things. And he was the only one [00:22:00] that could do it. You know, you go out, if you’ve got a five minute job to do, to get, you know, like turn something off and on again off. Reconnect something that’s a whole day of work, right? Like you, and, and not like a normal day, but like a 12 hour day, you’re gonna go out in the morning, they, you know, they go around in a boat or whatever and drop people off and they don’t come get you when you’re done 10 minutes later, you know, they come get you at the end of the day when they’re picking everyone up again. So, um, it, it was, it was incredibly challenging. I mean, for him personally and the team. Um, and I always recommend to, or, you know, sometimes I’m advising, um, companies that have offshore wind, um, technologies. And I’m always advising anything that you can test on shore, do it and get creative about it as well. ’cause you might think that you can’t, you certainly can’t get all the way there without testing in your real operating environment. But any problem that could happen onshore that you, um, learn about when it’s onshore is gonna cost you probably like, you know, one 10th as much [00:23:00] to fix. Um. So, and, and the time as well. So, yeah, I, I think that you’re right that we should be actually considering onshore as an opportunity for, um, improving offshore technology as well.  Allen Hall 2025: Can we talk about, uh, data centers for a minute? Just off the top of mind, I’ve been listening to a number of podcasts over the last month or two talking about powering AI data centers and how much coal or natural gas. It’s gonna be needed to provide the stable, reliable power that these data centers supposedly need. In the meantime, there’s like this industry being built, uh, and you see the, the purchases of gas turbines going out to like, what, 2032? I think it’s what Renova is talking about now is when you could actually get in line for a gas turbine. Other manufacturers or gas turbines are basically saying the same thing in the meantime. [00:24:00] Elon Musk and SpaceX are talking about putting AI data centers up in space where you don’t have any regulatory issues. You don’t have to burn coal or natural gas or any of these things. So the, the ground-based AI data centers appear to be locked into making these really expensive buildings and assets and putting generation and transmission and, and this infrastructure together, which will cost them. Hundreds of millions at a minimum, likely tens of billions of dollars to do, and that’s just in the United States. Meanwhile, SpaceX is really on a pathway of doing this up in the sky for probably a fraction of the cost. Is there a break point here? Because it does seem like the, the natural gas, coal, oil, petroleum industry and the on ground build, the building, people are ignoring that. SpaceX has a [00:25:00] capability of doing this, and if Musk decides to do it, and SpaceX decides to do it, that all those gas turbine orders, all that infrastructure, all the gas pipeline, all the drilling that would have to happen would just go immediately. Poof. Gone.  Rosemary Barnes: I don’t know about immediately because I mean, we’re not at the point yet where you can just launch a data center into space. So there is a bit of a, a, a transition period. Um, I. I also think that it’s overblown that, you know, I think you might have even fallen into the trap also, where you’re like, oh, when data centers need more energy, so therefore it has to be coal or gas or nuclear.  Allen Hall 2025: Nope, I agree with you.  Rosemary Barnes: Those things aren’t quick to build either. If you truly wanted to do it quickly, you’d be putting in, um, you know, heaps of solar panels and batteries and, and you know, wind turbines where that made sense. But that said, I, I do agree that, uh, like I, I don’t think space-based data centers is farfetched at all. I, I guess the biggest [00:26:00] challenges, uh, are, um, the cooling and heating requirements space has very large temperature fluctuations. So I guess you’re gonna need to design that carefully. I don’t think it’s insurmountable. Um, and then the next thing is a cost of launch, which I’m sure you’re about to tell me how. Dramatically the cost of launch is dropping. Um, you know, like, it, it’s got, it’s got a very good learning curve. The space launches, which is basically, you know, SpaceX is probably the main reason why that is just dropping and dropping and dropping. So I don’t think that it’s unrealistic at all. I don’t know the timeframe. You would know more, Alan, you work in, um, aerospace. I just. You know, um, follow it for general interest.  Matthew Stead: I reckon it’s stupid. He’s really stupid on a number of grounds. So first of all, you know, why do that when. You just, I can’t see how it can ever be more cost effective and you know, [00:27:00] I, you know, you should really, should be putting that effort into things like, you know, better healthcare and so forth. I mean, what a waste of resources. But why? I mean, why, why?  Allen Hall 2025: Because it’s a lot less expensive and it’s faster.  Matthew Stead: You’d do it in the ocean before that, wouldn’t you?  Rosemary Barnes: No, but the ocean still has, like how do you power it? You, you get the 24 7 solar power in space. That’s what you. That’s what you get, um, which you can’t get on Earth  Matthew Stead: or you put it next to a wind farm and you, you, and you make the load go up and down depending on the wind. I mean, seriously, there’s so many other ways of doing it. You put it next to a wind and solar.  Rosemary Barnes: I agree with you, Matt, that I think that the, the bulk of the solutions with data centers is gonna come from one demand not being what people think it is today. Like the numbers that get reported are just like the. Absolute best, best, best case scenario and then multiplied by three or four times because they’re looking at different options for locating each of the data centers they plan to make. So I think I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with 10% of what people think that we’re gonna get. [00:28:00] Now, the first thing, secondly, people assume that it needs to be 24 7. Just, you know, like a hundred percent reliable power, and that’s. That’s simply, yeah, it’s not, not everything needs to be just, um, you know, done at, at the exact time that it’s requested. There’s heaps of things that can be shifted and uh, when the price differential is there, then people are naturally going to choose that. And in fact, there are already some companies offering different levels of reliability depend, you know, for different prices. And companies can choose which of their processes can be put on hold. Like a lot of the training stuff, you’re happy don’t. Need 99.999% reliability, you’re probably happy with 90% reliability. And so, you know, if it costs a whole lot less than you will, I, I agree with you, Matt, that that’s gonna take most of it. But I do still think that for the, like, super reliable, um, data centers, I, I bet that we see at least one. And even if it’s just because Elon Musk is the type to push something through, um, you know, [00:29:00] first and. Wait for the market to catch up later. Uh, maybe that will be the reason, but I, I honestly think it’s more than 50% likely that we see a data center in space in the next, in the next decade,  Matthew Stead: it would make more sense to like drill a hole to the center of the earth and get the, the hot well cutting rock  Rosemary Barnes: and or there’s also plenty of geothermal. You did thermal projects as well.  Matthew Stead: Yeah, it’s just ridiculous.  Rosemary Barnes: I think that we’ve had our first hot take from Matthew, so I don’t know some sort of sound effect to be added here. Claire. Uh, yeah, Allen Hall 2025: that wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please give us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show. For Rosa, Yolanda and [00:30:00] Matthew, I’m Alan Hall, and we’ll see you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

In this throwback episode, we sit down with Philip Orange, a Texas dealer/operator who's scaled stores, built winning teams, and lived through the market chaos of the last two years.We cover:Why customer experience suffered during the shortage era — and how to fix it nowSurcharges vs rebates (and why OEMs can't “just remove” surcharges)How Philip turned a struggling store into a high-volume operationPackaging accessories through education instead of “market adjustments”The best leadership habit in the episode: the 10 pennies method (10 compliments/day)Getting teams off “COVID mode” and back to process, speed, and follow-upWe post weekly updates, so make sure to subscribe and follow us! If you have any suggestions or want to chat with us, don't hesitate to leave a comment.Listen to More Spotify: ⁠https://spoti.fi/3N9lzfg ⁠Further Episodes Apple Podcast: ⁠https://apple.co/43FoanX ⁠Interviews YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit ⁠Connect with Phillip: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-orange-71a96a20/Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry ⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠Sponsor: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠

STREAMING NOW! Catch the big car retailing stories and all the chatter that matters on this week's Motor Trade Radio podcast, powered by MOTORS & Cazoo.   PLUS! Industry guru Ian Goldbold's content marketing strategies Top Tips for the March plate-change.   Stories under the spotlight include:  

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1280: Steve Greenfield is back as guest host as Hyundai takes aim at Tesla in the humanoid robot race, Ford pushes dealers toward same-day service with factory-backed AI support, and Burger King launches an always-listening “AI manager”.The EV race may be evolving into a robotics race. Hyundai is positioning its Atlas humanoid robot directly against Tesla's Optimus, signaling that the next competitive edge for OEMs could be autonomous labor inside the plant.Both Atlas and Optimus are built on EV fundamentals: batteries, electric motors, advanced sensors, and AI. Hyundai's Atlas boasts a 50kg payload—more than double Optimus' cited 20kg—making it viable for heavier automotive assembly tasks.Hyundai plans plant deployment by 2028, starting with repetitive work like parts kitting before scaling into full assembly integration. Tesla is targeting similar in-house factory use for Optimus.Hyundai is investing $6.3B into a robotics factory and AI infrastructure, while Tesla maintains a cost advantage through vertical integration and in-house AI.Ford wants its franchised dealers fixing most vehicles the same day they arrive. Through a new initiative called Uptime Assist, the OEM is stepping deeper into service operations—targeting faster repairs, better parts flow, and stronger uptime for retail and fleet customers.Uptime Assist monitors every repair order opened by enrolled dealers. If a repair stretches beyond two days, Ford proactively reaches out with technical or parts support.70% of Ford repairs take less than 48 hours, but the network average repair time is still about five days. Since launching, the program has reduced repair times by 10–15%.Dedicated hardware and software hotlines now route dealers directly to specialists, cutting some diagnostic resolution times from eight hours to 20 minutes.Burger King is rolling out an AI-powered platform called BK Assistant that monitors nearly every aspect of restaurant operations—from inventory levels to employee-customer interactions—raising big questions about how AI oversight may reshape frontline work.The system aggregates POS data, inventory, equipment status, scheduling, and even drive-thru conversations into one dashboard for managers.A voice-enabled AI named “Patty” lives inside employee headsets, answering questions and flagging issues in real time.The platform generates a “friendliness score” by listening for phrases like “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.”Today's show is brought to you by ESi-Q. ESi-Q measures employee satisfaction and provides actionable insight into what's driving emplJoin Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

For decades, business aviation has advanced in careful, incremental steps. Better avionics, quieter cabins, and marginal fuel improvements. But true aerodynamic breakthroughs are rare, generational, even. In this highlight from a previous episode of The Aerospace Executive Podcast, we revisit a conversation with Paul Touw, CEO of Otto Aviation, about what may be the most significant leap in private jet design since the high-bypass turbofan. At the center of Otto's aircraft is something aviation has pursued for decades but struggled to control: true laminar flow across both wing and fuselage. The implications are profound.  For business aviation, this means lower operating costs, longer range at lower fuel burn, and the potential to dramatically expand who can afford to fly private. Paul shares how this technology reshapes aircraft economics, how Otto is de-risking certification, and why operators are already placing multibillion-dollar bets.   You'll also learn;  Why laminar flow remained theoretical for decades and what finally made it practical How flying higher unlocks efficiency that traditional jets simply can't achieve Why stealth-era manufacturing and modern computing were the missing pieces What a 50% reduction in fuel burn means for operating cost, maintenance, and market expansion How supplier confidence and Flexjet's multibillion-dollar order validate the program Why clean-sheet aircraft design has been rare, and why Otto believes the timing is now About the Guest Paul Touw is an engineer, entrepreneur, and CEO of Otto Aviation. The Otto Aerospace Phantom 3500 is a masterpiece of engineering, utilizing groundbreaking laminar flow technology, digital design tools, and modern manufacturing techniques to achieve unparalleled efficiency, luxury, and environmental stewardship. Designed for leaders, visionaries, and innovators, the Phantom 3500 sets a new standard in private jet flight where performance and sustainability exist in perfect harmony. To learn more, head to https://ottoaerospace.com/ or connect with Paul on LinkedIn.    About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker, and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers, and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years' experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women's Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association.    For more aerospace industry news & commentary: https://craigpicken.com/insights/.  To learn more about Craig Picken, visit https://craigpicken.com/.  

Chris Cieslak, CEO of BladeBug, joins the show to discuss how their walking robot is making ultrasonic blade inspections faster and more accessible. They cover new horizontal scanning capabilities for lay down yards, blade root inspections for bushing defects, and plans to expand into North America in 2026. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall: Chris, welcome back to the show.  Chris Cieslak: It’s great to be back. Thank you very much for having me on again.  Allen Hall: It’s great to see you in person, and a lot has been happening at Blade Bugs since the last time I saw Blade Bug in person. Yeah, the robot. It looks a lot different and it has really new capabilities.  Chris Cieslak: So we’ve continued to develop our ultrasonic, non-destructive testing capabilities of the blade bug robot. Um, but what we’ve now added to its capabilities is to do horizontal blade scans as well. So we’re able to do blades that are in lay down yards or blades that have come down for inspections as well as up tower. So we can do up tower, down tower inspections. We’re trying to capture. I guess the opportunity to inspect blades after transportation when they get delivered to site, to look [00:01:00] for any transport damage or anything that might have been missed in the factory inspections. And then we can do subsequent installation inspections as well to make sure there’s no mishandling damage on those blades. So yeah, we’ve been just refining what we can do with the NDT side of things and improving its capabilities  Joel Saxum: was that need driven from like market response and people say, Hey, we need, we need. We like the blade blood product. We like what you’re doing, but we need it here. Or do you guys just say like, Hey, this is the next, this is the next thing we can do. Why not?  Chris Cieslak: It was very much market response. We had a lot of inquiries this year from, um, OEMs, blade manufacturers across the board with issues within their blades that need to be inspected on the ground, up the tap, any which way they can. There there was no, um, rhyme or reason, which was better, but the fact that he wanted to improve the ability of it horizontally has led the. Sort of modifications that you’ve seen and now we’re doing like down tower, right? Blade scans. Yeah. A really fast breed. So  Joel Saxum: I think the, the important thing there is too is that because of the way the robot is built [00:02:00] now, when you see NDT in a factory, it’s this robot rolls along this perfectly flat concrete floor and it does this and it does that. But the way the robot is built, if a blade is sitting in a chair trailing edge up, or if it’s flap wise, any which way the robot can adapt to, right? And the idea is. We, we looked at it today and kind of the new cage and the new things you have around it with all the different encoders and for the heads and everything is you can collect data however is needed. If it’s rasterized, if there’s a vector, if there’s a line, if we go down a bond line, if we need to scan a two foot wide path down the middle of the top of the spa cap, we can do all those different things and all kinds of orientations. That’s a fantastic capability.  Chris Cieslak: Yeah, absolutely. And it, that’s again for the market needs. So we are able to scan maybe a meter wide in one sort of cord wise. Pass of that probe whilst walking in the span-wise direction. So we’re able to do that raster scan at various spacing. So if you’ve got a defect that you wanna find that maximum 20 mil, we’ll just have a 20 mil step [00:03:00] size between each scan. If you’ve got a bigger tolerance, we can have 50 mil, a hundred mil it, it’s so tuneable and it removes any of the variability that you get from a human to human operator doing that scanning. And this is all about. Repeatable, consistent high quality data that you can then use to make real informed decisions about the state of those blades and act upon it. So this is not about, um, an alternative to humans. It’s just a better, it’s just an evolution of how humans do it. We can just do it really quick and it’s probably, we, we say it’s like six times faster than a human, but actually we’re 10 times faster. We don’t need to do any of the mapping out of the blade, but it’s all encoded all that data. We know where the robot is as we walk. That’s all captured. And then you end up with really. Consistent data. It doesn’t matter who’s operating a robot, the robot will have those settings preset and you just walk down the blade, get that data, and then our subject matter experts, they’re offline, you know, they are in their offices, warm, cozy offices, reviewing data from multiple sources of robots. And it’s about, you know, improving that [00:04:00] efficiency of getting that report out to the customer and letting ’em know what’s wrong with their blades, actually,  Allen Hall: because that’s always been the drawback of, with NDT. Is that I think the engineers have always wanted to go do it. There’s been crush core transportation damage, which is sometimes hard to see. You can maybe see a little bit of a wobble on the blade service, but you’re not sure what’s underneath. Bond line’s always an issue for engineering, but the cost to take a person, fly them out to look at a spot on a blade is really expensive, especially someone who is qualified. Yeah, so the, the difference now with play bug is you can have the technology to do the scan. Much faster and do a lot of blades, which is what the de market demand is right now to do a lot of blades simultaneously and get the same level of data by the review, by the same expert just sitting somewhere else.  Chris Cieslak: Absolutely.  Joel Saxum: I think that the quality of data is a, it’s something to touch on here because when you send someone out to the field, it’s like if, if, if I go, if I go to the wall here and you go to the wall here and we both take a paintbrush, we paint a little bit [00:05:00] different, you’re probably gonna be better. You’re gonna be able to reach higher spots than I can.  Allen Hall: This is true.  Joel Saxum: That’s true. It’s the same thing with like an NDT process. Now you’re taking the variability of the technician out of it as well. So the data quality collection at the source, that’s what played bug ducts.  Allen Hall: Yeah,  Joel Saxum: that’s the robotic processes. That is making sure that if I scan this, whatever it may be, LM 48.7 and I do another one and another one and another one, I’m gonna get a consistent set of quality data and then it’s goes to analysis. We can make real decisions off.  Allen Hall: Well, I, I think in today’s world now, especially with transportation damage and warranties, that they’re trying to pick up a lot of things at two years in that they could have picked up free installation. Yeah. Or lifting of the blades. That world is changing very rapidly. I think a lot of operators are getting smarter about this, but they haven’t thought about where do we go find the tool.  Speaker: Yeah.  Allen Hall: And, and I know Joel knows that, Hey, it, it’s Chris at Blade Bug. You need to call him and get to the technology. But I think for a lot of [00:06:00] operators around the world, they haven’t thought about the cost They’re paying the warranty costs, they’re paying the insurance costs they’re paying because they don’t have the set of data. And it’s not tremendously expensive to go do. But now the capability is here. What is the market saying? Is it, is it coming back to you now and saying, okay, let’s go. We gotta, we gotta mobilize. We need 10 of these blade bugs out here to go, go take a scan. Where, where, where are we at today?  Chris Cieslak: We’ve hads. Validation this year that this is needed. And it’s a case of we just need to be around for when they come back round for that because the, the issues that we’re looking for, you know, it solves the problem of these new big 80 a hundred meter plus blades that have issues, which shouldn’t. Frankly exist like process manufacturer issues, but they are there. They need to be investigated. If you’re an asset only, you wanna know that. Do I have a blade that’s likely to fail compared to one which is, which is okay? And sort of focus on that and not essentially remove any uncertainty or worry that you have about your assets. ’cause you can see other [00:07:00] turbine blades falling. Um, so we are trying to solve that problem. But at the same time, end of warranty claims, if you’re gonna be taken over these blades and doing the maintenance yourself, you wanna know that what you are being given. It hasn’t gotten any nasties lurking inside that’s gonna bite you. Joel Saxum: Yeah.  Chris Cieslak: Very expensively in a few years down the line. And so you wanna be able to, you know, tick a box, go, actually these are fine. Well actually these are problems. I, you need to give me some money so I can perform remedial work on these blades. And then you end of life, you know, how hard have they lived? Can you do an assessment to go, actually you can sweat these assets for longer. So we, we kind of see ourselves being, you know, useful right now for the new blades, but actually throughout the value chain of a life of a blade. People need to start seeing that NDT ultrasonic being one of them. We are working on other forms of NDT as well, but there are ways of using it to just really remove a lot of uncertainty and potential risk for that. You’re gonna end up paying through the, you know, through the, the roof wall because you’ve underestimated something or you’ve missed something, which you could have captured with a, with a quick inspection.  Joel Saxum: To [00:08:00] me, NDT has been floating around there, but it just hasn’t been as accessible or easy. The knowledge hasn’t been there about it, but the what it can do for an operator. In de-risking their fleet is amazing. They just need to understand it and know it. But you guys with the robotic technology to me, are bringing NDT to the masses  Chris Cieslak: Yeah.  Joel Saxum: In a way that hasn’t been able to be done, done before  Chris Cieslak: that. And that that’s, we, we are trying to really just be able to roll it out at a way that you’re not limited to those limited experts in the composite NDT world. So we wanna work with them, with the C-N-C-C-I-C NDTs of this world because they are the expertise in composite. So being able to interpret those, those scams. Is not a quick thing to become proficient at. So we are like, okay, let’s work with these people, but let’s give them the best quality data, consistent data that we possibly can and let’s remove those barriers of those limited people so we can roll it out to the masses. Yeah, and we are that sort of next level of information where it isn’t just seen as like a nice to have, it’s like an essential to have, but just how [00:09:00] we see it now. It’s not NDT is no longer like, it’s the last thing that we would look at. It should be just part of the drones. It should inspection, be part of the internal crawlers regimes. Yeah, it’s just part of it. ’cause there isn’t one type of inspection that ticks all the boxes. There isn’t silver bullet of NDT. And so it’s just making sure that you use the right system for the right inspection type. And so it’s complementary to drones, it’s complimentary to the internal drones, uh, crawlers. It’s just the next level to give you certainty. Remove any, you know, if you see something indicated on a a on a photograph. That doesn’t tell you the true picture of what’s going on with the structure. So this is really about, okay, I’ve got an indication of something there. Let’s find out what that really is. And then with that information you can go, right, I know a repair schedule is gonna take this long. The downtime of that turbine’s gonna be this long and you can plan it in. ’cause everyone’s already got limited budgets, which I think why NDT hasn’t taken off as it should have done because nobody’s got money for more inspections. Right. Even though there is a money saving to be had long term, everyone is fighting [00:10:00] fires and you know, they’ve really got a limited inspection budget. Drone prices or drone inspections have come down. It’s sort, sort of rise to the bottom. But with that next value add to really add certainty to what you’re trying to inspect without, you know, you go to do a day repair and it ends up being three months or something like, well  Allen Hall: that’s the lightning,  Joel Saxum: right? Allen Hall: Yeah. Lightning is the, the one case where every time you start to scarf. The exterior of the blade, you’re not sure how deep that’s going and how expensive it is. Yeah, and it always amazes me when we talk to a customer and they’re started like, well, you know, it’s gonna be a foot wide scarf, and now we’re into 10 meters and now we’re on the inside. Yeah. And the outside. Why did you not do an NDT? It seems like money well spent Yeah. To do, especially if you have a, a quantity of them. And I think the quantity is a key now because in the US there’s 75,000 turbines worldwide, several hundred thousand turbines. The number of turbines is there. The number of problems is there. It makes more financial sense today than ever because drone [00:11:00]information has come down on cost. And the internal rovers though expensive has also come down on cost. NDT has also come down where it’s now available to the masses. Yeah. But it has been such a mental barrier. That barrier has to go away. If we’re going going to keep blades in operation for 25, 30 years, I  Joel Saxum: mean, we’re seeing no  Allen Hall: way you can do it  Joel Saxum: otherwise. We’re seeing serial defects. But the only way that you can inspect and or control them is with NDT now.  Allen Hall: Sure.  Joel Saxum: And if we would’ve been on this years ago, we wouldn’t have so many, what is our term? Blade liberations liberating  Chris Cieslak: blades.  Joel Saxum: Right, right.  Allen Hall: What about blade route? Can the robot get around the blade route and see for the bushings and the insert issues? Chris Cieslak: Yeah, so the robot can, we can walk circumferentially around that blade route and we can look for issues which are affecting thousands of blades. Especially in North America. Yeah.  Allen Hall: Oh yeah.  Chris Cieslak: So that is an area that is. You know, we are lucky that we’ve got, um, a warehouse full of blade samples or route down to tip, and we were able to sort of calibrate, verify, prove everything in our facility to [00:12:00] then take out to the field because that is just, you know, NDT of bushings is great, whether it’s ultrasonic or whether we’re using like CMS, uh, type systems as well. But we can really just say, okay, this is the area where the problem is. This needs to be resolved. And then, you know, we go to some of the companies that can resolve those issues with it. And this is really about played by being part of a group of technologies working together to give overall solutions  Allen Hall: because the robot’s not that big. It could be taken up tower relatively easily, put on the root of the blade, told to walk around it. You gotta scan now, you know. It’s a lot easier than trying to put a technician on ropes out there for sure.  Chris Cieslak: Yeah.  Allen Hall: And the speed up it.  Joel Saxum: So let’s talk about execution then for a second. When that goes to the field from you, someone says, Chris needs some help, what does it look like? How does it work?  Chris Cieslak: Once we get a call out, um, we’ll do a site assessment. We’ve got all our rams, everything in place. You know, we’ve been on turbines. We know the process of getting out there. We’re all GWO qualified and go to site and do their work. Um, for us, we can [00:13:00] turn up on site, unload the van, the robot is on a blade in less than an hour. Ready to inspect? Yep. Typically half an hour. You know, if we’ve been on that same turbine a number of times, it’s somewhere just like clockwork. You know, muscle memory comes in, you’ve got all those processes down, um, and then it’s just scanning. Our robot operator just presses a button and we just watch it perform scans. And as I said, you know, we are not necessarily the NDT experts. We obviously are very mindful of NDT and know what scans look like. But if there’s any issues, we have a styling, we dial in remote to our supplement expert, they can actually remotely take control, change the settings, parameters.  Allen Hall: Wow.  Chris Cieslak: And so they’re virtually present and that’s one of the beauties, you know, you don’t need to have people on site. You can have our general, um, robot techs to do the work, but you still have that comfort of knowing that the data is being overlooked if need be by those experts.  Joel Saxum: The next level, um, commercial evolution would be being able to lease the kit to someone and or have ISPs do it for [00:14:00] you guys kinda globally, or what is the thought  Chris Cieslak: there? Absolutely. So. Yeah, so we to, to really roll this out, we just wanna have people operate in the robots as if it’s like a drone. So drone inspection companies are a classic company that we see perfectly aligned with. You’ve got the sky specs of this world, you know, you’ve got drone operator, they do a scan, they can find something, put the robot up there and get that next level of information always straight away and feed that into their systems to give that insight into that customer. Um, you know, be it an OEM who’s got a small service team, they can all be trained up. You’ve got general turbine technicians. They’ve all got G We working at height. That’s all you need to operate the bay by road, but you don’t need to have the RAA level qualified people, which are in short supply anyway. Let them do the jobs that we are not gonna solve. They can do the big repairs we are taking away, you know, another problem for them, but giving them insights that make their job easier and more successful by removing any of those surprises when they’re gonna do that work.  Allen Hall: So what’s the plans for 2026 then? Chris Cieslak: 2026 for us is to pick up where 2025 should have ended. [00:15:00] So we were, we were meant to be in the States. Yeah. On some projects that got postponed until 26. So it’s really, for us North America is, um, what we’re really, as you said, there’s seven, 5,000 turbines there, but there’s also a lot of, um, turbines with known issues that we can help determine which blades are affected. And that involves blades on the ground, that involves blades, uh, that are flying. So. For us, we wanna get out to the states as soon as possible, so we’re working with some of the OEMs and, and essentially some of the asset owners.  Allen Hall: Chris, it’s so great to meet you in person and talk about the latest that’s happening. Thank you. With Blade Bug, if people need to get ahold of you or Blade Bug, how do they do that?  Chris Cieslak: I, I would say LinkedIn is probably the best place to find myself and also Blade Bug and contact us, um, through that.  Allen Hall: Alright, great. Thanks Chris for joining us and we will see you at the next. So hopefully in America, come to America sometime. We’d love to see you there.  Chris Cieslak: Thank you very [00:16:00] much.

