Chicago 

Chicago DMCers went up on the rooftop deck to get a clear view of the solar eclipse!

Even Margaux adhered to safe eclipse viewing practices!

Rachel Hughes dressed for the occasion.

Milos Popovic brought double the eye protection!

Austin

Jon Jay took a great shot of the solar eclipse in Austin!

Boston

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a total solar eclipse! Boston was in awe during the eclipse!

Dallas

Dallas DMCers got together to marvel at this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity!

Denver

Denver sat back and enjoyed the show!

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We kicked off the 2020 YOE calendar with another spectacular weekend in Silverthorne, CO. Forty DMCers and their plus ones took on Vail, Breck, Beaver Creek, and Copper Mountains with steeze (that’s mountain slang for style + ease).

Shenanigans on the Slopes

Blue skies and warm weather welcomed the DMC crew to the slopes each day! With a few inches of fresh powder overnight on Wednesday, we had beautiful conditions all weekend at every resort. Our crew has grown significantly since the early years of DMSki trips, and we split up to different mountains during the day. About half the group had passes for Copper Mountain, and the other half explored different Vail resorts each day.

Blue Sky Basin at Vail really lived up to its name this year. The Epic Pass gang met for lunch outside at the peak where we enjoyed the warm sun, gorgeous views, and snow angels in fresh, deep powder.

Some of us took “hitting the slopes” a bit too literally. With almost everyone skiing and riding all day from the first chair until 4 pm, there was certainly no shortage of “yard sale” wipeouts, mogul mishaps, and close encounters with trees. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt – Jon’s jacket took the most damage, but still didn’t keep him off the slopes for the rest of the trip!

My crew, bored of the flat catwalk run we were taking down the front side of Vail, decided to take a shortcut back down to the base. We ended up on a black diamond trail called “Pepi’s Face,” infamous for being steep and icy in the afternoons, and became unwitting participants in a wipeout contest. Dozens of onlookers from nearby restaurants and base area gave a riotous standing ovation to Mike for a spectacular wipeout after hitting a particularly icy patch on our last run of the day.

Mountain Munchies

Even though our group varies significantly in skill level and fearlessness on the slopes, we all made sure to meet up for lunch each day. It was great to meet up with the whole squad and compare notes on our favorite runs while we refueled for the rest of the day.

John King made sure the entire Copper Mountain crew was aware of his favorite waffles at Flyer’s lodge.

On Saturday, part of the Epic Pass group decided to venture out Beaver Creek mountain. Rumor has it, Beaver Creek gives out free cookies every day! Sure enough, as we made the trek through the ski village up to our first lift in the morning, we were each handed a chocolate chip cookie. At 3 pm (which is official “Cookie Time”), we made sure we were at the base of Centennial Express to receive two more fresh, warm cookies each.

The Copper crew ended each of their days with an Apres Ski beer at the Ten Mile Tavern with gorgeous views and great company. 

Apres-Ski Adventures

DMC engineers are some of the biggest board gamers I’ve ever met – we all had plenty of opportunities to jump in on new games and old favorites when we got back to the house each evening. From the most intense game of Bohnanza, a bean farming card game, to thought-provoking rounds of Codenames (“Is a ship a place?”), there was no shortage of (mostly) friendly competition to join in on.

A new favorite this year was a card game called “Oh Fruck!” which combines rules from games like Uno and King’s Cup. We tried to play with more than the recommended number of players. We ended up going around for over an hour as we tried (and often failed) to remember all the special rules, which might require someone to wiggle their spirit fingers over the card they just played while saying, “I love you, Madam Diet Coke. 10-4.”

Even a “plumbing emergency” at the house that shut off our water for two hours one evening couldn’t put a damper on the fun. In fact, despite the lack of water, no one in the group stopped doing what they were doing. The dinner crew kept things cookin' to deliver mac and cheese, chili, and BBQ chicken. Board gamers still enjoyed snacks and beverages… although perhaps with a little extra moderation, since the bathrooms were off-limits. People even still enjoyed the outdoor hot tub.

DMC Directors and DMSki veterans, Jesse and Tim, made sure the late-night party crowd at the house had enough to eat by baking up batches of garlic bread and cookies all Saturday night. We were happy for more snacks after three tough days of skiing.

Farewells and Flights Home

Saturday night brought in several more inches of snow, so some people soldiered on for a fourth day on the slopes. The rest of us cleaned, packed, and rubbed some aloe on our sunburned goggle lines as we bid goodbye to our friends and coworkers from almost every different DMC office. Despite returning to work on Monday feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation, I’m already looking forward to DMSki 2021!

Learn more about DMC's Company Culture. 

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Preparation of the Feast

For the private lesson we made an array of pasta dishes from scratch. We started with a lesson on general cooking skills and then split into groups to make either tortellini, spaghetti, or mezzaluna. Half of the group made a pasta dough by hand, while the other used a food processor to make a different kind of dough. As we waited for dough to rise, we gathered ingredients and made the fillings and sauces for our pasta dishes.

