Ignited: Striking Industrial Automation Conversations

Over 1,900 engineers, integrators, executives, and builders gather at ICC 2026 in Sacramento, California, for what is shaping up to be the biggest Ignition Community Conference ever. To hear what the community is actually thinking, Travis and Tom set up a live studio right at the conference to interview eight community members across various backgrounds. Asking every guest the same set of questions, this episode captures unfiltered insights into why people keep coming back, what caught their attention this year, and what they love and look forward to in the world of Ignition.
 
Guests: Alicia Lomas (Lomas Manufacturing Consulting), Adrienne Meyer (CSIA), Daniel Wainberg (Contel Smart Energy), Uma Bangalore (EY), Cédric GROC (2GI Technologie), Elizabeth Hill Reed (DMC), Phil Turmel (Automation Pros).

Digital transformation initiatives rarely fail because of the software, they fail because the underlying data structure wasn't built to scale. In this episode, Travis and Tom talk with Dylan DuFresne, Co-Founder and Chief Architect at Abelara, about building industrial architectures designed for long-term viability. Dylan shares a practical, field-tested perspective on the Unified Namespace (UNS) as a core strategy rather than a buzzword, explaining how true data ownership, proper context, and bridging the gap between execution and strategy separate successful manufacturers from those left with disconnected systems.
Guest: Dylan DuFresne (Co-Founder & Chief Architect, Abelara)

Connecting plant-floor hardware is a solved problem; the real challenge is making that data act intelligently. In this episode, Travis and Tom sit down with Remus Pop, head of Concept Reply's industrial AI practice, to discuss his "Factory Brain" architecture. Remus explains why simply building dashboards isn't enough, how knowledge graphs bridge the gap between raw data and contextual intelligence, and how emerging tools like MCP and large language models are transforming plant operations. Discover why setting up robust data infrastructure on Ignition today is the key to unlocking AI tomorrow.
Guest: Remus Pop (Industrial AI Practice Lead, Concept Reply)
 

Deploying Ignition once is one thing. Deploying it across hundreds of sites around the world, keeping it running, pushing updates to every location simultaneously, and making it financially sustainable in the cloud is an entirely different challenge.
In this episode, hosts Travis Cox and Thomas Burke sit down with James Burnand from 4IR Solutions to unpack what enterprise-scale Ignition architecture actually looks like in practice. James breaks down a real-world, cloud-first deployment 4IR manages for a major global manufacturer, exploring how to maintain agility, keep operations reliable, and innovate without creating enterprise-wide chaos.
Guests: James Burnand from 4IR Solutions

Great software isn't just about functionality, it's about how effectively a human can use it when it counts. In this episode, Travis and Tom catch up with Julio Velasco, founder of IO SCADA and former Inductive Automation design engineer who helped establish early visual standards for the platform. Julio shares his core philosophy on operator-first HMI design, the technical responsibility of building clean industrial interfaces, and how his work training the next generation at the Volt Institute is helping close the industrial skills gap.
 
Guest: Julio Velasco (Founder, IO SCADA)

For decades, batch processing in complex industries like pharma, chemical, and food production has been held back by rigid, locked-down systems. In this episode, Travis and Tom join Polaris Automation's CEO Scott Cooke and SVP of Product Development Mark Merino to discuss breaking free from legacy MES constraints. They explore how building flexible solutions on Ignition, like their Chordata framework, allows manufacturers to scale faster, modernize iteratively, and organize plant data so it's genuinely ready for AI. Plus, they dive into a real-world case study with PPG to show what this transition looks like on the factory floor.Guests: Scott Cooke (CEO) & Mark Merino (SVP of Product Development) — Polaris Automation

What happens when an integrator stops just using software and starts pushing it past its conventional limits? In this episode, Travis and Tom sit down with Alex Marcy, CEO of Corso Systems and long-time community trailblazer, to explore the cutting edge of industrial automation. Drawing on 15+ years of hands-on platform experience, Alex breaks down the reality of scaling a business around Ignition, the practical implementation of Unified Namespace (UNS), and how he’s leveraging the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to bring real-world AI applications to the plant floor today.Guests: Alex Marcy

Raw data isn't the problem for modern factories, it's accessibility. When critical information stays buried inside closed, legacy systems, scaling AI and enterprise automation becomes nearly impossible. In this episode, Travis and Tom sit down with CESMII’s CEO John Dyck and Chief Technology Architect Jonathan Wise to tackle the push for open, interoperable manufacturing standards across the U.S. They discuss how pairing open frameworks like SM Profiles and the i3X API with Ignition gives plants full ownership of their data model; turning isolated metrics into enterprise-wide insights. Stick around to the end for a step-by-step roadmap on where your facility should actually begin.Guests: John Dyck (CEO) & Jonathan Wise (Chief Technology Architect) — CESMII

What does it actually take to grow as an Ignition engineer?In this episode, Travis and Tom sit down with three engineers from MartinCSI—Todd Ebright (10+ years of experience), Kierstyn Neumeier (custom components & energy challenges), and Matthew Excoffon (freshly Gold-Certified)—to trace the full arc of the career path. From surviving the early learning curve and leaning on the Inductive Automation forums to building award-winning, high-performance projects, they share what the craft of industrial software engineering really looks like on the front lines.Guests: Todd Ebright, Kierstyn Neumeier, and Matthew Excoffon (MartinCSI)

The old excuses — fragile environments, siloed systems, vendor lock-in — don't hold up anymore. In this episode, we dive into the high-stakes world of industrial edge computing, interoperability, and system architecture built to survive (and thrive) at the edge. This one's for the rebels, architects, and visionaries reshaping heavy industry, logistics, and field operations.
 
Operational technology should be seamless, indestructible, and fiercely intelligent — and these four real-world case studies prove it's possible.
 
Guest: Dan White - Director of Technical Marketing, Opto 22