The modern automotive industry faces many new challenges, as vehicles evolve with more complex data requirements and supply chains become increasingly interconnected, major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) require certain Standards as a mark of trust from potential suppliers. Currently, this trust is codified in TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange). For businesses that have not previously dealt with Standards, TISAX can be seen as a daunting regulatory hurdle. However, a TISAX label is more than a compliance check, it's a recognised mark that your organisation has robust information security measures in place specific to the automotive industry, including considerations for protecting key intellectual property and prototype innovations. In this episode, Ian Battersby is joined by Emma Coxhill, isologist at Blackmores, to explore what TISAX is, who it applies to, what it requires and how OEM's and automotive suppliers can take their first steps towards earning a TISAX label.   You'll learn ·      What is TISAX? ·      Who is TISAX applicable to? ·      Why is TISAX important? ·      What are the 3 assessment levels within TISAX? ·      What are the 3 different subject areas within TISAX? ·      How is TISAX implemented? ·      Why does TISAX use labels instead of certificates – and how can people verify these? ·      What is the ENX portal and how does this help with supplier onboarding? ·      Where should companies start if they want to earn a TISAX label?   Resources ·      Register for our TISAX webinar here ·      ENX ·      Isologyhub   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – Emma Coxhill joins Ian to dive into the topic of TISAX, including who it's applicable to, why it's important and how businesses can make a start on earning a TISAX label. [03:40] What is TISAX? TISAX was developed for the automotive industry by the German Association of the Automotive Industry, VDA, and it's managed by the ENX Association. It's based on the ISO 27001 Annex A controls, and was created for the automotive industry because they were looking to standardise the framework for assessing and sharing information security results between manufacturers and their suppliers. [04:40] Who is TISAX applicable to? While applicable to the automotive industry, it encompasses quite a lot of businesses within this. This is because is applies to any organisation that handles sensitive data relating to vehicle development, manufacture and marketing. So, this can include any company providing car parts, vehicle software, cloud services, testing labs, engineering etc. Basically, any service providers to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will be applicable. TISAX can also be applicable for those dealing with automotive related events, marketing and photography, as new models are protected IP and will require related business to prove that they have the correct security requirements to ensure any potential prototypes are protected. [06:50] Why is TISAX important? Mainly, it gives the automotive industry a trusted, standardised way to ensure information security across the entire supply chain. Without it, the OEMs and suppliers can conduct their own audits, but it'll be their own interpretations or what is considered an adequate level of security. The industry saw this as an open door to chaos, so TISAX was created to protect highly confidential automotive information and support compliance with relevant data protection laws. However, now it's not so much a 'nice to have' Standard as it is a requirement to trade, especially within Europe. It's fast becoming a tender requirement, and many OEMs won't make it past the procurement process without a valid TISAX label. The ENX portal, where labels are registered, can also help speed up the on-boarding process. So, the whole TISAX system has been built for ease of access to help manufacturers choose suppliers that prioritise information security. [09:00] What's the consequence of not having a TISAX label? A loss of opportunities. Those within the automotive industry that don't have a valid label will be seen as a security risk, leaving them at a competitive disadvantage. [10:30] What are the 3 levels within TISAX? Unlike ISO 27001, TISAX has levels that depend on the level of data sensitivity that you're dealing with. Level 1: Self-assessment – Considered as 'normal risk' with general processing of data. Level 2: Remote Audit – Applicable to those dealing with confidential information such as design documents or internal projects. This requires both a self-assessment and an audit. Level 3: On-site Assessment – Highly confidential information, so this applies to those dealing with sensitive research, development information or prototype data etc. This requires a physical on-site assessment, as the qualified TISAX auditor will need to ensure that you have the appropriate physical security measures in place. Most businesses will require level 2, but if you're looking to work with high-spec OEMs, then level 3 is more desirable. [12:00] What are the 3 subject areas within TISAX? The 3 main areas are as follows: Information Security: This covers general information security controls such as relevant policies, access controls, risk management, incident handling and secure operations. Prototype Protection: This focuses on safeguarding physical and digital prototypes, design data, test vehicles and confidential development information. Data Protection: This ensures proper handling of personal data in line with legal requirements such as GDPR. If you're just doing a self-assessment, you can pick the areas which are most relevant to you. If you've been requested to earn a TISAX label, they will usually provide you with their preference on subject areas. Many will opt to take information security, but data protection is also quite common. The prototype section is more specialist and not applicable to all businesses. [14:00] How is TISAX implemented? There are a few stages to gaining a TISAX label: Awareness – Learn the requirements for TISAX and planning for the project ahead. This may include asking your clients about what they expect of your from an information security perspective and working out costs for assessments and any additional support. The ENX website has a lot of really useful info, including a handbook and a copy of the self-assessment. Preparation – This is where you need to complete your TISAX scope and register yourself on the ENX portal. Your scope needs to specify your selected level (1,2 or 3) and the subject areas you'll be focusing on. You also need to include the locations within scope, which have to be listed one by one (not simply 'all offices in the UK' for example). Self-Assessment – The template for this can be downloaded from the ENX website. This is essentially a Gap Analysis that grades your current level of compliance with the TISAX requirements. It includes a scoring mechanism, where you'll be aiming to get a 2.71, as that's the pass rate. This self-assessment will highlight what gaps you need to fill before going ahead with an external assessment. Implementation – This is where you will bridge those gaps highlighted in the Self-assessment. This will involve creating the required documentation requested by TISAX and updating existing systems to align with requirements. Before going ahead with external assessments, we highly recommend you conduct some internal audits to ensure you're ready. External Assessment – Whether this is remote or on-site, you need an official TISAX auditor to perform the assessment. A list of approved TISAX auditors is available on the ENX portal, we recommend getting a few quotes to get the best price. We also recommend requesting a kick-off meeting so you can have a chat with your auditor about the requirements and how they'd like to review the required evidence of compliance. The Assessments are similar to that of an ISO certification, it's broken down into 2 segments. One is a document/evidence review and the other is done with both parties present to go through their findings, review further evidence and to question any gaps found. Again, similar to ISO, you may receive either minor non-conformities, non-conformities, opportunities for improvement or observations in their final report. If you get any non-conformities, you'll need to provide an action plan within 2 weeks following from your assessment to address them. You will then be allowed a few months to implement the corrections, which will be reviewed and approved by the auditor before receiving your label. If you only received opportunities for improvement then you'll get a label straight away. [20:40] Why does TISAX use labels instead of certificates – and how can people verify these? Taking ISO 27001 as a comparison, that certification has a blanket framework that can apply to every business. While you can exclude small bits, the vast majority applies to everyone. TISAX is more scaled based on the level of security you're dealing with. Businesses can pick both different levels and different subject areas for their Label. Another key difference is that Labels can only be verified through the ENX portal, this is where other TISAX clients can see who has what Label, including the details of level and selected subject areas. Business can still chose to state TISAX compliance on their website, but the details regarding the level of compliance only need to be seen be relevant individuals. [22:05] What is the ENX portal and how does this help with supplier onboarding? The ENX portal is accessible through the ENX website. It does require a fee to make an account, but this is where everything related to TISAX is managed. This is where you will upload your scope and findings and it's where Labels are assigned and documented for suppliers to search for. There are options for how much information you want to disclose within those public searches, allowing you to select the need for contacting for further information. The ENX portal can help massively in reducing the amount of supplier questionnaires you need to fill in, as those looking for automotive suppliers will simply look up your TISAX Label to verify if you have the required level of security to continue with the procurement process. [24:50] Where should companies start if they want to earn a TISAX label? If you're just diving in, we recommend you do some research first to fully understand what you're expected to do to earn a Label and how much the process will cost. Next you'll need to define your scope, so look at what sites need to be included and identify relevant client requirements in relation to TISAX. This is to ensure you're going for the right Level and subject areas. Next evaluate your internal resource for the project and related budget. As mentioned, you will need to pay to register on the ENX portal and you need to consider Assessment costs and any additional support costs should you need consultancy services. You'll also need to assign individuals to manage the project, which will include completing the self-assessment, updating your policies, procedures and documentation to align with the requirements and possibly conduct training if required. This isn't a 2 week project, realistic timescales will vary, but generally if you're starting from scratch you're looking at 9-12 months. If you have ISO 27001 in place already this could be reduced to 6-8 months. As with anything Standard related, leadership commitment is a big factor as you'll need their help and support to ensure the projects success. If you need additional help, reach out to consultants such as Blackmores to help guide you through the process.   [28:05] Upcoming TISAX Webinar – Join us on the 18th March 2026 at 2pm for a webinar where we'll dive into TISAX further and provide practical guidance on how to complete the VDA Self-Assessment. Attendees will also get access to some freebies. So don't delay, register your place here today. We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

In Part 2, Mark Sheffield takes on the biggest challenges in the powersports industry—dealer/manufacturer tension, volume bonuses, co-op pressure, and the race to the bottom hurting profitability.He shares why open dialogue matters, how his perspective shifted with BRP, and why digital lead follow-up may be the industry's most overlooked opportunity.Candid, bold, and focused on helping dealers win.

Pharmaceutical packaging is undergoing rapid transformation as connectivity, sustainability, automation, and evolving regulatory demands reshape how medicines are protected, tracked, and delivered. From smart packaging features and prefilled injectables to e-commerce fulfillment and digital compliance systems, packaging and equipment investment decisions are increasingly tied to flexibility, data visibility, and long-term modernization. In this episode of Off Script, we spoke with Rebecca Marquez, director of custom research at PMMI, about the association's latest Trends and Challenges in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing white paper. The conversation explores how connected packaging technologies are strengthening relationships between manufacturers, regulators, and patients; why sustainability initiatives are advancing despite material performance and validation challenges; and how growth in biologics and prefilled injectables is driving new packaging and equipment demands. Marquez also breaks down the regulatory documentation gap between OEMs and end users, the rise of automation technologies, and more.