Besides being excited to enjoy some delicious pasta, I had a great time connecting and working with my coworkers on something outside of the technical work we do at DMC. With one person feeding pasta into the machine, another operating the crank, and a third there to catch the dough as it was rolled thin, everyone had a task that contributed to making our meal.

Presentation is Key

Depending on the type of pasta, the dough was either cut to make spaghetti or filled and shaped to make the tortellini and mezzaluna. Though I did not fold the most beautiful tortellini, I am proud to report that they did not explode while cooking and turned out quite delicious. After the sauces were done and the pasta cooked, we were instructed to present our pasta with “Instagram worthy presentation” (shown above).

After the cooking and presentation of the pasta was complete, we were able to see and taste what everyone had made. I felt happy to have joined a community of people who would want to do something like cook pasta from scratch after work and have a great time doing it.

Learn more about DMC’s company culture and check out our open positions to join our team.

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DMC’s Denver office in the LoDo district of downtown Denver was a home away from home for our visiting team members. We enjoyed informative sessions, product roadmaps, and hands-on training sessions during the day, and food, live music, and fun activities each evening!

Check out our highlights from the Summit:

Rockies Game

Before the Siemens Summit began, DMCers got together to enjoy a Denver Rockies baseball game!

Our hosts at DMC Denver entertained the group with pizza and beverages at their office. We then traveled to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the San Diego Padres.

Welcome Reception

After DMC wrapped up our welcome events, the Siemens Summit Kicked off on Monday night. The welcome event, sponsored by the Siemens Solutions Partners,  featured live music, great food, and fun activities such as archery, a fly fishing demo, and simulated calf roping.

There was also a geocaching scavenger hunt, which Leon Grossman and I won! 

Best Brews of Denver

On Tuesday, the DMC team, some of the Siemens Solution Partners, and DMC clients met for a beer tasting tour of Denver. The group traveled together on two trolleys from the event center to DMC’s Denver office’s rooftop to enjoy barbecue and beers before heading out for the evening. The trolleys stopped at two breweries, Odell Brewing and Black Shirt Brewing, before heading back to the hotel to rest before another full day at the convention center.

Summit Demos

DMC Demos with Ice Cream

 

DMC made ice cream at the Siemens Solution Partners Display for visitors during the day. Attendees stopped at our booth to have a quick ice cream snack on the way to see presentations. Built by Prism last year, improved by DMC this year, and paid for by the Sponsoring Siemens Solutions Partners,  the ice cream machine offered all of our guests a reminder of how the integration of programs like these can create imaginative (and delicious) results!

The DrinkBot

DMC’s DrinkBot utilizes a Siemens S7-1200 PLC, 7″ Comfort Panel, Siemens G120, and Siemens 1FK7 Servo Motor with DRIVE-CLiQ encoder to control the operation. The DrinkBot provides eight different alcohols or syrups and six different mixers for a large variety of drink options. 

DMC’s Presentations

Five DMC Representatives were invited to present at the Automation Summit this year, check out their presentations below.

Dynamic and Scalable Systems Using WinCC OA
Leon Grossman

Project Manager Leon Grossman led a presentation on Siemens WinCC OA applied to a client’s application. He demonstrated using this flexible, scalable platform in conjunction with Siemens and third-party components for a complex application. The presentation highlighted some of the critical features of WinCC OA, how it could solve the most challenging applications, and as a bonus, announced the release of the WinCC OA Open Library v1.0!

Auto Code Generation and Rapid Brewery/Distillery Automation
Ryan Landwehr

Project Director Ryan Landwehr showed attendees how the Siemens Brewing template, a TIA Portal based auto code generation tool created developed in partnership by DMC and Siemens, can be used to rapidly create complete automation in rapid breweries and distilleries of all sizes. From craft distilleries to regional breweries, see how the Siemens Brewing Template can help make automation easy!

To learn more about how DMC can facilitate your food and beverage manufacturing automation, contact DMC today.

Multi-site WinCC 7 Development with Centralized Process Historian & Information Server from
John Michael Frullo

John Michael Frullo, Project Engineer, illustrated ways in which WinCC 7 tools and standards can be used to facilitate rapid project development across multiple locations. Frullo also demonstrated how multiple plant locations can be easily connected to a centralized data storage and automated reporting system.

Flexibility and standardization using dynamic IO addressing and option handling from
David Berno

I presented solutions developed by DMC that fully leverage S7’s hardware and development flexibility to create efficient and agile manufacturing deployments.

Taking your Siemens PLC s7-1200 to industry 4.0
James Condon

James Condon, Project Engineer, led a presentation on Siemens PLC Industry 4.0. The presentation covered how Industry 4.0 can offer better efficiency for existing industrial equipment.

Thank you, everyone, who attended the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. We can’t wait to see what’s new in 2020!

As a proud Siemens Solution Partner, DMC is ready to step in with our extensive knowledge and expert solutions. Learn more about DMC’s partnership with Siemens. 

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