Now the gang is tweeting from the panel discussion on workforce development at Rockwell Automation's Automation Fair Manufacturing Perspectives.  Keith Larson (KL), Putman's VP of content, Walt Boyes (WB), Control's editor in chief, and Aaron Hand (AH), Control Design's managing editor are doing live coverage from Chicago's McCormick Place.

WB, 10:39 -- #autofair Panel on workforce development moderated by John Nesi

WB, 10:41 -- #autofair Panelist: Alberto Alfonso Goodyear Tire & Rubber

WB, 10:42 -- #autofair panelist:Dr Thomas Deusterberg The Aspen Institute

Rockwell Automation's annual gathering of the clan, Automation Fair, is in full swing down at McCormick Place here in Chicago. Most of the Control editorial team is there on the show floor, reporting extensively on all the news coming out of the fair and generating copy for the electronic show daily that will be zipping through the electrons, hopefully to a mailbox near you, early this evening. 

Lots o' news coming out of the ARC Forum down in Orlando. Judging from the number of releases Walt Boyes, Da Boss, is sending here to be uploaded, all those refugees from last week's blizzard have NOT, contrary to expectations, spent all their time at the pool.

It's been a lovely fall here in the Midwest. Lots of sunshine. And today the sun was shining just a bit brighter up the road in Milwaukee. This morning, Rockwell Automation released it's 2010 fourth-quarter earnings report, which gave CEO Keith Nosbusch and the rest of the Rockwell gang a lot of reasons to smile.

The money quotes -- to coin a phrase -- are these:

One sure sign that Fall is arriving, other than the return to school is all the conventions that are scheduled during September through November. The busy season always seems to be the Spring (April through mid-June) and then again this time of year. The following “big three” are the ones most people think of this time of year.

Have spent most of the day on the phone interviewing folks on various subjects. The morning began with a conference call announcing Rockwell Automation's 3Q 2010 results. Things are looking good for the Milwaukee-based company. The short take is this:

    * Revenue up 25 percent year over year and up 9 percent sequentially
    * Diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.83
    * Company raises fiscal 2010 EPS guidance to $2.95 to $3.05 

But before we move off to cover the annual Honeywell bake-off (it is expected to be 105 degrees Fahrenheit or roughly 40 degrees Celsius all week in Phoenix), I'll talk a little about my experiences in China.

Well, I'm back from a whirlwind tour of Rockwell Automation's process automation customers in China, and I've managed to mostly dig out from under all the accumulated desk-coverings. That said, we are off to Phoenix on Sunday for the Honeywell User Group Americas for 2010.

We invented the e-show daily for HUG a few years ago, and so now we're on to newer things. Instead of an email newsletter every evening with the highlights of the day, we're going to be blogging and tweeting as close to real time as we can.

Here are Walt Boyes' comments on the Rockwell Automation China user group event via Twitter.

These tweets are from the opening events.

"#ROK #pauto #mfg #manufacturing Introduction by Tom O'Reilly "welcome to RA 'on the move' and RA university!" May 25, 20:15

"#ROK #pauto #mfg #manufacturing O'Reilly says "we have many sales and support offices so we can be close to customers." May 25, 20:25

Spent the morning on a couple of conference calls relating to Rockwell Automation’s release of its financials for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2010. The bottom line: Pretty good, all things considered—and way better than 2009. Fiscal 2010 second quarter revenue was $1,164.5 million, up 10 percent compared to a year ago. Fiscal 2010 second quarter revenue was up 9 percent sequentially compared to the first quarter. Fiscal 2010 second quarter income from continuing operations was $111.9 million ($0.77 per share), compared to $40.6 million ($0.29 per share) a year ago.