Allen, Rosemary, and Yolanda, joined by Morten Handberg from Wind Power LAB, recap WOMA 2026 live from Melbourne. The crew discusses leading edge erosion challenges unique to Australia, the frustration operators face getting data from full service agreements, and the push for better documentation during project handovers. Plus the birds and bats management debate, why several operators said they’d choose smaller glass fiber blades over bigger carbon fiber ones, and what topics WOMA 2027 should tackle next year. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! [00:00:00] The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by Strike Tape protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit strike tape.com and now your hosts. Welcome to the Uptime Winner Energy podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall. I’m here with Yolanda Pone, Rosemary Barnes, and the Blade Whisperer, Morton Hamburg. And we’re all in Melbourne at the Pullman on the park. We just finished up Woma 2026. Massive event. Over 200 people, two days, and a ton of knowledge. Rosemary, what did you think? Yeah, I mean it was a, a really good event. It was really nice ’cause we had event organization, um, taken care of by an external company this time. So that saved us some headaches, I think. Um. But yeah, it was, it was really good. It was different than last year, and I think next year will be different again because yeah, we don’t need to talk about the same topics every single year. But, um, yeah, I got really great [00:01:00] feedback. So that’s shows we’re doing something right? Yeah, a lot of the, the sessions were based upon feedback from Australian industry and, uh, so we did AI rotating bits, the, the drive train blades. Uh, we had a. Master class on lightning to start off. Uh, a number of discussions about BOP and electrical, BOP. All those were really good. Mm-hmm. Uh, the, the content was there, the expertise was there. We had worldwide representation. Morton, you, you talked about blades a good bit and what the Danish and Worldwide experience was. You know, talked about the American experience on Blades. That opened up a lot of discussions because I’m never really sure where Australia is in the, uh, operations side, because a lot of it is full service agreements still. But it does seem like from last year to this year. There’s more onboarding of the technical expertise internally at the operators. Martin, [00:02:00] you saw, uh, a good bit of it. This is your first time mm-hmm. At this conference. What were your impressions of the, the content and the approach, which is a little bit different than any other conference? I see an industry that really wants to learn, uh, Australia, they really want to learn how to do this. Uh, and they’re willing to listen to us, uh, whether you live in Australia, in the US or in Europe. You know, they want to lean on our experiences, but they wanna, you know, they want to take it out to their wind farms and they ga then gain their own knowledge with it, which I think is really amicable. You know, something that, you know, we should actually try and think about how we can copy that in Europe and the US. Because they, they are, they’re listening to us and they’re taking in our input, and then they try and go out. They go out and then they, they try and implement it. Um, so I think really that is something, uh, I’ve learned, you know, and, and really, um, yeah, really impressed by, from this conference. Yeah. Yolanda, you were on several panels over the, the two days. What were your impressions of the conference and what were your thoughts [00:03:00] on the Australia marketplace? I think the conference itself is very refreshing or I think we all feel that way being on the, on the circuit sometimes going on a lot of different conferences. It was really sweet to see everybody be very collaborative, as Morton was saying. Um, and it was, it was just really great about everybody. Yes, they were really willing to listen to us, but they were also really willing to share with each other, which is nice. Uh, I did hear about a few trials that we’re doing in other places. From other people, just kind of, everybody wants to learn from each other and everybody wants to, to make sure they’re in as best a spot as they can. Yeah, and the, the, probably the noisiest part of the conferences were at the coffees and the lunch. Uh, the, the collaboration was really good. A lot of noise in the hallways. Uh, just people getting together and then talking about problems, talking about solutions, trying to connect up with someone they may have seen [00:04:00]somewhere else in the part of the world that they were here. It’s a different kind of conference. And Rosemary, I know when, uh, you came up to with a suggestion like, Hey. If there’s not gonna be any sales talks, we’re not gonna sit and watch a 30 minute presentation about what you do. We’re gonna talk about solutions. That did play a a different dynamic because. It allowed people to ingest at their own rate and, and not just sit through another presentation. Yeah. It was made it more engaging, I think. Yeah, and I mean, anyway, the approach that I take for sales for my company that I think works best is not to do the hard sell. It’s to talk about smart things. Um, and if you are talking about describing a problem or a solution that somebody in the audience has that problem or solution, then they’re gonna seek you out afterwards. And so. There’s plenty of sales happening in an event like this, but you’re just not like, you know, subjecting people to sales. It’s more presenting them with the information that they need. And then I, I think also the size of the conference really [00:05:00] helps ’cause yeah, about 200 people. Any, everybody is here for the same technical kind. Content. So it’s like if you just randomly start talking to somebody while you’re waiting for a coffee or whatever, you have gonna have heaps to talk about with them, with ev every single other person there. And so I think that that’s why, yeah, there was so much talking happening and you know, we had social events, um, the first two evenings and so. Mo like I was surprised actually. So many people stayed. Most people, maybe everybody stayed for those events and so just so much talking and yeah, we did try to have quite long breaks, um, and quite a lot of them and, you know, good enough food and coffee to keep people here. And I think that that’s as important as, you know, just sitting and listening. Well, that was part of the trouble, some of the conference that you and I have been at, it’s just like six hours of sitting down listening to sort of a droning mm-hmm. Presenter trying to sell you something. Here we were. It was back and forth. A lot more panel talk with experts from around the world and then.[00:06:00] Break because you just can’t absorb all that without having a little bit of a brain rest, some coffee and just trying to get to the next session. I, I think that made it, uh, a, a, a more of a takeaway than I would say a lot of other conferences are, where there’s spender booze, and. Brochures and samples being handed out and all that. We didn’t have any of that. No vendor booze, no, uh, upfront sales going on and even into the workshop. So there was specific, uh, topics provided by people that. Provide services mostly, uh, speaking about what they do, but more on a case study, uh, side. And Rosie, you and I sat in on one that was about, uh, birds and bats, birds and bats in Australia. That one was really good. Yeah, that was great. I learned, I learned a lot. Your mind was blown, but Totally. Yeah. It is crazy how much, how much you have to manage, um, bird and wildlife deaths related to wind farms in Australia. Like compared to, I mean, ’cause you see. Dead birds all the time, right? Cars hit [00:07:00] birds, birds hit buildings, power lines kill birds, and no one cares about those birds. But if a bird is injured near a wind farm, then you know, everybody has to stop. We have to make sure that you can do a positive id. If you’re not sure, send it away for a DNA analysis. Keep the bird in a freezer for a year and make sure that it’s logged by the, you know, appropriate people. It’s, it’s really a lot. And I mean, on the one hand, like I’m a real bird lover, so I am, I’m glad that birds are being taken seriously, but on the other hand, I. I think that it is maybe a little bit over the top, like I don’t see extra birds being saved because of that level of, of watching throughout the entire life of the wind farm. It feels more like something for the pre-study and the first couple of years of operation, and then you can chill after that if everything’s under control. But I, I guess it’s quite a political issue because people do. Do worry about, about beds and bats? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I thought the output of that was more technology, a little or a little more technology. Not a lot of technology in today’s world [00:08:00] because we could definitely monitor for where birds are and where bats are and, uh, you know. Slow down the turbines or whatever we’re gonna do. Yeah. And they are doing that in, in sites where there is a problem. But, um, yeah, the sites we’re talking about with that monitoring, that’s not sites that have a big, big problem at sites that are just Yeah, a few, a few birds dying every year. Um, yeah. So it’s interesting. And some of the blade issues in Australia, or a little unique, I thought, uh, the leading edge erosion. Being a big one. Uh, I’ve seen a lot of leading edge erosion over the last couple of weeks from Australia. It is Texas Times two in some cases. And, uh, the discussion that was had about leading edge erosion, we had ETT junker from Stack Raft and, and video form all the way from Sweden, uh, talking to us live, which was really nice actually. Uh, the, the amount of knowledge that the Global Blade group. Brought to the discussion and just [00:09:00] opening up some eyes about what matters in leading edge erosion. It’s not so much the leading edge erosion in terms of a EP, although there is some a EP loss. It’s more about structural damage and if you let the structure go too far. And Martin, you’ve seen a lot of this, and I think we had a discussion about this on the podcast of, Hey, pay attention to the structural damage. Yeah, that’s where, that’s where your money is. I mean, if you go, if you get into structural damage, then your repair costs and your downtime will multiply. That is just a known fact. So it’s really about keeping it, uh, coding related because then you can, you can, you can move really fast. You can get it the blade up to speed and you won’t have the same problems. You won’t have to spend so much time rebuilding the blade. So that’s really what you need to get to. I do think that one of the things that might stand out in Australia that we’re going to learn about. Is the effect of hail, because we talked a lot about it in Europe, that, you know, what is the effect of, of hail on leading edge erosion? We’ve never really been able to nail it down, but down here I heard from an, [00:10:00] from an operator that they, they, uh, referenced mangoes this year in terms of hail size. It was, it was, it was incredible. So if you think about that hitting a leading edge, then, uh, well maybe we don’t really need to, we don’t really get to the point where, so coding related, maybe we will be structural from the beginning, but. Then at least it can be less a structural. Um, but that also means that we need to think differently in terms of leading edge, uh, protection and what kinds of solutions that are there. Maybe some of the traditional ones we have in Europe, maybe they just don’t work, want, they, they won’t work in some part of Australia. Australia is so big, so we can’t just say. Northern Territory is the same as as, uh, uh, um, yeah. Victoria or uh, or Queensland. Or Queensland or West Australia. I think that what we’re probably going to learn is that there will be different solutions fitting different parts of Australia, and that will be one of the key challenges. Um, yeah. And Blades in Australia sometimes do. Arrive without leading edge protection from the OEMs. [00:11:00] Yeah, I’m sure some of the sites that I’ve been reviewing recently that the, the asset manager swears it’s got leading edge protection and even I saw some blades on the ground and. I don’t, I don’t see any leading edge protection. I can’t feel any leading edge protection. Like maybe it’s a magical one that’s, you know, invisible and, um, yeah, it doesn’t even feel different, but I suspect that some people are getting blades that should have been protected that aren’t. Um, so why? Yeah, it’s interesting. I think before we, we rule it out. Then there are some coatings that really look like the original coating. Mm. So we, we, I know that for some of the European base that what they come out of a factory, you can’t really see the difference, but they’re multilayer coating, uh, on the blades. What you can do is that you can check your, uh, your rotor certificate sometimes will be there. You can check your, uh, your blade sheet, uh, that you get from manufacturer. If you get it. Um, if you get it, then it will, it will be there. But, um, yeah, I, I mean, it can be difficult to say, to see from the outset and there’s no [00:12:00]documentation then. Yeah, I mean. If I can’t see any leading edge erosion protection, and I don’t know if it’s there or not, I don’t think I will go so far and then start installing something on something that is essentially a new blade. I would probably still put it into operation because most LEP products that can be installed up tower. So I don’t think that that necessarily is, is something we should, shouldn’t still start doing just because we suspect there isn’t the LEP. But one thing that I think is gonna be really good is, um, you know, after the sessions and you know, I’ve been talking a lot. With my clients about, um, leading edge erosion. People are now aware that it’s coming. I think the most important thing is to plan for it. It’s not right to get to the point where you’ve got half a dozen blades with, you know, just the full leading edge, just fully missing holes through your laminate, and then your rest of your blades have all got laminate damage. That’s not the time to start thinking about it because one, it’s a lot more expensive for each repair than it would’ve been, but also. No one’s got the budget to, to get through all of that in one season. So I do really [00:13:00] like that, you know, some of the sites that have been operating for five years or so are starting to see pitting. They can start to plan that into their budget now and have a strategy for how they’re going to approach it. Um, yeah. And hopefully avoid getting over to the point where they’ve missing just the full leading edge of some of their blades. Yeah. But to Morton’s earlier point, I think it’s also important for people to stop the damage once it happens too. If, if it’s something that. You get a site or for what, whatever reason, half of your site does look like terrible and there’s holes in the blade and stuff. You need to, you need to patch it up in some sort of way and not just wait for the perfect product to come along to, to help you with that. Some of the hot topics this week were the handover. From, uh, development into production and the lack of documentation during the transfer. Uh, the discussion from Tilt was that you need to make sure it is all there, uh, because once you sign off. You probably can’t go back and get it. And [00:14:00] some of the frustration around that and the, the amount of data flow from the full service provider to the operator seemed to be a, a really hot topic. And, and, uh, we did a little, uh, surveyed a about that. Just the amount of, um, I don’t know how to describe it. I mean, it was bordering on anger maybe is a way. Describe it. Uh, that they feel that operators feel like they don’t have enough insight to run the turbines and the operations as well as they can, and that they should have more insight into what they have operating and why it is not operat. A certain way or where did the blades come from? Are there issues with those blades? Just the transparency WA was lacking. And we had Dan Meyer, who is from the States, he’s from Colorado, he was an xge person talking about contracts, uh, the turbine supply agreement and what should be in there, the full service [00:15:00] agreement, what should be in there. Those are very interesting. I thought a lot of, uh, operators are very attentive to that, just to give themselves an advantage of what you can. Put on paper to help yourself out and what you should think about. And if you have a existing wind farm from a certain OEM and you’re gonna buy another wind farm from ’em, you ought to be taking the lessons learned. And I, I thought that was a, a very important discussion. The second one was on repairs. And what you see from the field, and I know Yolanda’s been looking at a lot of repairs. Well, all of you have been looking at repairs in Australia. What’s your feeling on sort of the repairs and the quality of repairs and the amount of data that comes along with it? Are we at a place that we should be, or do we need a little more detail as to what’s happening out there? It’s one of the big challenges with the full service agreements is that, you know, if everything’s running smoothly, then repairs are getting done, but the information isn’t. Usually getting passed on. And so it’s seems fine and it seems like really good actually. Probably if you’re an [00:16:00] asset manager and everything’s just being repaired without you ever knowing about it, perfect. But then at some point when something does happen, you’ve got no history and especially like even before handover. You need to know all of the repairs that have happened for, you know, for or exchanges for any components because you know, you’re worried about, um, serial defects, for example. You need every single one. ’cause the threshold is quite high to, you know, ever reach a serial defect. So you wanna know if there were five before there was a handover. Include that in your population. Um, yeah, so that’s probably the biggest problem with repairs is that they’re just not being. Um, the reports aren’t being handed over. You know, one of the things that Jeremy Hanks from C-I-C-N-D-T, and he’s an NDT expert and has, has seen about everything was saying, is that you really need to understand what’s happening deep inside the blade, particularly for inserts or, uh, at the root, uh, even up in, with some, some Cory interactions happening or splicing that It’s hard to [00:17:00] see that hard to just take a drone inspection and go, okay, I know what’s happening. You need a little more technology in there at times, especially if you have a serial defect. Why do you have a serial defect? Do you need to be, uh, uh, scanning the, the blade a little more deeply, which hasn’t really happened too much in Australia, and I think there’s some issues I’ve seen where it may come into use. Yeah, I think it, it, it’ll be coming soon. I know some people are bringing stuff in. I’ve got emails sitting in my inbox I need to chase up, but I’m, I’m really going to, to get more into that. Yeah. And John Zalar brought up a very similar, uh, note during his presentation. Go visit your turbines. Yeah, several people said that. Um, actually Liz said that too. Love it. And, um, let’s this, yeah, you just gotta go have a look. Oh, Barend, I think said bar said it too. Go on site. Have a look at the lunchroom. If the lunch room’s tidy, then you know, win turbine’s gonna be tidy too. And I don’t know about that ’cause I’ve seen some tidy lunchroom that were associated with some, you know, uh, less well performing assets, but it’s, you know, it’s [00:18:00] a good start. What are we gonna hope for in 2027? What should we. Be talking about it. What do you think we’ll be talking about a year from now? Well, a few people, quite a few people mentioned to me that they were here, they’re new in the industry, and they heard this was the event to go to. Um, and so I, I was always asking them was it okay? ’cause we pitch it quite technical and I definitely don’t wanna reduce. How technical it is. One thing I thought of was maybe we start with a two to five minute introduction, maybe prerecorded about the, the topic, just to know, like for example, um, we had some sessions on rotating equipment. Um, I’m a Blades person. I don’t know that much about rotating equipment, so maybe, you know, we just explain this is where the pitch bearings are. They do this and you know, there’s the main bearing and it, you know, it does this and just a few minutes like that to orient people. Think that could be good. Last, uh, this year we did a, a masterclass on lightning, a half day masterclass. Maybe we change that topic every year. Maybe next year it’s blade design, [00:19:00] certification, manufacturing. Um, and then, you know, the next year, whatever, open to suggestions. I mean, in general, we’re open to suggestions, right? Like people write in and, and tell us what you’d wanna see. Um, absolutely. I think we could focus more on technologies might be an, an area like. It’s a bit, it’s a bit hard ’cause it gets salesy, but Yeah. I think one thing that could actually be interesting and that, uh, there was one guy came up with an older turbine on the LPS system. Mm. Where he wanted to look for a solution and some of the wind farms are getting older and it’s older technology. So maybe having some, uh, uh, some sessions on that. Because the older turbines, they are vastly different from what we, what we see in the majority with wind farms today. But the maintenance of those are just as important. And if you do that correctly, they’re much easier to lifetime extent than it will likely be for some of the nuance. But, you know, let. Knock on wood. Um, but, but I think that’s something that could be really interesting and really relevant for the industry and something [00:20:00] that we don’t talk enough about. Yeah. Yeah, that’s true because I, I’m working on a lot of old wind turbines now, and that has been, um, quite a challenge for me because they’re design and built in a way that’s quite different to when, you know, I was poking, designing and building, uh, wind turbine components. So that’s a good one. Other people mentioned end of life. Mm-hmm. Not just like end of life, like the life is over, but how do you decide when the life end of life is going to be? ’cause you know, like you have a planned life and then you might like to extend, but then you discover you’ve got a serial issue. Are you gonna fix it? Or you know, how are you gonna fix it? Those are all very interesting questions that, um, can occur. And then also, yeah, what to do with the. The stuff at the end of the Wind Farm lifetime, we could make a half day around those kinds of sessions. I think recycling could actually be good to, to also touch upon and, and I think, yeah, Australia is more on the front of that because of, of your high focus on, on nature and sustainability. So looking at, well, what do we do with these blades? Or what do we do with the towers of foundation once, uh, [00:21:00] once we do need to decommission them, you know, what is, what are we going to do in Australia about that? Or what is Australia going to do about that? But, you know, what can we bring to the, to the table that that can help drive that discussion? I think maybe too, helping people sort of templates for their formats on, on how to successfully shadow, monitor, maybe showing them a bit mute, more of, uh. Like cases and stuff, so to get them going a bit more. ’cause we heard a lot of people too say, oh, we’re, we’re teetering on whether we should self operate or whether we continue our FSA, but we, we we’re kind of, we don’t know what we’re doing. Yeah. In, in not those words. Right. But just providing a bit more of a guidance too. On that side, we say shadow monitoring and I think we all know what it means. If you’ve seen it done, if you haven’t seen it done before. It seems daunting. Mm-hmm. What do you mean shadow monitoring? You mean you got a crack into the SCADA system? Does that mean I’ve gotta, uh, put CMS out there? Do I do, do I have to be out [00:22:00] on site all the time? The answer that is no to all of those. But there are some fundamental things you do need to do to get to the shadow monitoring that feels good. And the easy one is if there’s drone inspections happening because your FSA, you find out who’s doing the drone inspections and you pay ’em for a second set of drone inspections, just so you have a validation of it, you can see it. Those are really inexpensive ways to shadow monitor. Uh, but I, I do think we say a lot of terms like that in Australia because we’ve seen it done elsewhere that. Doesn’t really translate. And I, if I, I’m always kind of looking at Rosemary, like, does it, this make sense? What I’m saying makes sense, Rosemary, because it’s hard to tell because so many operators are in sort of a building mode. I, I see it as. When I talked to them a few years ago, they’re completely FSA, they had really small staffs. Now the staffs are growing much larger, which makes me feel like they’re gonna transition out an FSA. Do we need to provide a little more, uh, insight into how that is done deeper. [00:23:00] Like, these are the tools you, you will need. This is the kind of people you need to have on staff. This is how you’re gonna organize it, and this is the re these are the resources that you should go after. Mm. Does that make a little si more sense? Yeah. That might be a good. Uh, idea for getting somebody who’s, you know, working for a company that is shadow monitoring overseas and bring them in and they can talk through what that, what that means exactly. And that goes back to the discussion we were having earlier today by having operators talk about how they’re running their operations. Mm. And I know the last year we tried to have everybody do that and, and they were standoffish. I get it. Because you don’t want to disclose things that your company doesn’t want out in public. And year two, it felt like there’s a little more. Openness about that. Yeah, there was a few people were quite open about, um, yeah, talking about challenges and some successes as well. I think we’ll have more successes next year ’cause we’ve got more, more things going on. But yeah, definitely would encourage any operators to think about what’s a you A case study that you could give about? Yeah, it could just be a problem that’s unsolved and I bet you’ll find people that wanna help you [00:24:00] solve that problem. Or it could be something that you struggled with and then you’re doing a better job and Yeah, I mean the. Some operators think that they’re in competition with each other and some think that they’re not really, and the answer is somewhere, somewhere in the middle. There are, you know, some at least small amounts of competition. But, you know, I just, I just really think that. We’re fighting against each other, trying to win within the wind industry. Then, you know, in 10, 20 years time, especially in Australia, there won’t be any new wind. It’ll just be wind and solar everywhere and, and the energy transition stalled because everyone knows that’s not gonna get us all the way to, you know, a hundred percent renewables. So, um, I do think that we need to, first of all, fight for wind energy to improve. The status quo is not good enough to take us through the next 20 years. So we do need to collaborate to get better. And then, yeah, I don’t know, once we’re, once we’re one, wind has won, then we can go back to fighting amongst ourselves, I guess. Is Australia that [00:25:00] laboratory? Yeah, I think I, I say it all the time. I think Australia is the perfect place because I, I do think we’re a little bit more naturally collaborative. For some reason, I don’t know why, it’s not really like a, a cultural thing, but seems to be the case in Australian wind. Um, and also our, our problems are harder than, uh, than what’s being faced elsewhere. I mean, America has some specific problems right now that are, you know, worse, but in general, operating environment is very harsh Here. We’re so spread out. Everything is so expensive. Cranes are so expensive. Repairs are so expensive. Spares spare. Yeah, spares are crazy expensive. You know, I look every now and then and do reports for people about, you know, what, what’s the average cost for and times for repairs and you know, you get an American values and it’s like, okay, well at a minimum times by five Australia and you know, so. It, there’s a lot more bang for buck. And the other thing is we just do not have enough, um, enough people, enough. Uh, we’ve got some really smart people. We need a lot more [00:26:00] people that are as smart as that. And you can’t just get that immediately. Like there has been a lot of good transfer over from related industries. A lot of people that spoke so that, you know, they used to work for thermal power plants and, um, railway, a guy that spoke to a guy had come in from railway. Um. That’s, that’s really good. But it will take some years to get them up to speed. And so in the meantime, we just need to use technology as much as we can to be able to, you know, make the people that good people that we do have, you know, make them go a lot further, um, increase what they can do. ’cause yeah, I don’t think there’s a single, um, asset owner where they couldn’t, you know, double the number of asset managers they had and, you know, ev everyone could use twice as many I think. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I think something that we really focused on this year is kind of removing the stones that are in people’s path or like helping at least like to, to say like, don’t trip over there. Don’t trip over here. And I think part of that, like, like you mentioned, is that. [00:27:00] The, the collaborative manner that everyone seemed to have and just, I think 50% of our time that we were in those rooms was just people asking questions to experts, to anybody they really wanted to. Um, and it, it just, everybody getting the same answers, which is really just a really different way to, to do things, I think. But more than, I mean, we, we we’re still. We’re still struggling with quality in Australia. That’s still a major issue on, on a lot of the components. So until we have that solved, we don’t really know how much of an influence the other factors they really have because it just overshadows everything. And yes, it will be accelerated by extreme weather conditions, but. What will, how will it work if, if the components are actually fit, uh, fit for purpose in the sense that we don’t have wrinkles in the laminates, that we don’t have, uh, bond lines that are detaching. Mm-hmm. Maybe some of it is because of, uh, mango size hails hitting the blades. Maybe it’s because of extreme temperatures. Maybe it’s [00:28:00] because of, uh, uh, yeah. At extreme topography, you know, creating, uh, wind conditions that the blades are not designed for. We don’t really know that. We don’t really know for sure. Uh, we just assume, um, Australia has some problems with, not problems, but some challenges with remoteness. We don’t, with, uh, with getting new, new spares that much is absolutely true. We can’t do anything about that. We just have to, uh, find a way to, to mitigate that. Mm-hmm. But I think we should really be focused on getting quality, uh, getting the quality in, in order. You know, one thing that’s interesting about that, um, so yeah, Australia should be focused more on quality than anybody else, but in, in, in the industry, yeah. Uh, entire world should be more focused on quality, but also Australia. Yeah. But Australia, probably more than anyone considering how hard it is to, you know, make up for poor quality here. Um. At the same time, Australia for some reason, loves to be the first one with a new technology, loves to have the biggest [00:29:00] turbine. Um, and the, the latest thing and the newest thing, and I thought it was interesting. I mean, this was operations and maintenance, um, conference, so not really talking about new designs and manufacturing too much, but at least three or four people said, uh. Uh, I would be using less carbon fiber in blades. I would not be, not be going bigger and bigger and bigger. If I was buying turbines for a new wind farm, I would have, you know, small glass blades and just more of them. So I think that that was really interesting to hear. So many people say it, and I wasn’t even one of them, even though, you know, I would definitely. Say that. I mean, you know, in terms of business, I guess it’s really good to get a lot of, a lot of big blades, but, um, because they just, people, I don’t think people understand that, that bigger blades just have dramatically more quality problems than the smaller ones. Um, were really kind of exceeded the sweet spot for the current manufacturing methods and materials. I don’t know if you would agree, but it’s, it’s. Possible, but [00:30:00] it’s, it, you know, it’s not like a blade that’s twice as long, doesn’t have twice as many defects. It probably has a hundred times as many defects. It’s just, uh, it’s really, really challenging to make those big blades, high quality, and no one is doing it all that well right now. I would, however, I got an interesting hypothetical and they’re. Congrats to her for, for putting out that out. But there was an operator that said to me at the conference, so what would you choose hypothetically? A 70 meter glass fiber blade or a 50 meter carbon fiber blade, so a blade with carbon fiber reinforcement. And I did have to think quite a while about it because there was, it was she say, longer blades, more problems, but carbon blade. Also a lot of new problems. So, so what is it? So I, I ended up saying, well, glass fiber, I would probably go for a longer glass fiber blade, even though it will have some, some different challenges. It’s easier to repair. Yeah, that’s true. So we can overcome some of the challenges that are, we can also repair carbon. We have done it in air, air, uh, aeronautics for many, many years. But wind is a different beast because we don’t have, uh, [00:31:00] perfect laboratory conditions to repair in. So that would just be a, a really extreme challenge. So that’s, that’s why I, I would have gone for carbon if, for glass fiber, if, if I, if I could in that hypothe hypothetical. Also makes more energy, the 70 meter compared to it’s a win-win situation. Well, it’s great to see all of you. Australia. I thought it was a really good conference. And thanks to all our sponsors, uh, til being the primary sponsor for this conference. Uh, we are starting to ramp up for 2027. Hopefully all of you can attend next year. And, uh, Rosie, it’s good to see you in person. Oh, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s exciting when we are actually on the same continent. Uh, it doesn’t happen very often. And Morton, it’s great to see you too, Yolanda. I see you every day pretty much. So she’s part of our team, so I, it’s great to see you out. This is actually the first time, me and Rosie, we have seen each other. We’ve, we’ve known each other for years. Yeah. Yeah. The first time we actually, uh, been, been, yeah. Within, uh, yeah. [00:32:00] Same room. Yep. And same continent. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s been awesome. And also it’s my first time meeting Yolanda in person too. So yeah, that’s our first time. And same. So thanks so much for everybody that attended, uh, woma 2026. We’ll see you at Woma 2027 and uh, check us out next week for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

This episode from CES 2026 features Michael O'Shea, CTO and COO of MOTER Technologies, discussing the company's approach to usage-based insurance through in-vehicle AI deployment. MOTER Technologies, backed by a major Japanese insurance company, places software directly in vehicles to analyze sensor data and generate fair driver risk scores while maintaining privacy through edge computing. O'Shea explains how their collaboration with Sonatus AI Director enables standardized deployment of their lightweight AI models across different vehicle platforms, benefiting drivers through potentially lower insurance costs, OEMs through revenue sharing and customer loyalty programs, and insurance companies through more accurate risk assessment. The conversation covers the evolution from traditional OBD dongles and smartphone apps to sophisticated in-vehicle systems that provide contextual understanding of driving behavior. O'Shea also discusses their DriveSAGE coaching application that provides feedback to help drivers improve their safety scores, emphasizing the importance of transparency and customer consent in data usage.

