It&#39;s About Perseverance

Adam Steltzner, leader and chief engineer for NASA Mars 2020 Mission, Rover Perseverance, delivers keynote at FABTECH.

As I sit down to write this column, FABTECH 2021 is taking place. The show is filled with energy and the exhibitors and attendees seem excited to be attending a live event. Of course, the show does feel a little different with the precautions taken because of the COVID pandemic. I’ve personally witnessed numerous polite gestures of respect for one another’s space and people being conscientious of following safety protocols. We all know that returning to events poses an amount of risk. Obviously, by traveling and gathering for such a conference, we are coming in contact with those outside our normal circles. We’ve been in cars, rooms, restaurants, hotel lobbies and convention center halls. In some ways, it feels almost normal. Yet, there’s that constant nagging what if floating in our minds.

While checking my email at the show I find an email from my children’s school notifying me that someone at the school has been diagnosed with COVID-19. I’m sure countless FABTECH attendees checked their smartphones at some point during the day to find similar alerts. These notifications have become routine. Along with each of these comes a host of questions. Do I need to try to find a test? And what if I test positive — do I hunker down in my hotel for 2 weeks? I adjust my mask, apply some hand sanitizer. I really do feel just fine. We may not know exactly what to do, but we do our best. The world is trying to move on.

It’s good to be around people. As I’ve mentioned in previous musings, this is my first large trade show since stepping into the role of editor-in-chief of Products Finishing. With opportunities for in-person networking hampered by the pandemic, there are so many industry contacts that I’m meeting face-to-face for the very first time despite having been in this position for more than a year and a half. It’s exciting to have those conversations, to look people in the eye, to pick up on the nuances of communication that only body language can offer.

Products Finishing digital editor Sarah Barnett shows off a part she powder coated at FABTECH.

My colleague Sarah and I walked the tradeshow floor yesterday, participating in the FAB to FINISH production experience coordinated by Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI), taking a fabricated part from booth to booth as participating exhibitors walked us through each stage of finishing the part from pretreatment to powder coating to curing. As we made our way we had conversations, got new ideas and made new contacts. It dawned on me that this was also my first opportunity to work a tradeshow with the PF team.

This morning as I begin day two of FABTECH, I’m looking forward to a series of interviews the Products Finishing team will be conducting with exhibitors. As I check my emails, I find myself thinking about all the family, friends and connections in my life — both personal and professional. I learn in an email that one of my teachers has passed away, not of COVID but of natural causes. His life was well-lived and he was an inspiration to so many who knew him. I take a moment and think about him and one of his lessons about running toward the challenges we face — toward life.

The keynote speaker this morning is Adam Steltzner, leader and chief engineer for the NASA Mars 2020 Mission, Rover Perseverance. He started off talking about the excitement he felt seeing so many exhibitors and attendees gathered together with the common goal of “building stuff.”

“It’s been hard getting things done the past 18 months,” he concedes. “But you know what we did? We landed a rover on Mars on February 18 in the middle of this pandemic.”

Steltzner points out that while the Mars Rover’s name was chosen prior to the challenges of the COVID pandemic, yet it is one that is apropos. In the face of the pandemic, a team of engineers continued their work with the project and successfully sent Perseverance to Mars, furthering humanity’s yearning to explore and push out into the universe.

That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? I am reminded that there will always be risks, but human interaction is important. We need to gather as a reminder that we are in this life together. Only together can we be successful in building, growing, exploring, discovering and becoming more than we are.