The IEEE (pronounced as “I” triple “E” by people in the know) held it’s big cement conference this year and due to COVID-19 concerns, the Expo was virtual. Argos, to put it simply, stole the show. Our Harleyville and Martinsburg cement plants were recognized for numerous achievements and the virtual tour of our Martinsburg’s plant has grabbed the attention of several cement associations across the East Coast.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences. The IEEE sponsors more
than 1,900 annual conferences and events worldwide, curating cutting-edge content for all of the technical fields of interest within IEEE. You may be thinking, why would the IEEE be interested in anything Argos is doing? It doesn’t seem like a company that would be interested in our cement plants, right? Wrong. Cement plants are known for their heavy electrical usage and the IEEE has a partnership with PCA (Portland Cement Association). This joint partnership offers conferences to be held both on the east and west coast.

Our very own Mike Saegar (Plant Manager of the Harleyville Cement Plant) met all year with the committee to prepare for this year’s conference.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions this year, the IEEE and PCA went virtual for their first ever virtual conference where the Martinsburg Cement Plant was showcased. Orchestrated by our very own Bruno Bellagamba (Operations Manager at our Martinsburg Plant), we were able to offer viewers a virtual tour of our majestic cement facility, from the comfort and safety of their homes. Play the below video to take the tour for yourself:

Argos was one of the key manufacturers that engaged with the conference this year. Not all manufacturers engage heavily in the conference, usually only around 50% of manufacturers do. Argos however, was a main contender to engage which allowed for relationships with peers and to give them a look at what is going on in our industry.

“It was neat having a virtual conference this year.”, said Mike Saegar. “It was like a buffet of cement information, it had a wide range of content. Generally one thing people should realize, if you’re working in a cement plant, you’re fully capable of being someone who presents at a conference. You don’t need to have a PHd to present, everything that is presented is very knowable and there is a lot of information available for everyone to learn something to do their job well.”

Nikhil Mootoor represented Argos with his award winning presentation on Successful Production Improvement on our vertical cement mills. Did you know, that Argos is the only company in the US to produce Type III cement on vertical cement mills. Argos has three vertical cement mills within our U.S. footprint, two at Martinsburg and one at Harleyville.

Want to experience the IEEE East Coast conference for yourself? Reachout to your local cement plant manager for the discount code that will get you in for free. Utilize this tool to learn more about the cement industry:

• Once you have the code visit https://ieeetechmeet.com/
• Create an account (register)
• After having login access to the site (involves using an email address and creating a long password!), claim a ticket
• During the checkout process, rather than paying $25 for the individual participant, use 11 character code provided to you by your local cement plant manager.
• After receiving an email link with an individual “ticket”, the website can then be access to search the Schedule tab with all the presentation and plant tour content.
• Look for a training or techincal track topic that interests you
• Click +Add to my Schedule to view it.

A special thanks to Mike Saegar and Nikhil Mootoor for sharing this great learning opportunity with us.