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1276: The 2026 dealer census shows fewer franchise points but stronger per-store sales. Tesla resale values rise while other EVs slide post-tax-credit. And consumers are shifting away from big-ticket purchases, focusing instead on repairs, durability and value.The latest Automotive News dealer census shows a network that's slimming down—but getting stronger. As OEMs right-size their footprints, throughput is climbing and single-brand stores are on the rise.The U.S. starts 2026 with 18,300 dealerships—just 11 fewer than last year—but total franchise points dropped 1.5% to 29,387.Exclusive, single-brand stores rose 1.2% to 13,351 locations as automakers continue network consolidation strategies.Buick (-20%), Lincoln (-9.9%) and Jaguar (-25%) all shrank networks intentionally, boosting per-store performance in the process.Average franchise throughput across the industry climbed 4.1% to 532 vehicles in 2025, with Toyota leading at 1,736 units per store, up 8%.19 brands improved throughput in 2025 — but 24 saw declines, including 12 brands down more than 10%. As networks shrink, the gap between healthy franchises and struggling ones is widening fast.When the $7,500 EV tax credit disappeared, most used EV prices fell. Except Tesla. While mainstream electric models lost value and OEMs started discounting hard, Tesla resale prices actually climbed — changing the whole picture.Used Tesla prices rose 4.3% since the credit ended, while other used EVs dropped an average of 3.6%.Because Tesla makes up such a big slice of the market, overall used EV prices actually rose 3.5% — but that's a bit of a mirage.Lower-cost EVs like the Kona Electric, ID.4, Niro EV and Mach-E all lost around 5–6% in just a few months. The Porsche Taycan was the only non-Tesla model to see a price increase, at 4.1%Used EV market share fell 20% in four months, suggesting mainstream buyers aren't rushing in — even with heavy new-EV discounts.Consumers are still spending — just not on the big stuff. Higher interest rates and tight housing turnover pushed shoppers towards smaller upgrades and essential repairs in 2025 — a trend expected to continue through 2026.Spending slowed across income groups late in 2025, especially households under $40K and over $150K.Large discretionary purchases like furniture and mattresses slowed sharply, while décor, kitchen items and maintenance held up.Home improvement spending softened for a third straight year but remains above pre-pandemic levels.Today's show is brought to you by ESi-Q. ESi-Q measures employee satisfaction and provides actionable insight into what's Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

As automotive design evolves, manufacturers increasingly rely on advanced materials to reduce weight, improve durability, and support sustainability goals. Covestro focuses on developing polycarbonate‑based solutions that replace heavier metals, enhance surface performance, and enable circular manufacturing practices. These innovations support automakers seeking to improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and deliver premium experiences to consumers.Material selection plays a critical role in modern vehicle engineering. Components must withstand demanding thermal, mechanical, and environmental conditions while meeting strict cost and performance requirements. Covestro's approach combines raw material expertise with process development, allowing the company to collaborate closely with OEMs and suppliers to create next‑generation components that are lighter, safer, and more sustainable.Lightweight Thermal‑Conductive PolycarbonateOne of Covestro's key developments is a thermally conductive polycarbonate designed to replace aluminum and magnesium heat sinks. While metals traditionally offer superior thermal conductivity, polycarbonate provides advantages in emissivity, enabling effective heat dissipation through alternative mechanisms. This balance allows the material to deliver comparable thermal performance while significantly reducing weight.The use of polycarbonate in heat‑management components supports improved energy efficiency in both automotive and electronic applications. Lighter parts contribute to reduced vehicle mass, which can enhance range and performance in electric vehicles. The material also supports cost reduction by simplifying manufacturing processes and lowering material expenses. These benefits demonstrate how material science can unlock new design possibilities without compromising functionality.Self‑Healing Coatings for Premium SurfacesCovestro has also developed a direct‑coating technology applied to polycarbonate lenses and exterior panels. This coating provides a high‑gloss, premium finish while offering self‑healing properties. When the surface is scratched, heat can be applied to restore its appearance, extending the lifespan of the component and maintaining a like‑new finish.This technology is already in production on vehicles such as the BMW i7, where it enhances both aesthetics and durability. The coating reduces the need for traditional painting or hard‑coating processes, lowering manufacturing costs and minimizing scrap caused by surface defects. By enabling repairability and long‑term visual quality, the solution supports both consumer satisfaction and sustainable manufacturing practices.Circular Materials Through Tire‑to‑Polycarbonate RecyclingA significant advancement in Covestro's sustainability portfolio is the chemical recycling of end‑of‑life tires. Through a specialized process, the rubber from used tires is broken down and converted into virgin‑quality polycarbonate. This material can then be used in applications requiring optical clarity, including headlamp lenses and other transparent components.The recycling process separates metal reinforcements, fabric layers, and contaminants, ensuring that only the usable rubber is transformed into new material. The high yield of this method makes it one of the most efficient recycling pathways for tires, addressing a long‑standing environmental challenge. By converting waste into high‑value polycarbonate, Covestro supports circularity and reduces reliance on fossil‑based raw materials.ConclusionCovestro advances automotive design through innovative polycarbonate materials, self‑healing coatings, and circular recycling technologies. By reducing weight, improving durability, and enabling sustainable manufacturing, the company provides solutions that align with the evolving needs of modern mobility. These developments demonstrate how material science can enhance performance while supporting environmental responsibility across the automotive value chain.Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.Sponsored by: Get $5 to protect your credit card information online with Privacy. Amazon Prime gives you more than just free shipping. Get free music, TV shows, movies, videogames and more. Secure your connection and unlock a faster, safer internet by signing up for PureVPN today.

As automotive design evolves, manufacturers increasingly rely on advanced materials to reduce weight, improve durability, and support sustainability goals. Covestro focuses on developing polycarbonate‑based solutions that replace heavier metals, enhance surface performance, and enable circular manufacturing practices. These innovations support automakers seeking to improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and deliver premium experiences to consumers.Material selection plays a critical role in modern vehicle engineering. Components must withstand demanding thermal, mechanical, and environmental conditions while meeting strict cost and performance requirements. Covestro's approach combines raw material expertise with process development, allowing the company to collaborate closely with OEMs and suppliers to create next‑generation components that are lighter, safer, and more sustainable.Lightweight Thermal‑Conductive PolycarbonateOne of Covestro's key developments is a thermally conductive polycarbonate designed to replace aluminum and magnesium heat sinks. While metals traditionally offer superior thermal conductivity, polycarbonate provides advantages in emissivity, enabling effective heat dissipation through alternative mechanisms. This balance allows the material to deliver comparable thermal performance while significantly reducing weight.The use of polycarbonate in heat‑management components supports improved energy efficiency in both automotive and electronic applications. Lighter parts contribute to reduced vehicle mass, which can enhance range and performance in electric vehicles. The material also supports cost reduction by simplifying manufacturing processes and lowering material expenses. These benefits demonstrate how material science can unlock new design possibilities without compromising functionality.Self‑Healing Coatings for Premium SurfacesCovestro has also developed a direct‑coating technology applied to polycarbonate lenses and exterior panels. This coating provides a high‑gloss, premium finish while offering self‑healing properties. When the surface is scratched, heat can be applied to restore its appearance, extending the lifespan of the component and maintaining a like‑new finish.This technology is already in production on vehicles such as the BMW i7, where it enhances both aesthetics and durability. The coating reduces the need for traditional painting or hard‑coating processes, lowering manufacturing costs and minimizing scrap caused by surface defects. By enabling repairability and long‑term visual quality, the solution supports both consumer satisfaction and sustainable manufacturing practices.Circular Materials Through Tire‑to‑Polycarbonate RecyclingA significant advancement in Covestro's sustainability portfolio is the chemical recycling of end‑of‑life tires. Through a specialized process, the rubber from used tires is broken down and converted into virgin‑quality polycarbonate. This material can then be used in applications requiring optical clarity, including headlamp lenses and other transparent components.The recycling process separates metal reinforcements, fabric layers, and contaminants, ensuring that only the usable rubber is transformed into new material. The high yield of this method makes it one of the most efficient recycling pathways for tires, addressing a long‑standing environmental challenge. By converting waste into high‑value polycarbonate, Covestro supports circularity and reduces reliance on fossil‑based raw materials.ConclusionCovestro advances automotive design through innovative polycarbonate materials, self‑healing coatings, and circular recycling technologies. By reducing weight, improving durability, and enabling sustainable manufacturing, the company provides solutions that align with the evolving needs of modern mobility. These developments demonstrate how material science can enhance performance while supporting environmental responsibility across the automotive value chain.Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.Sponsored by: Get $5 to protect your credit card information online with Privacy. Amazon Prime gives you more than just free shipping. Get free music, TV shows, movies, videogames and more. Secure your connection and unlock a faster, safer internet by signing up for PureVPN today.

In this episode, we connect with Dale Hopkinson, senior product manager with Thales, a supplier of technologies for the aerospace, defense and security industry and a provider of cybersecurity and digital identity technologies, to learn how OEMs are leveraging modular software licensing to replace costly hardware variants, creating predictable revenue while delivering customizable capabilities to industrial customers.

What's really holding back software-defined vehicles (SDVs) … and where should automakers shift their focus? Listen in as we sit down with John Wall, President of QNX, to explore how a trusted, safety-certified foundation frees OEMs to innovate faster, collaborate more effectively, and deliver differentiated vehicles. Drawing on insights from the Under the Hood: SDV Developer Report, they unpack why automakers must shift away from maintaining complex, non-differentiating software and focus instead on application-layer innovation to better define brand identity and customer experience.   You'll also learn how QNX is expanding into robotics, healthcare, and industrial automation with its secure, high-performance operating system. Whether you're fascinated by autonomous cars, collaborative robots, or the future of AI in physical systems, this episode is packed with insights on innovation, safety, and the power of partnerships.   We'd love to hear from you. Share your comments, questions and ideas for future topics and guests to podcast@sae.org. Don't forget to take a moment to follow SAE Tomorrow Today—a podcast where we discuss emerging technology and trends in mobility with the leaders, innovators and strategists making it all happen—and give us a review on your preferred podcasting platform.   Follow SAE on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. Follow host Grayson Brulte on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.

In this episode, Darrell Swanson and Jarek Zych of EA Maven discuss the launch of AeroTesseract, a full-stack SaaS platform designed to bring investment-grade analysis to advanced air mobility (AAM). They explain that traditional aviation forecasting tools rely on historical air traffic data, which is unsuitable for emerging AAM routes. Instead, AeroTesseract uses surface mobility data and bottom-up, route-by-route modelling to identify viable markets. The platform integrates demand forecasting, scheduling, revenue modelling, energy requirements, and carbon analysis into one iterative workflow. It allows users to test sensitivities such as pricing, time savings, aircraft type, and propulsion system, while also modelling infrastructure revenues and grid capacity constraints. Both Darrell and Jarek emphasise realism and granular analysis over top-down market projections, positioning AeroTesseract as a potential industry-standard tool for operators, airports, OEMs, and governments planning the future of regional and urban air mobility.

In aerospace and defense, a structural shift in global manufacturing is underway. Supply chains are strained, skilled labor is scarce, and production backlogs are testing relationships between OEMs and suppliers across the globe. So the industry is being forced to look for answers in new places. One of those places is India.  What started as an engineering and software hub is rapidly becoming something much larger.  A manufacturing powerhouse capable of delivering aerospace-grade quality, advanced digital operations, and the scale required to support global demand. In this highlight episode, I revisit my conversation with the co-founder and CEO of Jeh Aerospace, Vishal Sanghavi.  He explains why major suppliers are moving work to India, how credibility is earned with Western customers, and why the opportunity ahead is bigger than a simple cost advantage. You'll also learn: Why labor shortages in the U.S. are accelerating permanent shifts in manufacturing geography How pairing India's talent base with modern digital infrastructure changes what suppliers can deliver What it takes to overcome skepticism and prove reliability to Western aerospace customers Why the companies that win will think beyond arbitrage and build technology leverage How India's momentum could reshape the global supplier map for decades Why, with market demand, policy movement, and geopolitics aligning, the window of opportunity is now   About the Guest Vishal R. Sanghavi is the co-founder & CEO of Jeh Aerospace. He has been a leader in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry for nearly two decades. He co-founded Jeh Aerospace in 2022 with his long-time colleague Venkatesh Mudragalla. This US-based company manufactures aerospace and defense components to address the industry's global supply chain constraints. Vishal is on a mission to transform aerospace manufacturing by harnessing the power of advanced technologies like robotic automation, AI, and AR/VR, and leveraging the vast talent pool of countries like India through friend-shoring. He is building Jeh Aerospace into a new-age technology-driven manufacturing company that will deliver stringent-quality flying parts 10x faster, better, and cheaper. Vishal's entrepreneurial journey began at the renowned Tata Group, where he built and led large multimillion-dollar businesses and became one of the youngest CXOs for the group. He spearheaded numerous aerospace businesses during his tenure, including the Tata Boeing Joint Venture (JV), Tata Sikorsky JV, and Tata Lockheed JV, which manufacture large, complex aerospace systems. To learn more, visit https://jeh.aero/.    About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker, and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers, and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years' experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women's Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association.    For more aerospace industry news & commentary: https://craigpicken.com/insights/.  To learn more about Craig Picken, visit https://craigpicken.com/.  

Trener Robotics is solving a fundamental problem in industrial automation: the 5 million robotic arms deployed globally operate without intelligence, relying on 60-year-old procedural programming methods. With $38 Million in total funding—including a just-closed $32 Million Series A—the company compressed an 18-month journey from pre-seed to Series A by focusing ruthlessly on CNC machine tending. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with Asad Tirmizi, Founder of Trener Robotics, to unpack how 14 years of research in robotics and AI converged with market timing to create what judges recognized as this year's biggest innovation in machining—despite the founding team having zero machining expertise. Topics Discussed: Why Trener Robotics chose CNC machine tending over higher-visibility applications like airplane cleaning The capital efficiency trade-offs between sales cycle length, development complexity, and runway Partnering with three of the five largest robot OEMs controlling 4.3 million of 5 million deployed units Expanding to six countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, US) through integrator networks Converting technical curiosity into closed deals in a risk-averse industry with 60-year-old workflows Building training materials in Portuguese for markets the founding team has never visited GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Sales cycle length determines survival, not TAM size: Trener Robotics rejected compelling applications with massive TAM like airplane cleaning because sales cycles would burn through runway before reaching scale. Asad was explicit: "If your sales cycle is too long, your funding is too less and your development time is too much, that's it, you're out of business." They chose CNC machine tending specifically because manufacturers already budget for robots, understand ROI calculations, and have existing vendor relationships. Calculate your actual time-to-close from first meeting to signed contract, multiply by customer acquisition cost, and build your runway model around that reality—not the TAM slide in your deck. Niche dominance beats horizontal expansion every time: Despite having technology capable of 100+ applications, Trener Robotics committed to machine tending exclusively. Asad's framework: "Making 100 skills is easy. Distributing 100 skills, maintaining 100 skills, marketing hundred skills—that's where most startups break when scaling, not when incubating." The constraint forced them to become the definitive solution for one workflow, enabling repeatable sales motions and concentrated marketing spend. Most founders intellectually agree with focus but fail operationally—they take revenue from adjacent use cases "just this once." Don't. Pick your beachhead, win it completely, then use that cash cow to fund expansion. Industry awards are underutilized credibility hacks: Trener Robotics won the Machine Tool Innovation Award—the machining industry's most prestigious recognition—despite being roboticists with no machining background. This wasn't luck. They studied what innovations historically won, trained their models on data that would produce award-worthy results, and positioned the submission around industry pain points. The award opened OEM partnership conversations that would have taken years otherwise. Identify the 2-3 awards that matter in your category, reverse-engineer what wins, and build your product roadmap accordingly. Third-party validation converts skeptical enterprise buyers faster than any sales deck. Channel partner economics need structural win-win design: Trener Robotics secured partnerships with three of the five largest robot OEMs (controlling 86% of deployed units globally) by solving a specific problem: OEMs sell hardware but lose recurring revenue to system integrators who program robots. Trener Robotics' AI models let OEMs capture software subscription revenue while reducing integrator programming costs. Asad acknowledged they're still learning: "I would not by any stretch of imagination say we have proven how good we are in managing channel partners. It's a journey we are on." But the structural economics work because both sides make more money. When designing channel programs, don't just offer margin points—restructure the value chain so partners access new revenue pools they couldn't capture before. Interest signals are worthless without conversion timeline mapping: Asad's painful admission: "Interest does not mean sales. Pilots do not mean sales. Even letter of interest or contracts to test your equipment does not mean sales." As a technical founder, he initially conflated technical validation with buying intent. The fix: obsessively measure time between interest signal and closed deal, then segment by customer type, deal size, and decision-maker level. Only after mapping this could they accurately forecast and avoid the "too much time in the gray area of interest turning to sales" trap. Build a conversion funnel that tracks days-in-stage, not just stage progression percentages. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

In this sponsored podcast Brian Couch, Segment Manager for Aerospace & Defense at Averna, discusses the critical role of quality test data in modern MRO operations and how centralized, structured data practices can improve reliability, reduce turnaround times, and strengthen the feedback loop between MROs and OEMs. Learn more about Averna's solutions here

Recorded live at the Wind Operation and Maintenance Australia 2026 conference, Allen, Rosemary, Matthew, and Yolanda are joined by Thomas Schlegl for a panel discussion on where the Australian wind industry is headed over the next five years. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Alright, let’s get started. This is the, the final event of this three day marathon. Uh, where will we be in five years? And I have, uh, pretty much everybody from the Uptime podcast and Thomas Schlagel from eLog Ping. Uh. Uh, Rosie and I had a big argument before we all came about what we were going to be in five years, and Rosie’s and my opinion differed quite a bit just on, that’s, uh, that’s what led to me suggesting the personality test because yes, and that was, that’s actually a really good suggestion. So I know something about myself now, but, uh, I, I think talking to people here, watching the presentations. And having an American slash European perspective on it. I think every, everybody can chime in here. Australia’s probably on a better pathway than a lot of places. Yeah. Well, I know I’ve been back in Australia for about [00:01:00] five years, five years. Before that I was in Denmark. I left Australia. Because I was so like in despair about the state of renewables and also manufacturing and just doing smart engineering in Australia. Um, so yeah, when I came back five years ago, I was a bit shocked at how different things were in Australia. And I was also, you know, like I will say that it, we were, we were behind like way less mature than other, um, markets in terms of how we operated our wind energy assets. Um, and it’s changed so much in five years, so like a half day, if I’m making predictions for where we’ll be in five years time, I have to, you know, like use that as a, it, it’s probably gonna be more than you would think in five years, just based on how far we’ve already come in, in five years. Um, so yeah, I think that five years ago people were trusting a lot more in the full service agreements. Um, definitely there’s very few people who are still naive that that’s just, you know, um, a set and forget kind of thing that you [00:02:00] can do and not worry about it. Everybody’s now aware that you need to know, um, about your assets and we’re already to the point where there are like a lot of asset managers know so much, um, and, you know, have become real experts and really wasn’t, wasn’t the case five years ago. So. I’m hopeful for that. Um, you know, that it, it will continue and yeah, probably at a faster pace than, um, what we see elsewhere. I think Australia is a really attractive market, not just for developing new wind projects, but also for developing all of the kinds of supporting technologies, which is, you know, like a lot of the people here either using or developing those kind of technologies. And some of our challenges here make it the perfect place to, yeah, develop new text because. Things are, it’s really expensive to do repairs here. Um, the operating conditions are harsh and so things wear out and it just means that it’s, you can put together a positive business case for a new tech here much sooner than you could overseas. So I’m really [00:03:00] hopeful that we see, you know, like a whole lot of innovation, um, in, in those kinds of technologies that are gonna help wind energy get a lot more mature. And even hearing some of the answers from last year to this year, you see that shift. Uh, I was really shocked last year how much reliance there was on. The FSA and now I hearing a lot more discussion about, all right, we need to be shadow monitoring. We need to be looking at the, the, the data coming off, trying to hack, break into the passwords to get to the SCADA system, which was new, but I feel like very Australian thing to do. Matthew, you’ve been in the small business in Australia for, for several years in the wind business. What do you see? I mean, you’ve been in it like for five years now. Plus actually more than that, uh, I actually did my first wind farm around 20 oh 2001. Okay. Or 2002. Um, that was from a noise perspective. So I, I’ve seen things, you know, the full cycle. Um, you know, there were many years of [00:04:00]despair, the whole, um, stop these, stop these things. I’m actually featured, I was featured on Stop these things. So, um, don’t, don’t Google it. It was pretty horrible. So, um, we did a lot of work around infrasound and noise impacts and so there was many years which were, were pretty horrible. Um. Over that time, I sort of relate to my daughter. My daughter’s turning 21 soon. She is a beautiful girl, turning into an adult, a wonderful adult, and it’s, I think the wind industry is really growing, maturing, growing up, and you know, is wonderful to see. And I think we are, we’re only gonna get better, stronger. And I think one may, one note I made here is that now they’ve got wind, solar batteries. I just think it’s unstoppable, so I’m super optimistic that we’re only gonna keep, you know, raising that bar. Well, if you look at where Australia is compared to a lot of the places on the [00:05:00] planet, way ahead, in terms of renewable energy. I mean, you’ve got basically $0 in electricity for, because of how much solar there is, plus the batteries are coming in and, and the transmission’s coming online. And I’m talking to some people about, uh, what these new developments look like. If you’re trying to develop some of these projects in the United States, you’re not gonna be able to do them. There’s, there’s too many regulatory hurdles, and it seems like Australia has at least opened some of the doors to explore. Uh, people in America, the companies in Europe are gonna be watching Australia, I think in, in terms of where we go next. Because if Australia can pull off pretty much a renewable grid, which is where you’re headed, others will follow because it’s just a lower cost way of running a, running an electricity grid system. Yeah. Now I need to perform my, um, regular role of being a Debbie Downer. Um, I, I think that there’s, there’s big challenges and it’s definitely not, um, a case of [00:06:00] the status quo now is good enough to carry us through to a hundred percent renewables. Um, there are some big, big problems that need to be solved. Like, uh, solar plus batteries in Australia is, is going amazing and it’s gonna do a lot. It’s not gonna, it will be incredibly hard to get to, you know, a fully renewable grid that way. The problem with wind is at the moment, I mean, it’s getting more expensive to install wind now and we don’t only need to install new wind farms, we’ve also got existing wind farms that are retiring. So we need to either extend those or we need to, um, you know, build new wind farms in their place. So we do need to get better there. And then I think that the new technologies, like, you know, I’m the blades person and the bigger blades are bigger problems like, like dramatically. I don’t think that your average, um, wind farm owner or wannabe wind farm owner is aware, like actually how many more problems there are with big blades compared to smaller ones and. I think that, like I said earlier, I [00:07:00] think Australia’s a great place to get those technologies, um, you know, developed. But we, we need to do that. That’s not like a nice to have and oh, everything will be a little bit better, but if we can’t maintain our assets better and get more out of them, um, we also need improvements with manufacturing. But it’s not really an o and m thing. I won’t talk too much about it. But yeah, I think that like we can’t be remotely complacent. Well, I think in, in Europe, uh, Thomas, you actually spent several months in Australia, and you’re obviously from Austria, so it’s an Austria Australian connection. Do you see the differences between the Austrian market, the German market, and what’s happening here in Australia? What, what do you think of the comparison between the two? So, what I, what really was fascinating from was the speed of, um, improvements we see here in Australia. It. Um, just for me, wind industry in my young industry, sorry, was always rather slow in Europe and [00:08:00] like not really adopting. Um, and here, sorry. For example, last year you asked the question how many. Of the audience to use sensors for shadow monitoring and no hand was raised right. It was zero silence. And uh, this year we even had a few percentage on, on sensors on the, on the cido. So you see only within a year like this gradually graduated, improvements are happening and I think that makes such a, um, speed in, in improvements and that will. Close to the rescue again. Thank you. And that, um, that will bring Australia to a big advantage. Um, especially I think overtaking, uh, at a certain point, and it would be great to see in five years from now, um, maybe Europeans, Austrians, uh, coming to Australia to. [00:09:00] To learn and not the other way around. Yeah, and, and especially with Yolanda working for the biggest energy company in Denmark, uh, in America, you see how Americans react to change and, and the reluctance to move forward on some of the things we talked about this week, which are, do seem to be moving a little bit quicker. There is more an acceptance of CMS systems here. And on in the States, it seems like you have to really fight. A lot of times to get anybody to listen, to do something because it’s all, it’s financially driven in some aspects, but it’s sort of like, we don’t do that here, so we’re not gonna listen to it. What’s been your experience being on a, this is your first time in Australia, what, what has been your experience this week and what have you learned? I was very pleasantly surprised by just the amount of collaboration that everybody really wants to have here and the openness to, to do so, and to learn from each [00:10:00] other, um, and to accept just, you know, if you’ve seen an issue and or someone else has seen an issue, then you can really learn from each other. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to silo yourself as much as, as you typically do in the United States. I mean, it is a different culture, right? And so it’s just. Honestly, hats off to, to Australians for, for being able to, to work with each other, so, so well, yeah. The discussions out at the lunchtime and the coffee area were uniquely different than what we generally will see in the United States. And Matthew, you’ve been around a lot of that too, where it kinda gets a little clique. But here, I mean, obviously, I mean, not just human nature, but on some level I felt like, oh, there’s a lot of interaction happening and it’s really loud. So people are engaging with one another and trying to learn from one another, or at least connect. And I, I think in a lot of times in Europe, there’s not a lot of the connection until the, the drinking starts, you know, at about 10. Uh, but. Uh, Matthew, did you see that too? [00:11:00] Like I was really pleasantly surprised. That was a good thing to see here. Yeah. And in my former life as a consultant, I dealt with, you know, construction, uh, road rail, you know, I mining a whole range of industries. And, um, one of the reasons why I’ve stayed in wind is ’cause I, you know, I love the people, you know, I love you all. So, or, um, but no, I think, um, the. The collaboration, the willingness to talk, um, the willingness to share ideas. And I think, I think I’ve been super, super, super happy about the way the panels have run, you know, everyone’s willing to share. Um, yeah, I’m, I’m just stoked. Yeah, Rosie, this is all your fault, honestly, because Rosie was always the, the contrary opinion. So I would say something and Rosie would feel obligated to say something as the opposite. But when, when we all started this discussion about, uh, a, a wind turbine conference, you had been to a bad wind turbine conference in Australia and I had been to a really bad one in the States and we were just, okay, that’s enough. And the movement [00:12:00] toward, let’s get some information, let’s everybody interact with one another. Let’s, we will give all the presentations to people at the end of this so you can access data. You’re not spending a ton of money to come. That was a, a big part of the discussion, like, I’m spending $5,000 to listen to sales presentations for three days. I don’t want to do that anymore. We try to avoid that in this conference. Hopefully, if you notice that and, and, and. I guess the conference board is up here right now. Are we gonna do Woma 2027? Are we gonna decide that today? Or. Yes, yes, the website is live. Um, I also wanna take this opportunity to, um, thank the, the sponsors of the event. And I hope that you’ve noticed that it’s not like these aren’t the sponsors of normal events where they’re like, okay, we’ll give you a bunch of money and then we’re gonna stand up and talk at you for half an hour about our new product launch or whatever. Like these sponsors haven’t, they haven’t got back [00:13:00] in the traditional way that you, you would with a kind of, um, event. So I’m really grateful for the very high quality sponsors that we’ve got. And, um, yeah, I just, I, I dunno if I’m allowed to share a little bit about the, the economics of this event. Um, if we didn’t have the sponsors tickets would cost twice as much. So, um, that’s one thing. But then the other key thing that we. Really couldn’t do it without sponsors is that we didn’t, our event didn’t break even until about a week ago because everyone buys their tickets late. Um, so yeah, the, the, we would’ve been having heart attacks, um, months ago about our potential, you know, bankruptcy from running the event if it wasn’t for, um, yeah, the, the great sponsors. So thanks to everybody that did that. Um, and everybody that attended consider buying a ticket earlier next time. Um, I, I’m the worst. I often buy my ticket the day of, of, of an event. So it’s, you know, like it’s a pot calling the kettle black. But, um, yeah, that’s just a bit of the, [00:14:00] the reality. And we have a number of poll questions. Uh, let’s get producer Claire back there to throw ’em up on the screen. So while we’re doing that, we should really thank Claire. Claire has been amazing. Yeah. Thank you, Claire. So the emojis are from Claire. Claire, clearly here. Uh, how do you feel about the, the current state of the wind industry? Hopefully there’s more smiley faces after this week. Well, alright, we’re a hundred percent rosemary. We had to put the one with the, yeah. And for me personally, um, I used to feel a lot more optimistic when I worked in design and manufacturing. And then when I come into operations, that like automatically makes you feel a bit more pessimistic. And then me specifically, like I only get involved when really bad things are happening. And so sometimes for me, like it’s easy to think. [00:15:00] When technology is just not good enough and, you know, I need to find a new industry to move into. So, uh, it is good to talk, talk to other people and, you know, like bring my reality back to a kind of a midpoint. And I, I just like to say, I, I think, I mean maybe there’s been a bit of OE em bashing here maybe. Um. Um, however, we need really strong OEMs, so I just wanna put a shout out to the OEMs and say, yeah, we absolutely need you. So just keep doing it. You will keep doing better, so thank you. Yeah, it’s a difficult industry to be in and we put a lot of demands on them and they, they’re pushing limits, so yeah, they’re gonna run into problems. That’s fine. Let’s just find solutions for them. Alright, uh, next question, producer Claire. What is the best thing you learned at Woma? This is not multiple choice. You can write whatever you want. Stealing passwords. [00:16:00] Did any of us learn anything? Unexpected contracting? Oh yeah. Get the contract right? Oh yeah. Yeah. Dan was really good. Yeah, Dan was great about contracting, looking on the other side of that fence. Cybersecurity is not that big of an issue in Australia. That’s some big thing in Europe, so yeah, it is. I was surprised by the environmental factor in Australia. I was surprised about the birds. Yeah. Everyone who wasn’t in the birds workshop yesterday, Alan was freaking out about, about how Australian wind farms have to manage birds and um, you have to freeze a bird for 12 months. I don’t, where do you have to freeze it for a bird? I don’t know. But that, it just is a little odd, I would say. Yeah. All right, Rosemary, you gotta take away Rosemary’s phone. Alan’s personality test. Yeah, there we go. That was not me. Wind farm toilets was a good one. Thank you, Liz, for, for raising that. [00:17:00] Yeah, I know when I worked in, um, Europe and Canadian wind farms, I would have to strategize my liquid intake for the day. Balancing out tea will help keep me warm, but on the other hand. Did everybody meet up with someone who had a solution? That was part of the goal here is to put people with solutions in the room with people with problems and let you all sort it out. So hopefully that was one of the things that happened this week. Or if you haven’t connected here, be able to connect with over LinkedIn or over coffee later. And the networking on the app and networking page on the website. Right. So you can actually use that now that’s all live. Yeah. So you can, you can connect through there if you’ve selected to. To keep your contact information open. Yep. You can connect through there so it’s easy to, if you need somebody to find my or Matthew’s email, you can just find it right there and we’ll upload the presentations, as you said. Right. The presentations we uploaded. But you have to select into that, Matthew, is that right? Also, the speakers [00:18:00] have to approve them as well. Right. And the, and all the speakers, you know who you are. Can let us know if we can use your slide decks to public size them. I didn’t see anything there that looked highly classified, so I think that would be fine. Alright. This is really interesting. Convince OEMs to install better pitch bearings. That’s very true. Okay, thanks you for that. Claire, what’s the next one? What do you wish you learned more about? So Matthew did a tour before the conference several months ago. And, and went to a lot of the operators and said, what would you like to hear about? So the things that were, uh, the seminar or the different workshops and all that were the result of talking to each of the operators about what you would like to see. So hopefully we covered most of them. Uh, obvious There. There’s some new things. Gear boxes. Yeah. I figured that one was coming. Tower retrofits. Okay. Good, good, [00:19:00] good. ISPs? Yeah. Life extension. Yeah. A lot of life extension. I agree. Well, we’re gonna run into that to the United States also. Asbestos. I’ve read some things about that in Australia. Okay. Which leading protection work by name. I do, I do have, well, lemme see. I do know that answer, but you’re gonna have to talk to Rosemary to get the, the key to the vault there. I I also think that you can’t assume that it’s gonna work in Australia. I think that, that like really seriously, I, I wouldn’t, um. I wouldn’t replace my entire wind farms leading edge protection based on what worked well in Europe and America. So, um, I would highly suggest, um, getting in touch with me and or bigger to get involved in a trial if you, that’s a problem for you. Yeah, definitely get involved in the trial. Uh, more data is better and if you do join that trial, you will have the keys to the castle. They will tell you how all the other pro uh, blades went. Uh, trainings and [00:20:00] skills, obviously that’s a, that’s a international one. When does ROI really happen? Yeah. Yep. We hear that quite a bit. Needs have proven good products for leading edge erosion. Yep. Okay. Yeah. So the que I guess one of the questions is, is that we did not on purpose, did not have any vendor things. I haven’t mentioned my product once this week. I, because I don’t want to, you know, that’s not the point of this conference, but should we. I don’t know. I mean, that’s a, should we have people standing up and I don’t know if it’s standing out there, but able to, to trial things. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree with what. I, I don’t, I don’t want that. Oh, yeah. No, I don’t want that. But it’s not my conference. Right. It’s, it’s everybody who c comes and wants to participate. What do you wanna see? Do you wanna see 10 leading edge products out in the hallway or, I didn’t mind that people were putting like stickers and like little knickknacks out on [00:21:00] tables. That was fun. Rosemary’s got a, a satchel full of them. Alright, Claire, is that the last one? There’s one more. All right. Hang on for one more. What’s your biggest takeaway from Woma? That you’re gonna buy your tickets early for WMA 2027, hopefully, and you’re gonna sponsor. I had a lot of people come up to me and say they would like to sponsor next year. And that’s wonderful. That will really keep the, the cost down because we’re not making anything off of this. I’m losing money to be here, which is totally fine ’cause I think this is a noble effort. Uh, but we will keep the cost as low as we can. We have an upgraded venue from last year. If you attend last year we were at the library, which was also a very nice facility, but this is just another level. Mm. Um, and the website has the ability to register interest in sponsorship. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve already got, uh, Jeremy’s already shook my hand. He’s already committed. Yeah. [00:22:00] Uh, I think we’ll have a lot of three pizzas on, on sponsorship for next year, and that’s good. Uh, that tells you there’s some value to be here and, and, uh, connect stickers, Rosemary stickers. There you go. I like whoever put calories up there. That’s funny. Yeah. You know the thing about, uh, this city is you can eat and it’s so dang good. You can’t do that in the states. You can’t just walk around in a random. Downtown like Detroit, Chicago. There are places you can eat there, but every place you walk into in this city is really good food. It’s crazy. Yeah. It’s, it’s uh, sort of addictive. I’m gonna have to go home on Saturday or not gonna fit in my seat. Um, alright. This is great. Yeah. We really love, um, constructive feedback. I think we’re all, or at least. Vast majority of us are engineers. We like to know about problems and fix them. So, um, most of us can’t have our feelings hurt easily. So, you [00:23:00] know, be very, very direct with your feedback. And, um, yeah, I mean the event should be different every year, right? Like, we don’t wanna do the exact same thing every year, so, um, it will change. Yeah. Yeah. And there is a survey going out as well, so Georgina will send out a survey. All right. So those surveys go to who? Matthew, are they going to you or are they going to all attendees and go? I think it goes back to Georgina, but we’ll, okay. Yeah. Great. So if you do get a, a form to fill out, please fill it out. That helps us for next year. Are we gonna be back in the same city? I say Yes. Yes. Yeah, this place is great. Sydney is also lovely. I spent an hour there at the airport. It was quite nice, but it was long enough. As I learned from people from Melbourne that Sydney is not their favorite place to go. So I guess we’re, we’re here next year. Is there anything else we need to talk about? Um, no. I mean, I’ve just been, uh, my favorite thing about this event is like the, the size of it and that people, uh, like very closely related in what we’re interested in that. It’s not like a, [00:24:00] you can put any two random people together and then we’ll have an interesting conversation. So I’ve really enjoyed all of the, you know, dozens of conversations that I’ve had this week. And, um, yeah. So thank you everybody for showing up with a open and collaborative, um, yeah. Frame of mind. It’s, yeah, couldn’t be done without everybody here. We do have a little bit of an award ceremony here for Rosemary, so we actually put together. A collage of videos over the last, um, five years. Uh, this is news to me. What? Yeah. Surprise. All right. Let it roll. Claire. Champion Rosie Barnes is here. Everybody. Climate change is a problem that our politicians don’t seem to be trying. Particularly hard to solve. This used to frustrate me until I realized that as an engineer, I have the power to [00:25:00] change the world, and unlike some politicians, I choose to use my powers for good. So I made a gingerbread wind turbine, I mean, a functional gingerbread, wind turbine, functional and edible. Everything except for the generator is edible. Alan, what were some of your takeaways from our talk with, uh, with Rosie? Well, I just like the way she thinks she thinks in terms of systems, not in terms of components. And I, I think that’s a, for an engineer is a good way to think about bigger problems. On today’s episode, we’ve got, well, some exciting news. Number one. Rosemary, uh, Barnes will be joining us here today as our co our new co-host. Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much for having me. So, you know, one wind turbine with, um, wooden 80 meter long wooden blades. Yeah. Like, that’s so cool. What a great engineering challenge or, you know, craftsmanship challenge, um, there, but, you know, I’d like to see one [00:26:00]wooden wind turbine blade, but not, not more than that. It’s a, it’s a cool, it’s a cool novelty. And then burn it, right? If you burn it, then you’ll catch the carbon. We need someone within the Australian wind industry to start up a, a better conference. Um, you know, it should be allowing you to kind of put your finger on the pulse and figure out, you know, what, what’s the vibe of wind energy in Australia at the moment? Um, what are the big problems people are having and then, you know, some potential solutions, some people talking about things that are coming up that you might not have heard about yet. I just think that it’s much easier to get a good value conference from a, like a, a small organization that is really dedicated to the, um, topic of the, of the conference. So as part of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, Rosemary, the YouTube ci, these little gold plaques. So this is actually, this is your first gold plaque, but you have two [00:27:00] silver plaques also. ’cause engineering with Rosie reached a 100,000 subscribers. Uh, the uptime also reached a hundred thousand subscribers a while ago, but we reached 1 million. This is the first time I, we’ve been in person, but I could actually hand you this award. So congratulations Zi. Very, very well done. Thank you. This is treasured and, um. Yeah, added in. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, so I’m bit overwhelmed. I, I’m interested to know, we got that Wheel of Fortune footage from, ’cause I thought that was lost. Lost forever. It’s over. It’s on YouTube. Sadly. It is. It’s 24. All the episodes Rosemary competed in the Wheel of Fortune. She was on four times. Six times. Six times. Sorry. There’s only four available on the internet. You may have white scrub tube. I wanna massaging Lazy Boy. Is that your husband? He made me get rid of it. He is like, that thing is hideous. And [00:28:00] it was, yeah. Thank, thank you so much. And I mean, yeah, this is the, the uptime wind energy. Um. Yeah, podcast achievement. It’s, um, it’s crazy how, how popular that, um, it’s in insanely popular since we crossed the 1 million mark that was a while ago. We’re up to 1.6 million right now. We’ll cross 2 million this year. I know it’s, it’s clear Claire’s reason. It mostly clear and it honestly is. Uh, but wind energy is a big part of the energy future, and as I’m realizing now, uh, when you start to reach out to people, you realize how important it is for the planet and for individual countries that wind energy is part of their electricity grid. So the, the information we exchange here this week is very valuable and reach out to others. I think that’s part of this wind industry and Matthew’s pointed out many times, is that we share. So unlike other places, uh. Wind energy likes to work together. And that’s great to hear and it’s great to participate in. So I wanna thank everybody here for attending, uh, this conference. Thank you to all the sponsors. Uh, you [00:29:00] made this thing possible. Uh, as Matthew has pointed out, we’ll be at WMA 2027. The website is live. So, uh, listen to Rosie. Please register now. Uh, and uh, yeah. Thank you so much for, for being with us. And we’ll see you in February right here. Thank you.

In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down live at the Kochava Summit in Sandpoint, Idaho, with Charles Manning, founder and CEO of Kochava. We go deep on one of the most pressing questions facing the industry right now: how profound is the shift to agentic advertising and AI-driven workflows? Charles argues it is not a decade-long evolution like programmatic was. It is breathtakingly faster, and the companies that understand how to use their first-party data as a competitive kernel, rather than leaking it to the walled gardens, are the ones that will come out ahead. He draws a compelling analogy: if programmatic changed the auction, AI is about to change the workflow.We also dig into Kochava's CTV journey, from its mobile app roots to building measurement tools adopted by LG, Samsung, Vizio, and Roku, and how the view-and-do combo between the TV screen and the mobile device is creating powerful new outcome-based measurement opportunities for brands. Charles breaks down what holding companies should fear (and fix), why the ad tech supply chain is due for serious consolidation, and why he predicts a wave of take-privates and roll-ups followed by a bonanza of public offerings over the next two years. He also introduces Station One, Kochava's integrative AI hub that acts like a Slack for AI workflows, designed to help teams transform how they work without giving up control of their data. Key Highlights:⚡ AI vs. Programmatic: Charles explains why the shift to agentic advertising is moving breathtakingly faster than programmatic did. While programmatic took over a decade to fully reshape the auction, AI is set to transform the entire workflow within the next 16 months.

Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Paul de Vries Welcome to The #5Liner, the show dedicated to the individual journeys that power the automotive industry. It's not about the company; it's about the individual, their career, mindset, and personal story. In each episode, we sit down with a high-quality selection of Car Guys and Car Gals to get beyond the title and into the hard earned wisdom they've gained. Join us as we uncover the wins, challenges, and #5Liner takeaways that have shaped today's top talent.  In this episode of the Car Guy Coffee Podcast, hosts Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz welcome Paul de Vries, a European online automotive leader whose mission is to “make online automotive a better place.” Paul shares how he sold his first car online in 1998, helped build a platform to buy new cars online that was later acquired by eBay in 2015, and explains his marathon-minded approach of helping OEMs, franchise dealers, independents, and anyone in the industry without focusing on quick sales. In the show's “five liner,” Paul discusses his why, how he entered automotive through persistence after working as a gas station attendant, and how he earned his first sales role despite stuttering and limited experience. His greatest reward, he says, is being thanked years later for teaching and helping others, emphasizing the value of human capital, relationships, and attending industry events like NADA.

In this episode of Aerospace Unplugged, our host Adam Kress is joined by Pulkit Agrawal, Certification and Regulatory Affairs Leader for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) at Honeywell Aerospace, and Devin Patterson, Director of Strategic Engagement at Southwest Mission Accelerator Center (MAC). Together, they take a deeper look at the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape that's shaping advanced air mobility, discussing the current progress and challenges, as well as shifting policies across different government levels, and more. Episode HighlightsCurrent Industry Developments, Needs, and Challenges: Explore how Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiatives, such as the EIPP program, are enabling early AAM operations, supporting data-driven rulemaking, and influencing collaboration among OEMs, regulators, and regional stakeholders.State of the AAM U.S. Regulatory Landscape: Learn what the U.S. regulatory approach for advanced air mobility is, including an overview of the national AAM strategy and how programs like EIPP fit into the broader effort to scale safe, early operations.Industry Collaborations & Their Significance: Discover how collaboration among industry, municipalities, states, and federal agencies is growing and how it's helping align infrastructure planning, policy development, and community engagement to support AAM deployment.Future Outlook for Advanced Air Mobility: Get a forward-looking view of what to the future may hold as AAM progresses toward broader operations, spanning regulatory frameworks, infrastructure readiness, public acceptance, and more.(No character limit / Highlights)

Crandon International Raceway has become one of the most iconic and fastest-growing motorsports destinations in America — and its momentum is only accelerating.In this Race Industry Week by EPARTRADE interview, Marty Fiolka, Promoter of Crandon International Raceway, explains how the legendary Wisconsin venue has evolved into a five-day off-road festival, drawing record crowds, global manufacturers, and international attention — while staying deeply rooted in its grassroots community.

In this episode, Jason Pritchard is joined by Austin Spiegel, CTO and Co-Founder of SIFT, to explore how better data infrastructure is accelerating advanced air mobility development. Austin explains how SIFT's hardware observability platform helps OEMs capture, organize and analyze vast volumes of telemetry generated across the entire aircraft lifecycle—from simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing to manufacturing and flight operations. With certification programmes placing increasing pressure on traceability and auditability, he highlights how fragmented data systems, siloed workflows and manual reporting processes can create costly bottlenecks for eVTOL developers. The conversation dives into how SIFT creates a unified, structured “digital thread” that links telemetry to specific assets, sub-assemblies and manufacturing processes—enabling clear, regulator-ready evidence paths. Austin also discusses real-time flight test monitoring, automated pass/fail reporting, anomaly detection through “family” data comparisons, and the growing regulatory shift toward digital-ready, interactive evidence rather than static PDFs. With SIFT recently announcing a $42 million Series B raise, Austin shares how the company is scaling its team and capabilities to support the next phase of growth in aviation and beyond—building toward a single source of truth for hardware data that helps OEMs reduce late-stage surprises and move more confidently toward certification.

The new space race is beginning; It's not just between nations, but between commercial giants, shadow governments, and emerging players staking claims to orbits that are becoming dangerously crowded. The world is entering an era where control of the orbits will define global power. What's fueling this revolution isn't just rocket science. It's economic scale, exotic propellants, and a surge in miniaturized, high-functioning satellites. But with this explosion comes risk: orbital debris fields, collisions that could cripple constellations, and the looming specter of space warfare. In this replay episode of The Aerospace Executive Podcast, I'm joined by Tory Bruno. Formerly the CEO of United Launch Alliance and now President of Blue Origin, he brings an unmatched perspective on the forces reshaping access to space. We cover the radical shifts reshaping orbital real estate, why small launch companies are failing despite demand, and why directed energy weapons in space might be the future of global defense.   You'll also learn: Why the true space cost revolution isn't in launch, but in satellite architecture The hard truth about the “300% drop in launch prices” myth How mini satellites are creating billion-dollar constellations and traffic jams in orbit The quiet arms race: Anti-satellite weapons, Kessler syndrome, and debris fields that could end entire constellations Why lasers may be the only real answer to hypersonic threats Why methane propulsion is suddenly viable and what finally cracked the code Why the biggest competitive edge isn't rockets, it's people     Guest Bio Tory Bruno is the President and CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), the largest rocket launch company in the world. Since taking the helm in August 2014, he has led ULA through a transformative era, retiring legacy systems, developing the next-generation Vulcan rocket, and expanding the company's commercial and national security portfolio. Before ULA, Tory spent over three decades at Lockheed Martin, where he began his career as a propulsion engineer and steadily rose through the ranks to become a senior executive. He has deep expertise in advanced propulsion, hypersonics, missile defense, and launch systems, and is widely recognized as one of the aerospace industry's most accomplished and forward-thinking leaders. Connect with Tory on LinkedIn. About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women's Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association.     Resources For more aerospace industry news & commentary: https://craigpicken.com/insights/.  To learn more about Craig Picken, visit https://craigpicken.com/.  

Allen and Joel are joined by Will Howell from Armour Edge in Edinburgh, Scotland. They discuss how Armour Edge’s semi-rigid polymer shields protect against leading edge erosion in harsh environments, the simplified installation process designed for rope access technicians, and the company’s expansion into North American manufacturing ahead of the 2026 blade season. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: Will welcome back to the program.  Will Howell: Thanks so much for having me guys. Nice to see you.  Allen Hall: So Edinborough is the home of Armor Edge.  Will Howell: Yes, indeed.  Allen Hall: Yeah. And we went to visit your facility a couple of days ago. Really impressive. There’s a lot going on there. Will Howell: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So the, we’ve been in the facility for, um, a couple of years now, and it’s really just all part of our expansion as we continue to. To, uh, grow as a business?  Allen Hall: Uh, well the thing that struck me first was efficiency. If you’re gonna be in wind, do you need to be efficient?  Will Howell: Yeah,  Allen Hall: exactly. You have  Will Howell: to  be,  Will Howell: look, we know that we are a, a relatively small team, but we’re, we are, we are very reactive and we are gonna be always responding to the, the requests. The, the market drive for us internationally now is where we are really focusing. And even though we’ve got our small base from there, we’re exporting internationally around the world. And so. Yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m glad you guys came by and kind of saw what we’re up to.  Joel Saxum: If we could ask one thing, this is what we would ask. Turn up the heat. Turn down the wind. Turn off the rain.  Will Howell: Yeah, I’m [00:01:00] sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah, it’s, uh, there’s not much we can do about that at the moment.  Joel Saxum: Well, I’ll tell you what, if, if you’re talking leading Edge protection products, leading edge protection shield. Born from an area that’s rainy, that has heavy rain erosion, that understands,  Will Howell: we know, we know rain. We know rain. Yes. Look, we’ve been out in the North Sea now for over, over, over five years. These things are just being abused by Mother Nature out there and, you know, but we’ve, we are, we’re getting really good results consistently. Um, the products lasting really well against that, against that weather. And I think what’s interesting for us as well is it’s, it’s not just the Scottish rain and the ice and the snow. We’re, we’re getting good results out in the. The planes in the Midwest as well now. Yeah. And yeah, so yeah, very uh, universal products, we hope,  Joel Saxum: I mean, so this is one of the things we always talk about. When you talk wind turbine blades and you listen to the manufacturers, a lot of them sit in Denmark where the problem is mist in the air, it is rain, it is droplet size. It’s all the conversation you hear. But where we [00:02:00] see wind is dust, bugs, those kind of things. Like, it’s, it’s different stuff, right? So like I’m, I live in Texas. One of the things that’s beautiful about my home in Austin is when I look to the west in the, at, in the evening, it’s bright red skies all the time. Well, that means there’s dust in the air.  Will Howell: Yeah.  Joel Saxum: Right. And that’s, and when I look west, what am I looking at? 23,000 turbines out in West Texas. Right. So everything out there is getting beat up where we look at, um, inspections of turbines and we see turbines that are 1, 2, 3 years old that look like they’ve been in operation for 15 years. Will Howell: Yeah. Yeah.  Joel Saxum: There’s nothing left of them.  Will Howell: I know. And. You know, people use analogies like, oh, it looks like it’s been sand sandblasted. But it it has, it has, it is sandblasted, you know, we’ve, we’ve now conducted testing where we have literally taken kind of aerospace level testing and blasted sand at these shields, and they’re super resilient. But it has to be that universal products of resisting the water droplet that the mist, that side [00:03:00] of the, of the erosion problem, but also the particulate matter in the air. And there’ve been some of the. Places that we’ve installed. There was actually one site where they had a local, um, open cast mining nearby, and there was like marble particulate matter in the air. And these machines were getting trash in a couple couple of seasons. And again, we’ve been on there now for, I think now is our third year in that particular site. And again, really good results.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think, um, I mean, we did take some B roll when we were at your facility. And again, thanks for welcoming Sam. We love doing those. It’s, uh, but you showed us your installation methodology, and maybe we’ll show some of that with our producer Claire on mm-hmm. On this video. Uh, but the, the way you guys design your installation methodology to be simple and robust, easy for the technicians to make sure they can’t get it wrong in the field because they got enough other things to worry about. Will Howell: Uh, you know, I think, I think that’s been a big part of our, of our kind of design ethos since the, since the early days in the, in the r and d phase, it wasn’t only finding a robust material for the LEP Shields, a robust. [00:04:00]Adhesive to bond them on, but it’s the, it’s the kind of higher level. How do you actually get that onto a blade in the field by a rope or standing in a platform up in the, up in the winds And so, yeah, understanding what the technicians are having to go through in order to install this stuff. And that then feeds into your quality. ’cause you can have the best lab results in the world from your perfect installation sitting in a factory somewhere. But actually it’s the guys on ropes that are doing the, doing the hard work out there.  Joel Saxum: We see that all the time with our, like with our lightning protection products like. People, can you give us this lab test? Like we can, we’ll stack you up with lab tests. Mm-hmm. But what we really wanna show you is the test from the field.  Will Howell: Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Joel Saxum: The test that where it’s been sitting, soaking, getting hit by lightning. Mm-hmm. All of these things for years and years and years. Yeah. That’s the results we wanna show you. ’cause those are real.  Will Howell: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Makes  Allen Hall: the demo you gave us to install the shields and it’s basically a series of shields that go along the leading edge of the blade, sort of two parts of that one. Obviously you’re trying to recover the lost power, the a EP, that’s, that tends to be the big thing, [00:05:00] except in some locations, like Joel’s pointed out, it’s not that the leading edge is just kind of lightly beat up. It’s really beat up.  Will Howell: Yeah. Yeah.  Allen Hall: And you’re trying to prevent that from happening or to just to provide some protection, uh, if you’re just sort of category three, and I, I wanna walk through that for a minute because the demo you did was really interesting and I. It, it made sense once you watch the process happen. Mm-hmm. It’s really clear, but you’re able to take sort of cat three damage on the leading edge and not have to go back and do a lot of repair to it, which is where the vast majority of the funds are used to sort of get the blade to a point you can apply leading product. Oh yeah. Yeah. With Armor Edge, you don’t really need to do that. Will Howell: Yeah. And I think that that that really comes into the. Into the value proposition of the, of the whole, of the whole process. If the labor costs and the downtime of the machines, there’s so much value in that. And so if you can reduce the repair time or just remove it completely, because you can install [00:06:00] directly on top of existing erosion, you’ve really saved some significant cost out of the, out of the job. And that’s really only just by function of the design of the shields. We are a, a semi rigid polymer material, so we don’t conform to the existing erosion that’s on the surface. So. Yes. If you, if you have a cap four or five and you have some structural glass repair that needs to happen to maintain the integrity of the blades, you still need to complete that repair. You don’t need to go any further. So if you’ve only got a one, two, or three, you’re talking the fillers, the putties on, on the surface. You don’t need to, to replace those. Just apply our high build adhesive, get the shield on top, and you’re finished.  Allen Hall: And so you start at the tip with a, a tip. Shield and then you work your way, kind of Lego wise up up the leading edge of the blade. Yeah,  Will Howell: yeah, yeah.  Allen Hall: It’s really straightforward and, and the, the system you’re using, the adhesives you’re using, and the techniques are really adapted for the technician. What I watched you do, I’m like, oh, wow, this is really [00:07:00] slick because there’s been a lot of thought going into this. You have done this. Hundreds of times yourself before you’ve shipped it out to  Will Howell: the world. Yeah, exactly. And, and that was, that was a big part of the, part of the r and d process is to, again, as I said, it’s, it’s not just affecting these applications in a lab environment. It’s saying, how does this feel up on a rope? How does it feel strapped into your work, into your work position? You’re handling stuff with your gear off your belt, and it’s a, it’s a, it’s a very difficult position to be installing any bit of, any bit of kit on. And if we can. Make that as an intuitive and as simpler process as possible, that’s gonna lead to quality installations down down the line.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. One of the things I really liked when you were showing us the installation was the fact that you had your own tools that you developed for it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And it wasn’t, we’re not talking $10,000 tools here, but, but it was something that was. Specific, your scraper that you use to spread things around. Mm-hmm. That makes sense for that application. That helps the technician in the field.  Will Howell: Yeah.  Joel Saxum: And that was from  Will Howell: direct market feedback. Absolutely. [00:08:00] And so you’re not only getting feedback from the technicians every season. And we are, we are, we are really careful to get these, to get that feedback, have these washup meetings, you know, maybe a bit of constructive criticism. Criticism in the early days and build that into your design revs. Yeah. But as you say, hands, tools or processes, it’s all just. Quality steps. As we, as we, as we kind of move on.  Joel Saxum: I do, I do wanna make sure for anybody listening or watching this on YouTube, that that, that they know that this is not the actual final problem. These are trade show things. It’s not a bunch of little shells like this. You’re about a meter long. They’re about meter  Will Howell: long. Yeah. Yeah. Full size. And again, even the, even the length is optimized for, um, kind of rope access. We feel a meter is about as long as you can handle as a, as a kind of single, single piece. The. Adhesive is kind of curing during the time that you’re installing the shields. So a meter is good, you just just move on. Depending on what the customer’s looking for, that can be 10, maybe even 15 shields on [00:09:00] longer. Yeah, installations. Look, blades are getting bigger. The leading edge, erosion problems getting worse. So yeah, up about 15, 15 shields is probably about a maximum length that we tend to do in the field. Joel Saxum: So let’s you, you, you mentioned customers we’re talking about what they wanna see. Let’s talk customers a little bit. What does the geographic footprint look like for you guys commercially going into next year? Where, where do the installs go and what’s your focus?  Will Howell: Well, at the moment we are, we are spread internationally. Uh, obviously we are based here in Edinburgh and starting our out in the, out in the North Sea. Um, but over the past few seasons, our, our biggest market has been, has been North America. Um, so we’ve, we’ve really started to expand out there and that. I, I think even this season, again, it’s gonna be our biggest, our biggest market. Um, Joel Saxum: wha wha  Will Howell: okay. So yeah, the North American market’s gonna continue to be our biggest, um, installation base. So, um, this year we are probably on another thousand blades [00:10:00] or so, last season, um, this, this year significantly more, more than that. It’s been interesting for us to see the. The continued growth of the market, but also the, a bit of additional interest early on in this season or even pre, pre-season Now, we’re only coming up to Christmas as we record this. Um, so the big step for us is gonna be not only expanding our European operation that you guys have seen, um, here from, from Edinburg to, to support the market here, but also looking at the manufacturing in America. So in North America, we’re gonna have. A couple of different manufacturing sites. We’re able to supply customers locally, which is not only gonna be reducing lead times, but also removing the the tariff burden, the import cost, any additional additional steps so we’re able to respond quicker to our customers over there. Joel Saxum: Thanks for bringing the jobs to the states too.  Will Howell: Oh, there we go. Love those.  Allen Hall: There’s a lot of variety of wind turbines in the US and around the world, and you’re actively scanning blaze [00:11:00] because the shields are specifically molded for each different blade type. How many models do you have already scanned and ready to go? Will Howell: So at the moment, um, I believe the database sits about 45 designs or so. Um, so obviously there, there are more designs than that out there, out there in the wild. But we’ve, we’ve made a big effort to try and focus on the really key, key OEMs, the really key blades types that are particularly, particularly prevalent. Um, so yeah, we’ve got a lot of designs. We’ve got a lot of existing tooling, so we can make part. Very quickly. Again, trying to be as reactive as we, as we can to, to our, to our customer base. But as you say, that database is continually growing. So we have maybe some of the, the less popular blade models that we haven’t yet got to some of the out, the kind of fringe shoulder, shoulder models. Um, we’ll be trying to scan a few more of those. This, this coming season, just to keep on building up that, that kind of knowledge, knowledge base.  Allen Hall: So what does that look like now that you have this large database and. Uh, the sort of the [00:12:00] molds to make the product. Mm-hmm. You can do things at scale, I assume now you’re, you’re talking about thousands of blades for this upcoming season. Will Howell: Yeah, I mean, it’s, uh, when we, when we approach our manufacturing partners, obviously what we’re talking about are individual tools and then making plastic polymer parts from those, from those tools. And so when we start talking about wind farms with just a few hundred machines, then that’s maybe a few thousand parts. But for these, for these manufacturers, that is small fry. So our ability to scale from the point of having those tools is very rapid. So our approach to the market and our ease of scaling very quickly has just, it’s, again, it is part of our, it’s part of our model. That’s why we can engage now in local manufacturer, like in North America to, to support the market there. And it’s not only North Americas, we start to grow in, [00:13:00] um, in Europe here and as well as some of other target target markets. We’ve got some, some smaller in stores in India and in Australia. These are also targets where potentially we could start Manu Manufacturing as well in the future to assist in our scale up. Allen Hall: What, what is your lead time right now That’s from, from, from the point of, I call up will say, well, I’ve got a GE 62 2. I probably have 500 of them. What does that lead time look like?  Will Howell: So, uh, 6 2 2 is a very good example. It’s a very prevalent blade. Um, we’ve, we’ve had a number of projects for this, so we’ve got tooling ready to, ready to go. You’re probably talking around four to six weeks to get that. That’s fast material out. Yeah. Um, if it was a new design, it would be, it would be longer, but still you’re only up at 10 to 12 weeks for a new, a new design. So, yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, you know, as you guys have seen it, it’s quite an involved process. We’ve had a lot of. Design evolution to get here, but we’re quite a finesse process now.  Joel Saxum: Yeah, that was the exact question I was gonna ask because it’s one we get asked all the time too, right? What? What? Hey, and now it’s, we’re, [00:14:00] we’re sitting at the end of the year coming into the new year and in the United States, our blade season in the southern part of the states. Right. You’re south Texas, you’re starting in the next two months, right? Oh yeah. You’re starting end of January, beginning of February, and then that starts to roll north as we go. And by May we’re in full swing Absolutely. Across North America. So. If you’re a manufacturer listening to this, or a manufacturer, if you’re an operator listening to this and, um, you’re thinking, Hey, maybe, maybe I’d like to, if I don’t wanna roll it all out, maybe I’d like to try a couple. We’re gonna do an LEP campaign. Let’s get this stuff out there and see what it looks like. Um, you need to get ahold of will.  Allen Hall: Oh, you should, and you should try it. I think a lot of the operators haven’t dabbled too much. They’ve seen a lot of products on the market, a lot of sort of, uh, chemical mixing apply. A polymer to the leading edge tapes, products, tapes, paint, yeah. All, all of that. And the, the, the harder products haven’t seen as much favor, but the, the issue is, is that all the softer products, I’ll call them, wear easy or particularly with [00:15:00] dirt.  Joel Saxum: To me this is set it and forget it. Right. So this is a, this is an uptime podcast consultant type thing. I have always felt in the last, I don’t know, four or five years of my career that I get access to a lot of the. Subject matter experts and the products and solutions that are like top tier, right? These are the ones that I would, yeah, so I think a lot of times like, man, if I wasn’t, if I, Joel Saxon owned a wind farm and I was an operator, I would do this. I would do that. I would, you know, I’d have Pete Andrews from me both here on here earlier today and I’d be doing these kind, but I would put a product like your under the armor edge shields on simply because to me, this is set it and forget it. Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna do it once and I’m done.  Will Howell: That’s it. You know, and we’ve got, we’ve got the initial lab test to kind of validate the really long lifetime of our products. But again, now we have the field data to back that up as there are many, many happy, happy customers in varying conditions. And, and yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s performing well. Interesting what you’re saying though, about. The lead time of the, um, products. You know, we’ve, we’ve really tried to [00:16:00] drive that down as much as, as much as possible. And look, we know the, the planning world out there is not, is not a perfect science, and there’s always gonna be people coming to us with super short, short lead times. But as we’ve scaled, that’s another, another issue that we’re trying to combat. So now that we have many years under our belt, our stock holding is increasing. We can do small projects, pretty much X stock. So we have. A stock of parts now that are available within a few days to ship out. It might just be a few, a few, a few machines. It could be a, a spot repair or a trial. Right, right, right. But we’ve got those, we’ve got those parts ready to go. So yeah, if anyone’s interested, even in a very short, short time scale, contact us. I mean, we may be able to help you out very, very quickly.  Joel Saxum: We’ve all heard about product. Disappearing outta the back of technician pickups in hotel parking lots too. Sometimes you just need an extra turbines worth the kit while you’re on site.  Allen Hall: That is for sure. And will I, if you, people haven’t heard of Armor Edge, which is hard to believe, [00:17:00] but I do run across them occasionally. Where should they go to learn more? How did they get ahold of you to, to set up a 2026 trial?  Will Howell: Yeah, so, um, I mean, our. Our, our website@armedge.com and that’s the, the UK spelling of arm edge with you in there. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, please come to the, come to the website. You can contact us through there. Um, I’m available on, on LinkedIn. Um, yeah, you can contact us anytime. Anytime. We, we do travel between, uh, the uk. Again, our US is a big, big market, so if you’re gonna be at any of the trade shows, you can come and come and say, Hey, and arrange a, arrange a time to. Time to talk. Yeah. Which, which of the trade shows are gonna be at this year? So we’ve got, um, blades, uh, the end of end of February, uh, in the US we’ve got, uh, the A-C-P-O-O and M event, um, event. And that’s the start of the start of March. Just before that, we’ll be, um, we’ve got one of our representatives in Australia at the Woma, [00:18:00] um, show as well. So, yeah. Yeah, it’s, uh, that’s the kind of the start, the start of the year as we move on. Um. Again, there’s gonna be a lot of, uh, interaction with customers and suppliers. So even outside the shows you, you might be able to get a hold of us, look out for us. Um, but I think coming up to the summer, we’ve then got the clean power event. We like to visit, visit that for a bit more of a higher, higher level view of what’s, uh, going on in, in the industry as well. Allen Hall: Well, will thank you so much for allowing us to get behind the scenes and. See the, the shop and see the, uh, demonstration of the installation of the shields. It was wonderful to see that. And thank you for joining us today.  Will Howell: No, great. Thank you very much for your time again. Appreciate it.

Infrastructure was passé…uncool. Difficult to get dollars from Private Equity and Growth funds, and almost impossible to get a VC fund interested. Now?! Now, it's cool. Infrastructure seems to be having a Renaissance, a full on Rebirth, not just fueled by commercial interests (e.g. advent of AI), but also by industrial policy and geopolitical considerations. In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we explore what's cool in the infrastructure spaces, including mega trends in semiconductors, energy, networking & connectivity, manufacturing Navigation: Intro We're back to building things Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Introduction Welcome to episode 73 of Tech Deciphered, Infrastructure, the Rebirth or Renaissance. Infrastructure was passé, it wasn’t cool, but all of a sudden now everyone’s talking about network, talking about compute and semiconductors, talking about logistics, talking about energy. What gives? What’s happened? It was impossible in the past to get any funds, venture capital, even, to be honest, some private equity funds or growth funds interested in some of these areas, but now all of a sudden everyone thinks it’s cool. The infrastructure seems to be having a renaissance, a full-on rebirth. In this episode, we will explore in which cool ways the infrastructure spaces are moving and what’s leading to it. We will deep dive into the forces that are leading us to this. We will deep dive into semiconductors, networking and connectivity, energy, manufacturing, and then we’ll wrap up. Bertrand, so infrastructure is cool now. Bertrand Schmitt We're back to building things Yes. I thought software was going to eat the world. I cannot believe it was then, maybe even 15 years ago, from Andreessen, that quote about software eating the world. I guess it’s an eternal balance. Sometimes you go ahead of yourself, you build a lot of software stack, and at some point, you need the hardware to run this software stack, and there is only so much the bits can do in a world of atoms. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Obviously, we’ve gone through some of this before. I think what we’re going through right now is AI is eating the world, and because AI is eating the world, it’s driving a lot of this infrastructure building that we need. We don’t have enough energy to be consumed by all these big data centers and hyperscalers. We need to be innovative around network as well because of the consumption in terms of network bandwidth that is linked to that consumption as well. In some ways, it’s not software eating the world, AI is eating the world. Because AI is eating the world, we need to rethink everything around infrastructure and infrastructure becoming cool again. Bertrand Schmitt There is something deeper in this. It’s that the past 10, even 15 years were all about SaaS before AI. SaaS, interestingly enough, was very energy-efficient. When I say SaaS, I mean cloud computing at large. What I mean by energy-efficient is that actually cloud computing help make energy use more efficient because instead of companies having their own separate data centers in many locations, sometimes poorly run from an industrial perspective, replace their own privately run data center with data center run by the super scalers, the hyperscalers of the world. These data centers were run much better in terms of how you manage the coolings, the energy efficiency, the rack density, all of this stuff. Actually, the cloud revolution didn’t increase the use of electricity. The cloud revolution was actually a replacement from your private data center to the hyperscaler data center, which was energy efficient. That’s why we didn’t, even if we are always talking about that growth of cloud computing, we were never feeling the pinch in term of electricity. As you say, we say it all changed because with AI, it was not a simple “Replacement” of locally run infrastructure to a hyperscaler run infrastructure. It was truly adding on top of an existing infrastructure, a new computing infrastructure in a way out of nowhere. Not just any computing infrastructure, an energy infrastructure that was really, really voracious in term of energy use. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro There was one other effect. Obviously, we’ve discussed before, we are in a bubble. We won’t go too much into that today. But the previous big bubble in tech, which is in the late ’90s, there was a lot of infrastructure built. We thought the internet was going to take over back then. It didn’t take over immediately, but there was a lot of network connectivity, bandwidth built back in the day. Companies imploded because of that as well, or had to restructure and go in their chapter 11. A lot of the big telco companies had their own issues back then, etc., but a lot of infrastructure was built back then for this advent of the internet, which would then take a long time to come. In some ways, to your point, there was a lot of latent supply that was built that was around that for a while wasn’t used, but then it was. Now it’s been used, and now we need new stuff. That’s why I feel now we’re having the new moment of infrastructure, new moment of moving forward, aligned a little bit with what you just said around cloud computing and the advent of SaaS, but also around the fact that we had a lot of buildup back in the late ’90s, early ’90s, which we’re now still reaping the benefits on in today’s world. Bertrand Schmitt Yeah, that’s actually a great point because what was built in the late ’90s, there was a lot of fibre that was built. Laying out the fibre either across countries, inside countries. This fibre, interestingly enough, you could just change the computing on both sides of the fibre, the routing, the modems, and upgrade the capacity of the fibre. But the fibre was the same in between. The big investment, CapEx investment, was really lying down that fibre, but then you could really upgrade easily. Even if both ends of the fibre were either using very old infrastructure from the ’90s or were actually dark and not being put to use, step by step, it was being put to use, equipment was replaced, and step by step, you could keep using more and more of this fibre. It was a very interesting development, as you say, because it could be expanded over the years, where if we talk about GPUs, use for AI, GPUs, the interesting part is actually it’s totally the opposite. After a few years, it’s useless. Some like Google, will argue that they can depreciate over 5, 6 years, even some GPUs. But at the end of the day, the difference in perf and energy efficiency of the GPUs means that if you are energy constrained, you just want to replace the old one even as young as three-year-old. You have to look at Nvidia increasing spec, generation after generation. It’s pretty insane. It’s usually at least 3X year over year in term of performance. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At this moment in time, it’s very clear that it’s happening. Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Maybe let’s deep dive into why it’s happening now. What are the key forces around this? We’ve identified, I think, five forces that are particularly vital that lead to the world we’re in right now. One we’ve already talked about, which is AI, the demand shock and everything that’s happened because of AI. Data centers drive power demand, drive grid upgrades, drive innovative ways of getting energy, drive chips, drive networking, drive cooling, drive manufacturing, drive all the things that we’re going to talk in just a bit. One second element that we could probably highlight in terms of the forces that are behind this is obviously where we are in terms of cost curves around technology. Obviously, a lot of things are becoming much cheaper. The simulation of physical behaviours has become a lot more cheap, which in itself, this becomes almost a vicious cycle in of itself, then drives the adoption of more and more AI and stuff. But anyway, the simulation is becoming more and more accessible, so you can do a lot of simulation with digital twins and other things off the real world before you go into the real world. Robotics itself is becoming, obviously, cheaper. Hardware, a lot of the hardware is becoming cheaper. Computer has become cheaper as well. Obviously, there’s a lot of cost curves that have aligned that, and that’s maybe the second force that I would highlight. Obviously, funds are catching up. We’ll leave that a little bit to the end. We’ll do a wrap-up and talk a little bit about the implications to investors. But there’s a lot of capital out there, some capital related to industrial policy, other capital related to private initiative, private equity, growth funds, even venture capital, to be honest, and a few other elements on that. That would be a third force that I would highlight. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, in terms of capital use, and we’ll talk more about this, but some firms, if we are talking about energy investment, it was very difficult to invest if you are not investing in green energy. Now I think more and more firms and banks are willing to invest or support different type of energy infrastructure, not just, “Green energy.” That’s an interesting development because at some point it became near impossible to invest more in gas development, in oil development in the US or in most Western countries. At least in the US, this is dramatically changing the framework. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Maybe to add the two last forces that I think we see behind the renaissance of what’s happening in infrastructure. They go hand in hand. One is the geopolitics of the world right now. Obviously, the world was global flat, and now it’s becoming increasingly siloed, so people are playing it to their own interests. There’s a lot of replication of infrastructure as well because people want to be autonomous, and they want to drive their own ability to serve end consumers, businesses, etc., in terms of data centers and everything else. That ability has led to things like, for example, chips shortage. The fact that there are semiconductors, there are shortages across the board, like memory shortages, where everything is packed up until 2027 of 2028. A lot of the memory that was being produced is already spoken for, which is shocking. There’s obviously generation of supply chain fragilities, obviously, some of it because of policies, for example, in the US with tariffs, etc, security of energy, etc. Then the last force directly linked to the geopolitics is the opposite of it, which is the policy as an accelerant, so to speak, as something that is accelerating development, where because of those silos, individual countries, as part their industrial policy, then want to put capital behind their local ecosystems, their local companies, so that their local companies and their local systems are for sure the winners, or at least, at the very least, serve their own local markets. I think that’s true of a lot of the things we’re seeing, for example, in the US with the Chips Act, for semiconductors, with IGA, IRA, and other elements of what we’ve seen in terms of practices, policies that have been implemented even in Europe, China, and other parts of the world. Bertrand Schmitt Talking about chips shortages, it’s pretty insane what has been happening with memory. Just the past few weeks, I have seen a close to 3X increase in price in memory prices in a matter of weeks. Apparently, it started with a huge order from OpenAI. Apparently, they have tried to corner the memory market. Interestingly enough, it has flat-footed the entire industry, and that includes Google, that includes Microsoft. There are rumours of their teams now having moved to South Korea, so they are closer to the action in terms of memory factories and memory decision-making. There are rumours of execs who got fired because they didn’t prepare for this type of eventuality or didn’t lock in some of the supply chain because that memory was initially for AI, but obviously, it impacts everything because factories making memories, you have to plan years in advance to build memories. You cannot open new lines of manufacturing like this. All factories that are going to open, we know when they are going to open because they’ve been built up for years. There is no extra capacity suddenly. At the very best, you can change a bit your line of production from one type of memory to another type. But that’s probably about it. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just to be clear, all these transformations we’re seeing isn’t to say just hardware is back, right? It’s not just hardware. There’s physicality. The buildings are coming back, right? It’s full stack. Software is here. That’s why everything is happening. Policy is here. Finance is here. It’s a little bit like the name of the movie, right? Everything everywhere all at once. Everything’s happening. It was in some ways driven by the upper stacks, by the app layers, by the platform layers. But now we need new infrastructure. We need more infrastructure. We need it very, very quickly. We need it today. We’re already lacking in it. Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Maybe that’s a good segue into the first piece of the whole infrastructure thing that’s driving now the most valuable company in the world, NVIDIA, which is semiconductors. Semiconductors are driving compute. Semis are the foundation of infrastructure as a compute. Everyone needs it for every thing, for every activity, not just for compute, but even for sensors, for actuators, everything else. That’s the beginning of it all. Semiconductor is one of the key pieces around the infrastructure stack that’s being built at scale at this moment in time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. What’s interesting is that if we look at the market gap of Semis versus software as a service, cloud companies, there has been a widening gap the past year. I forgot the exact numbers, but we were talking about plus 20, 25% for Semis in term of market gap and minus 5, minus 10 for SaaS companies. That’s another trend that’s happening. Why is this happening? One, because semiconductors are core to the AI build-up, you cannot go around without them. But two, it’s also raising a lot of questions about the durability of the SaaS, a software-as-a-service business model. Because if suddenly we have better AI, and that’s all everyone is talking about to justify the investment in AI, that it keeps getting better, and it keeps improving, and it’s going to replace your engineers, your software engineers. Then maybe all of this moat that software companies built up over the years or decades, sometimes, might unravel under the pressure of newly coded, newly built, cheaper alternatives built from the ground up with AI support. It’s not just that, yes, semiconductors are doing great. It’s also as a result of that AI underlying trend that software is doing worse right now. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At the end of the day, this foundational piece of infrastructure, semiconductor, is obviously getting manifest to many things, fabrication, manufacturing, packaging, materials, equipment. Everything’s being driven, ASML, etc. There are all these different players around the world that are having skyrocket valuations now, it’s because they’re all part of the value chain. Just to be very, very clear, there’s two elements of this that I think are very important for us to remember at this point in time. One, it’s the entire value chains are being shifted. It’s not just the chips that basically lead to computing in the strict sense of it. It’s like chips, for example, that drive, for example, network switching. We’re going to talk about networking a bit, but you need chips to drive better network switching. That’s getting revolutionised as well. For example, we have an investment in that space, a company called the eridu.ai, and they’re revolutionising one of the pieces around that stack. Second part of the puzzle, so obviously, besides the holistic view of the world that’s changing in terms of value change, the second piece of the puzzle is, as we discussed before, there’s industrial policy. We already mentioned the CHIPS Act, which is something, for example, that has been done in the US, which I think is 52 billion in incentives across a variety of things, grants, loans, and other mechanisms to incentivise players to scale capacity quick and to scale capacity locally in the US. One of the effects of that now is obviously we had the TSMC, US expansion with a factory here in the US. We have other levels of expansion going on with Intel, Samsung, and others that are happening as we speak. Again, it’s this two by two. It’s market forces that drive the need for fundamental shifts in the value chain. On the other industrial policy and actual money put forward by states, by governments, by entities that want to revolutionise their own local markets. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. When you talk about networking, it makes me think about what NVIDIA did more than six years ago when they acquired Mellanox. At the time, it was largest acquisition for NVIDIA in 2019, and it was networking for the data center. Not networking across data center, but inside the data center, and basically making sure that your GPUs, the different computers, can talk as fast as possible between each of them. I think that’s one piece of the puzzle that a lot of companies are missing, by the way, about NVIDIA is that they are truly providing full systems. They are not just providing a GPU. Some of their competitors are just providing GPUs. But NVIDIA can provide you the full rack. Now, they move to liquid-cool computing as well. They design their systems with liquid cooling in mind. They have a very different approach in the industry. It’s a systematic system-level approach to how do you optimize your data center. Quite frankly, that’s a bit hard to beat. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro For those listening, you’d be like, this is all very different. Semiconductors, networking, energy, manufacturing, this is all different. Then all of a sudden, as Bertrand is saying, well, there are some players that are acting across the stack. Then you see in the same sentence, you’re talking about nuclear power in Microsoft or nuclear power in Google, and you’re like, what happened? Why are these guys in the same sentence? It’s like they’re tech companies. Why are they talking about energy? It’s the nature of that. These ecosystems need to go hand in hand. The value chains are very deep. For you to actually reap the benefits of more and more, for example, semiconductor availability, you have to have better and better networking connectivity, and you have to have more and more energy at lower and lower costs, and all of that. All these things are intrinsically linked. That’s why you see all these big tech companies working across stack, NVIDIA being a great example of that in trying to create truly a systems approach to the world, as Bertrand was mentioning. Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt On the networking and connectivity side, as we said, we had a lot of fibre that was put down, etc, but there’s still more build-out needs to be done. 5G in terms of its densification is still happening. We’re now starting to talk, obviously, about 6G. I’m not sure most telcos are very happy about that because they just have been doing all this CapEx and all this deployment into 5G, and now people already started talking about 6G and what’s next. Obviously, data center interconnect is quite important, and all the hubbing that needs to happen around data centers is very, very important. We are seeing a lot movements around connectivity that are particularly important. Network gear and the emergence of players like Broadcom in terms of the semiconductor side of the fence, obviously, Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and others that are very much present in this space. As I said, we made an investment on the semiconductor side of networking as well, realizing that there’s still a lot of bottlenecks happening there. But obviously, the networking and connectivity stack still needs to be built at all levels within the data centers, outside of the data centers in terms of last mile, across the board in terms of fibre. We’re seeing a lot of movements still around the space. It’s what connects everything. At the end of the day, if there’s too much latency in these systems, if the bandwidths are not high enough, then we’re going to have huge bottlenecks that are going to be put at the table by a networking providers. Obviously, that doesn’t help anyone. If there’s a button like anywhere, it doesn’t work. All of this doesn’t work. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, I know we said for this episode, we not talk too much about space, but when you talk about 6G, it make me think about, of course, Starlink. That’s really your last mile delivery that’s being built as well. It’s a massive investment. We’re talking about thousands of satellites that are interconnected between each other through laser system. This is changing dramatically how companies can operate, how individuals can operate. For companies, you can have great connectivity from anywhere in the world. For military, it’s the same. For individuals, suddenly, you won’t have dead space, wide zones. This is also a part of changing how we could do things. It’s quite important even in the development of AI because, yes, you can have AI at the edge, but that interconnect to the rest of the system is quite critical. Having that availability of a network link, high-quality network link from anywhere is a great combo. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then you start seeing regions of the world that want to differentiate to attract digital nomads by saying, “We have submarine cables that come and hub through us, and therefore, our connectivity is amazing.” I was just in Madeira, and they were talking about that in Portugal. One of the islands of Portugal. We have some Marine cables. You have great connectivity. We’re getting into that discussion where people are like, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t know. I assume I have decent connectivity. People actually care about decent connectivity. This discussion is not just happening at corporate level, at enterprise level? Etc. Even consumers, even people that want to work remotely or be based somewhere else in the world. It’s like, This is important Where is there a great connectivity for me so that I can have access to the services I need? Etc. Everyone becomes aware of everything. We had a cloud flare mishap more recently that the CEO had to jump online and explain deeply, technically and deeply, what happened. Because we’re in their heads. If Cloudflare goes down, there’s a lot of websites that don’t work. All of this, I think, is now becoming du jour rather than just an afterthought. Maybe we’ll think about that in the future. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. I think your life is being changed for network connectivity, so life of individuals, companies. I mean, everything. Look at airlines and ships and cruise ships. Now is the advent of satellite connectivity. It’s dramatically changing our experience. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Indeed. Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Moving maybe to energy. We’ve talked about energy quite a bit in the past. Maybe we start with the one that we didn’t talk as much, although we did mention it, which was, let’s call it the fossil infrastructure, what’s happening around there. Everyone was saying, it’s all going to be renewables and green. We’ve had a shift of power, geopolitics. Honestly, I the writing was on the wall that we needed a lot more energy creation. It wasn’t either or. We needed other sources to be as efficient as possible. Obviously, we see a lot of work happening around there that many would have thought, Well, all this infrastructure doesn’t matter anymore. Now we’re seeing LNG terminals, pipelines, petrochemical capacity being pushed up, a lot of stuff happening around markets in terms of export, and not only around export, but also around overall distribution and increases and improvements so that there’s less leakage, distribution of energy, etc. In some ways, people say, it’s controversial, but it’s like we don’t have enough energy to spare. We’re already behind, so we need as much as we can. We need to figure out the way to really extract as much as we can from even natural resources, which In many people’s mind, it’s almost like blasphemous to talk about, but it is where we are. Obviously, there’s a lot of renaissance also happening on the fossil infrastructure basis, so to speak. Bertrand Schmitt Personally, I’m ecstatic that there is a renaissance going regarding what is called fossil infrastructure. Oil and gas, it’s critical to humanity well-being. You never had growth of countries without energy growth and nothing else can come close. Nuclear could come close, but it takes decades to deploy. I think it’s great. It’s great for developed economies so that they do better, they can expand faster. It’s great for third-world countries who have no realistic other choice. I really don’t know what happened the past 10, 15 years and why this was suddenly blasphemous. But I’m glad that, strangely, thanks to AI, we are back to a more rational mindset about energy and making sure we get efficient energy where we can. Obviously, nuclear is getting a second act. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro I know you would be. We’ve been talking about for a long time, and you’ve been talking about it in particular for a very long time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, definitely. It’s been one area of interest of mine for 25 years. I don’t know. I’ve been shocked about what happened in Europe, that willingness destruction of energy infrastructure, especially in Germany. Just a few months ago, they keep destroying on live TV some nuclear station in perfect working condition and replacing them with coal. I’m not sure there is a better definition of insanity at this stage. It looks like it’s only the Germans going that hardcore for some reason, but at least the French have stopped their program of decommissioning. America, it seems to be doing the same, so it’s great. On top of it, there are new generations that could be put to use. The Chinese are building up a very large nuclear reactor program, more than 100 reactors in construction for the next 10 years. I think everybody has to catch up because at some point, this is the most efficient energy solution. Especially if you don’t build crazy constraints around the construction of these nuclear reactors. If we are rational about permits, about energy, about safety, there are great things we could be doing with nuclear. That might be one of the only solution if we want to be competitive, because when energy prices go down like crazy, like in China, they will do once they have reach delivery of their significant build-up of nuclear reactors, we better be ready to have similar options from a cost perspective. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro From the outside, at the very least, nuclear seems to be probably in the energy one of the areas that’s more being innovated at this moment in time. You have startups in the space, you have a lot really money going into it, not just your classic industrial development. That’s very exciting. Moving maybe to the carbonization and what’s happening. The CCUS, and for those who don’t know what it is, carbon capture, utilization, and storage. There’s a lot of stuff happening around that space. That’s the area that deals with the ability to capture CO₂ emissions from industrial sources and/or the atmosphere and preventing their release. There’s a lot of things happening in that space. There’s also a lot of things happening around hydrogen and geothermal and really creating the ability to storage or to store, rather, energy that then can be put back into the grids at the right time. There’s a lot of interesting pieces happening around this. There’s some startup movement in the space. It’s been a long time coming, the reuse of a lot of these industrial sources. Not sure it’s as much on the news as nuclear, and oil and gas, but certainly there’s a lot of exciting things happening there. Bertrand Schmitt I’m a bit more dubious here, but I think geothermal makes sense if it’s available at reasonable price. I don’t think hydrogen technology has proven its value. Concerning carbon capture, I’m not sure how much it’s really going to provide in terms of energy needs, but why not? Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Fuels niche, again, from the outside, we’re not energy experts, but certainly, there are movements in the space. We’ll see what’s happening. One area where there’s definitely a lot of movement is this notion of grid and storage. On the one hand, that transmission needs to be built out. It needs to be better. We’ve had issues of blackouts in the US. We’ve had issues of blackouts all around the world, almost. Portugal as well, for a significant part of the time. The ability to work around transmission lines, transformers, substations, the modernization of some of this infrastructure, and the move forward of it is pretty critical. But at the other end, there’s the edge. Then, on the edge, you have the ability to store. We should have, better mechanisms to store energy that are less leaky in terms of energy storage. Obviously, there’s a lot of movement around that. Some of it driven just by commercial stuff, like Tesla a lot with their storage stuff, etc. Some of it really driven at scale by energy players that have the interest that, for example, some of the storage starts happening closer to the consumption as well. But there’s a lot of exciting things happening in that space, and that is a transformative space. In some ways, the bottleneck of energy is also around transmission and then ultimately the access to energy by homes, by businesses, by industries, etc. Bertrand Schmitt I would say some of the blackout are truly man-made. If I pick on California, for instance. That’s the logical conclusion of the regulatory system in place in California. On one side, you limit price that energy supplier can sell. The utility company can sell, too. On the other side, you force them to decommission the most energy-efficient and least expensive energy source. That means you cap the revenues, you make the cost increase. What is the result? The result is you cannot invest anymore to support a grid and to support transmission. That’s 100% obvious. That’s what happened, at least in many places. The solution is stop crazy regulations that makes no economic sense whatsoever. Then, strangely enough, you can invest again in transmission, in maintenance, and all I love this stuff. Maybe another piece, if we pick in California, if you authorize building construction in areas where fires are easy, that’s also a very costly to support from utility perspective, because then you are creating more risk. You are forced buy the state to connect these new constructions to the grid. You have more maintenance. If it fails, you can create fire. If you create fire, you have to pay billions of fees. I just want to highlight that some of this is not a technological issue, is not per se an investment issue, but it’s simply the result of very bad regulations. I hope that some will learn, and some change will be made so that utilities can do their job better. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then last, but not the least, on the energy side, energy is becoming more and more digitally defined in some ways. It’s like the analogy to networks that they’ve become more, and more software defined, where you have, at the edge is things like smart meters. There’s a lot of things you can do around the key elements of the business model, like dynamic pricing and other elements. Demand response, one of the areas that I invested in, I invest in a company called Omconnect that’s now merged with what used to be Google Nest. Where to deploy that ability to do demand response and also pass it to consumers so that consumers can reduce their consumption at times where is the least price effective or the less green or the less good for the energy companies to produce energy. We have other things that are happening, which are interesting. Obviously, we have a lot more electric vehicles in cars, etc. These are also elements of storage. They don’t look like elements of storage, but the car has electricity in it once you charge it. Once it’s charged, what do you do with it? Could you do something else? Like the whole reverse charging piece that we also see now today in mobile devices and other edge devices, so to speak. That also changes the architecture of what we’re seeing around the space. With AI, there’s a lot of elements that change around the value chain. The ability to do forecasting, the ability to have, for example, virtual power plans because of just designated storage out there, etc. Interesting times happening. Not sure all utilities around the world, all energy providers around the world are innovating at the same pace and in the same way. But certainly just looking at the industry and talking to a lot of players that are CEOs of some of these companies. That are leading innovation for some of these companies, there’s definitely a lot more happening now in the last few years than maybe over the last few decades. Very exciting times. Bertrand Schmitt I think there are two interesting points in what you say. Talking about EVs, for instance, a Cybertruck is able to send electricity back to your home if your home is able to receive electricity from that source. Usually, you have some changes to make to the meter system, to your panel. That’s one great way to potentially use your car battery. Another piece of the puzzle is that, strangely enough, most strangely enough, there has been a big push to EV, but at the same time, there has not been a push to provide more electricity. But if you replace cars that use gasoline by electric vehicles that use electricity, you need to deliver more electricity. It doesn’t require a PhD to get that. But, strangely enough, nothing was done. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Apparently, it does. Bertrand Schmitt I remember that study in France where they say that, if people were all to switch to EV, we will need 10 more nuclear reactors just on the way from Paris to Nice to the Côte d’Azur, the French Rivière, in order to provide electricity to the cars going there during the summer vacation. But I mean, guess what? No nuclear plant is being built along the way. Good luck charging your vehicles. I think that’s another limit that has been happening to the grid is more electric vehicles that require charging when the related infrastructure has not been upgraded to support more. Actually, it has quite the opposite. In many cases, we had situation of nuclear reactors closing down, so other facilities closing down. Obviously, the end result is an increase in price of electricity, at least in some states and countries that have not sold that fully out. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Moving to manufacturing and what’s happening around manufacturing, manufacturing technology. There’s maybe the case to be made that manufacturing is getting replatformed, right? It’s getting redefined. Some of it is very obvious, and it’s already been ongoing for a couple of decades, which is the advent of and more and more either robotic augmented factories or just fully roboticized factories, where there’s very little presence of human beings. There’s elements of that. There’s the element of software definition on top of it, like simulation. A lot of automation is going on. A lot of AI has been applied to some lines in terms of vision, safety. We have an investment in a company called Sauter Analytics that is very focused on that from the perspective of employees and when they’re still humans in the loop, so to speak, and the ability to really figure out when people are at risk and other elements of what’s happening occurring from that. But there’s more than that. There’s a little bit of a renaissance in and of itself. Factories are, initially, if we go back a couple of decades ago, factories were, and manufacturing was very much defined from the setup. Now it’s difficult to innovate, it’s difficult to shift the line, it’s difficult to change how things are done in the line. With the advent of new factories that have less legacy, that have more flexible systems, not only in terms of software, but also in terms of hardware and robotics, it allows us to, for example, change and shift lines much more easily to different functions, which will hopefully, over time, not only reduce dramatically the cost of production. But also increase dramatically the yield, it increases dramatically the production itself. A lot of cool stuff happening in that space. Bertrand Schmitt It’s exciting to see that. One thing this current administration in the US has been betting on is not just hoping for construction renaissance. Especially on the factory side, up of factories, but their mindset was two things. One, should I force more companies to build locally because it would be cheaper? Two, increase output and supply of energy so that running factories here in the US would be cheaper than anywhere else. Maybe not cheaper than China, but certainly we get is cheaper than Europe. But three, it’s also the belief that thanks to AI, we will be able to have more efficient factories. There is always that question, do Americans to still keep making clothes, for instance, in factories. That used to be the case maybe 50 years ago, but this move to China, this move to Bangladesh, this move to different places. That’s not the goal. But it can make sense that indeed there is ability, thanks to robots and AI, to have more automated factories, and these factories could be run more efficiently, and as a result, it would be priced-competitive, even if run in the US. When you want to think about it, that has been, for instance, the South Korean playbook. More automated factories, robotics, all of this, because that was the only way to compete against China, which has a near infinite or used to have a near infinite supply of cheaper labour. I think that all of this combined can make a lot of sense. In a way, it’s probably creating a perfect storm. Maybe another piece of the puzzle this administration has been working on pretty hard is simplifying all the permitting process. Because a big chunk of the problem is that if your permitting is very complex, very expensive, what take two years to build become four years, five years, 10 years. The investment mass is not the same in that situation. I think that’s a very important part of the puzzle. It’s use this opportunity to reduce regulatory state, make sure that things are more efficient. Also, things are less at risk of bribery and fraud because all these regulations, there might be ways around. I think it’s quite critical to really be careful about this. Maybe last piece of the puzzle is the way accounting works. There are new rules now in 2026 in the US where you can fully depreciate your CapEx much faster than before. That’s a big win for manufacturing in the US. Suddenly, you can depreciate much faster some of your CapEx investment in manufacturing. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just going back to a point you made and then moving it forward, even China, with being now probably the country in the world with the highest rate of innovation and take up of industrial robots. Because of demographic issues a little bit what led Japan the first place to be one of the real big innovators around robots in general. The fact that demographics, you’re having an aging population, less and less children. How are you going to replace all these people? Moving that into big winners, who becomes a big winner in a space where manufacturing is fundamentally changing? Obviously, there’s the big four of robots, which is ABB, FANUC, KUKA, and Yaskawa. Epson, I think, is now in there, although it’s not considered one of the big four. Kawasaki, Denso, Universal Robots. There’s a really big robotics, industrial robotic companies in the space from different origins, FANUC and Yaskawa, and Epson from Japan, KUKA from Germany, ABB from Switzerland, Sweden. A lot of now emerging companies from China, and what’s happening in that space is quite interesting. On the other hand, also, other winners will include players that will be integrators that will build some of the rest of the infrastructure that goes into manufacturing, the Siemens of the world, the Schneider’s, the Rockwell’s that will lead to fundamental industrial automation. Some big winners in there that whose names are well known, so probably not a huge amount of surprises there. There’s movements. As I said, we’re still going to see the big Chinese players emerging in the world. There are startups that are innovating around a lot of the edges that are significant in this space. We’ll see if this is a space that will just be continued to be dominated by the big foreign robotics and by a couple of others and by the big integrators or not. Bertrand Schmitt I think you are right to remind about China because China has been moving very fast in robotics. Some Chinese companies are world-class in their use of robotics. You have this strange mix of some older industries where robotics might not be so much put to use and typically state-owned, versus some private companies, typically some tech companies that are reconverting into hardware in some situation. That went all in terms of robotics use and their demonstrations, an example of what’s happening in China. Definitely, the Chinese are not resting. Everyone smart enough is playing that game from the Americans, the Chinese, Japanese, the South Koreans. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exciting things are manufacturing, and maybe to bring it all together, what does it mean for all the big players out there? If we talk with startups and talk about startups, we didn’t mention a ton of startups today, right? Maybe incumbent wind across the board. But on a more serious note, we did mention a few. For example, in nuclear energy, there’s a lot of startups that have been, some of them, incredibly well-funded at this moment in time. Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors There might be some big disruptions that will come out of startups, for example, in that space. On the chipset side, we talked about the big gorillas, the NVIDIAs, AMDs, Intel, etc., of the world. But we didn’t quite talk about the fact that there’s a lot of innovation, again, happening on the edges with new players going after very large niches, be it in networking and switching. Be it in compute and other areas that will need different, more specialized solutions. Potentially in terms of compute or in terms of semiconductor deployments. I think there’s still some opportunities there, maybe not to be the winner takes all thing, but certainly around a lot of very significant niches that might grow very fast. Manufacturing, we mentioned the same. Some of the incumbents seem to be in the driving seat. We’ll see what happens if some startups will come in and take some of the momentum there, probably less likely. There are spaces where the value chains are very tightly built around the OEMs and then the suppliers overall, classically the tier one suppliers across value chains. Maybe there is some startup investment play. We certainly have played in the couple of the spaces. I mentioned already some of them today, but this is maybe where the incumbents have it all to lose. It’s more for them to lose rather than for the startups to win just because of the scale of what needs to be done and what needs to be deployed. Bertrand Schmitt I know. That’s interesting point. I think some players in energy production, for instance, are moving very fast and behaving not only like startups. Usually, it’s independent energy suppliers who are not kept by too much regulations that get moved faster. Utility companies, as we just discussed, have more constraints. I would like to say that if you take semiconductor space, there has been quite a lot of startup activities way more than usual, and there have been some incredible success. Just a few weeks ago, Rock got more or less acquired. Now, you have to play games. It’s not an outright acquisition, but $20 billion for an IP licensing agreement that’s close to an acquisition. That’s an incredible success for a company. Started maybe 10 years ago. You have another Cerebras, one of the competitor valued, I believe, quite a lot in similar range. I think there is definitely some activity. It’s definitely a different game compared to your software startup in terms of investment. But as we have seen with AI in general, the need for investment might be larger these days. Yes, it might be either traditional players if they can move fast enough, to be frank, because some of them, when you have decades of being run as a slow-moving company, it’s hard to change things. At the same time, it looks like VCs are getting bigger. Wall Street is getting more ready to finance some of these companies. I think there will be opportunities for startups, but definitely different types of startups in terms of profile. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exactly. From an investor standpoint, I think on the VC side, at least our core belief is that it’s more niche. It’s more around big niches that need to be fundamentally disrupted or solutions that require fundamental interoperability and integration where the incumbents have no motivation to do it. Things that are a little bit more either packaging on the semiconductor side or other elements of actual interoperability. Even at the software layer side that feeds into infrastructure. If you’re a growth investor, a private equity investor, there’s other plays that are available to you. A lot of these projects need to be funded and need to be scaled. Now we’re seeing projects being funded even for a very large, we mentioned it in one of the previous episodes, for a very large tech companies. When Meta, for example, is going to the market to get funding for data centers, etc. There’s projects to be funded there because just the quantum and scale of some of these projects, either because of financial interest for specifically the tech companies or for other reasons, but they need to be funded by the market. There’s other place right now, certainly if you’re a larger private equity growth investor, and you want to come into the market and do projects. Even public-private financing is now available for a lot of things. Definitely, there’s a lot of things emanating that require a lot of funding, even for large-scale projects. Which means the advent of some of these projects and where realization is hopefully more of a given than in other circumstances, because there’s actual commercial capital behind it and private capital behind it to fuel it as well, not just industrial policy and money from governments. Bertrand Schmitt There was this quite incredible stat. I guess everyone heard about that incredible growth in GDP in Q3 in the US at 4.4%. Apparently, half of that growth, so around 2.2% point, has been coming from AI and related infrastructure investment. That’s pretty massive. Half of your GDP growth coming from something that was not there three years ago or there, but not at this intensity of investment. That’s the numbers we are talking about. I’m hearing that there is a good chance that in 2026, we’re talking about five, even potentially 6% GDP growth. Again, half of it potentially coming from AI and all the related infrastructure growth that’s coming with AI. As a conclusion for this episode on infrastructure, as we just said, it’s not just AI, it’s a whole stack, and it’s manufacturing in general as well. Definitely in the US, in China, there is a lot going on. As we have seen, computing needs connectivity, networks, need power, energy and grid, and all of this needs production capacity and manufacturing. Manufacturing can benefit from AI as well. That way the loop is fully going back on itself. Infrastructure is the next big thing. It’s an opportunity, probably more for incumbents, but certainly, as usual, with such big growth opportunities for startups as well. Thank you, Nuno. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Thank you, Bertrand.

Join Dr. Arun Seraphin for a conversation with Dr. Sridhar Kota and Hal Chrisman of FlexSys exploring how adaptive morphing control surfaces are transforming aerodynamics across the aerospace industry and defense industry. The discussion centers on this engineering breakthrough and its potential to reshape future DoD platforms and missions. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, Dr. Kota and Chrisman explain how this adaptive technology can improve lift-to-drag ratios, reduce fuel consumption and noise, and eliminate the need for conventional flaps in next-generation aircraft designs. This conversation examines how morphing aerodynamics technologies could transform DoD mission requirements, from enabling shorter takeoff and landing distances to improving climb gradients and reducing fleet size requirements. In addition to the operational benefits for the Department of Defense (DoD), Dr. Kota and Chrisman explore key technology transition challenges facing the defense industry, including certification, integration, and scalability. The conversation concludes with a forward-looking vision for making morphing control surfaces an industry standard, along with practical guidance for OEMs and DoD partners interested in adopting this advanced aerodynamics technology.Be sure to follow us on social media for updates, inside scoops, & more:LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4htROo0Twitter: https://bit.ly/48LHAx3Facebook: https://bit.ly/47vlht8And for more podcasts, articles, & publications all things emerging tech, check out our website at: https://bit.ly/47oA5K1

Jeep, Toyota (twice), Nissan, Volkswagen and Cadillac are the players in this year's Super Bowl ad show down. At $10mil an ad, was it well spent? I review and rank each of this year's automotive entries where I discuss why there were so few compared to years prior, and give my analysis on the new Jeep Cherokee. That and more on this sportball themed edition of the show! If you like cars, this is the automotive podcast for you!Get your GPS tracker now and protect your car! Use Promo code AUTOADHD15 for 15% off, in addition to another 35% off an annual subscription: spytec.com

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1264: As the NADA Show wraps, we zoom out on what actually mattered, from a shift in how dealers are thinking about AI, to deeper vendor partnerships, to how dealers are thinking about Chinese vehiclesShow Notes with links: As the dust settles from another packed NADA Show, some of the most meaningful takeaways weren't about flashy announcements, but mindset. Liza Borches shared reflections on leadership, partnerships, and why this year's conversations felt more practical — and more ready for action.“AI is a strategy conversation, not a tool conversation. It's less about adding new technology and more about using AI to help us solve problems and connect the tools and partners we already have.”“Partnership matters more than ever. Our vendor partners aren't just providers — they're collaborators helping us build better experiences for our customers and teams. The integration that our key partners are not just willing to do but excited to do is a gamechanger.”The idea of selling Chinese vehicles in the U.S. split the room at NADA. Dealers openly acknowledged the profit opportunity, even as trade groups and some store owners warned about subsidies, nationalism, and long-term consequences for American retail auto.Presidio Group president George Karolis said dealers are conflicted: “A majority of the dealer respondents saw it as a threat and opportunity — both… the vehicles are really good, slick and more affordable.”Several dealers privately said if Chinese OEMs solve affordability, politics won't stop them from sellingCable Dahmer Automotive Group owner Carlos Ledezma took a pragmatic stance: “If that's what the consumer is looking for, then we are going to have to pay attention to that.”NADA CEO Mike Stanton was blunt on policy: “It's bad for our industry, it's bad for our country, it's bad for consumers,” while still conceding NADA wouldn't block dealers from adding Chinese franchises.Ford Blue president Andrew Frick captured the dealer mindset: “It's hard for a dealer not to look at that as an opportunity for them as an entrepreneur.”Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

During Race Industry Week by EPARTRADE, Jim Campbell, Vice President of Performance and Motorsports Commercial Operations at General Motors, delivers a comprehensive look at GM's expanding global motorsports strategy—from Cadillac's entry into Formula 1 to a new 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Camaro, and the advanced simulation, CFD, AI and powertrain technology driving performance across every series.Broadcast from inside GM's high-performance powertrain facility in Pontiac, Michigan, Campbell explains how this center anchors GM's factory race programs and its Chevrolet Performance parts business—supporting programs in F1, NASCAR, IMSA, FIA WEC, IndyCar, NHRA, off-road racing, and more.

Chris Harris had an idea we explore: what car would you drive as your daily driver if it were invisible and you didn't have to worry about judgment? What about a “weekend car”? We list 5 of each.Steve-0 spots a 1990 Geo Metro. Believe it or not he drove one for a year in the mid-1990s to save money. A 3-cylinder shitbox with 55Hp, the Metro was a true deathmobile. But it was surprisingly well built and so cheap to run. We discuss.Dr Stephan Moran, our trauma surgeon, gets into specific problems seen with older and younger drivers. Both are high risk demographic groups, and he discusses how they can minimize risks.Dr Moran, also an experienced shade-tree mechanic, is frustrated by the recent move by OEMs to replace some electronic parts with expensive "modules" and many steel parts with plastic "equivalents". Ugh he hates it all (so does Steve-0)#carsoncallpodcast #traumasurgeonsafety #automobile #geometro

Most people think a “hot” M&A market means: inflated prices, reckless buyers, and deals that will eventually fall apart. That's not what we're seeing in aerospace and defense right now. What we're watching instead is something far more unusual and powerful. Every major segment of the industry is firing at once. Defense, commercial aviation, business jets, and space are all growing simultaneously.  The companies coming to market aren't missing forecasts; they're beating them. Buyers aren't walking away when things get hard. They're leaning in, working through issues that used to kill deals, because they know something fundamental has changed. This is not a fragile bubble. It's a structural shift. Capacity is the new currency. The players who survived COVID are full, booked, and unable to meet demand. Strategic buyers are no longer just chasing IP; they're buying throughput, people, certifications, and physical capabilities.  At the same time, private equity has specialized at a level we've never seen before, building aerospace-only platforms that can compete head-to-head with strategics. The middle market, once an “hourglass” with little depth, is filling in fast. And when you zoom out, the macro picture makes it even more obvious. Public aerospace and defense companies are trading at premiums to the broader market. Commercial launches into orbit are compounding at extraordinary rates. Aircraft production is rising sharply, engine backlogs stretch for years, and defense spending remains structurally elevated.  And across all of it, the barriers to entry have created enormous moats that protect the entire ecosystem. In this episode, I sit down again with Bill Alderman and Ryan Kirby from Alderman & Co to unpack what's really happening inside the middle-market aerospace and defense deal environment, and why, for the first time in decades, every major segment is moving in the same direction.   You'll also learn; Why “high prices” don't mean a fragile market, and what actually signals stability How capacity has replaced IP as the most valuable acquisition driver Why deals that once died in diligence are now getting done What's changed in private equity's role in aerospace and defense How the middle market is reshaping the industry's “hourglass” structure The data behind the explosive growth in space launches and aircraft production Why public market multiples confirm (not contradict) the M&A environment How pure-play spin-offs and carve-outs may redefine the next wave of consolidation The hidden risk facing the defense industrial base: labor, not demand Why the biggest threat to the market isn't visible yet, and what “Black Swan” really means for M&A   About the Guests William H. Alderman (Bill) is the Founding Partner of Alderman & Company. Bill is an M&A specialist in the middle market of the aerospace and defense industry with over $2 billion in mergers and acquisition-related transactions to his name. Before founding Alderman & Company in 2001, Bill worked for 15 years on Wall Street and in the Aerospace & Defense Industry, principally on M&A transactions in the middle market. His employers included BT Securities, Fieldstone, and General Electric. Bill is a Securities Principal registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and has four securities industry licenses (Series 7, 24, 63, and 65). Bill is a commercial pilot and owns and operates a Cirrus SR22. URL Link: https://www.aldermanco.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamalderman/   Ryan Kirby has penultimate authority and responsibility for the overall management of Alderman & Company, including all client engagements and the management of firm personnel. Before becoming a partner of the firm, Ryan rose through the ranks from Associate to Vice President and has extensive hands-on experience in all aspects of the sale process, valuations, and fairness opinions. Ryan has specialized in the Aerospace, Defense, and Space industries stemming from his education and previous work experience. Ryan completed his BS in Business Administration, concentrating in Accounting and Finance at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He went on to complete his MBA at Embry-Riddle, concentrating in Finance, graduating summa cum laude and with a 4.0 GPA. Previously, Ryan completed a project funded by NASA, which built a finance and business case for the mitigation of space debris in lower earth orbit. Additionally, his work has included analyzing the development of the urban air mobility industry and the funding that accelerated its growth, and the use case of sustainable aviation fuel in business aviation. Ryan has previous work experience in Financial Planning and Analysis. Ryan joined the Alderman & Company team as an intern during his graduate years at Embry-Riddle. Upon graduation, he joined the firm as an Associate and was promoted to Vice President in 2022.  Email: rk@aldermanco.com Phone: 368-664-864 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-kirby-880875174    About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker, and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers, and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years' experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women's Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association.  

- Ford Talks with Geely To Fill Excess Factory Capacity in Spain - NADA CEO Mike Stanton Calls Chinese Car Imports "Bad for Consumers” - Analyst Predicts Chinese OEMs Will Launch U.S. Joint Ventures In 2026 - Tesla Mass Produces Dry Electrodes to Slash Costs By $1 Billion - Uber's Margin Squeeze: Lower Profits Today, More Robotaxis Tomorrow - Renault To Build EV Motors in France Using Chinese Components - $4 A Day for A New Car: China's 8-Year Loan War Begins - Honda And Mythic Co-Develop Energy-Efficient Ai Chips for SDVs - Singing Fish and Grizzly Bears: Jeep's "Cruel" New Cherokee Ad

- Ford Talks with Geely To Fill Excess Factory Capacity in Spain - NADA CEO Mike Stanton Calls Chinese Car Imports "Bad for Consumers” - Analyst Predicts Chinese OEMs Will Launch U.S. Joint Ventures In 2026 - Tesla Mass Produces Dry Electrodes to Slash Costs By $1 Billion - Uber's Margin Squeeze: Lower Profits Today, More Robotaxis Tomorrow - Renault To Build EV Motors in France Using Chinese Components - $4 A Day for A New Car: China's 8-Year Loan War Begins - Honda And Mythic Co-Develop Energy-Efficient Ai Chips for SDVs - Singing Fish and Grizzly Bears: Jeep's "Cruel" New Cherokee Ad

This week on Catalyst, guest host Jod Kaftan sits down with automotive industry expert Clemens Conrad to discuss the evolution of mobility and the future of automotive design. Jod and Clemens discuss how car interiors are becoming more personalized and how OEMs are adapting to hyper-personalize the automotive experience. They also explore how cultural differences in transportation inform automotive design and break down some recent stats about which companies are leading the way in automotive design and innovation - some of the results might surprise you! Please note that the views expressed may not necessarily be those of NTT DATALinks: Clemens Conrad Learn more about Launch by NTT DATASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.