RUC 2019 Is Now a Memory — Here Are Our Top 5 Takeaways

The robots are packed up and the attendees have packed off. As we return to our desks, machine shops, and normal lives… here's what we learned at RUC 2019.

The two big halls in the Voltigeurs de Québec Armoury are now empty of collaborative robots. We have packed everything up and we're heading back to our normal routines here at Robotiq.

We've had an action-packed two days here in Quebec at the Robotiq User Conference 2019. We've learned a lot… but I think our attendees learned even more.

As our CTO Jean-Philippe Jobin told the 200 attendees on Wednesday morning:

"This fourth edition of the Robotiq User Conference is a unique way to share our experience. We all learn from each other.

200 people is not a lot. But the magic happens next week when you'll return home and you'll share this information with 10, 20, 30 people and those people will do the same afterwards. That is where the leverage of know-how happens."

The attendees are now making their journeys back to their workplaces. In doing so, they are already taking that first step to spreading the valuable information that they've learned here at RUC 2019.

And what did we learn?

Here are some of our top takeaways from this year's conference.

1. Cobots can help us to tackle these turbulent times

The current uncertain global situation was raised several times here at the conference. Robotiq's Karine Simard talked about the "turbulent times" in her opening welcome on the first day and Mathias Wiklund from Universal Robots addressed it during his keynote on day 2.

But, the overall message of RUC 2019 was that cobots can help us to "fight the turbulence," as Mathias put it.

When we embrace the change, we can help businesses to prepare for it and grow even despite the uncertainty. Our sales track attendees learned some valuable knowledge about how to achieve this in their first workshop on day 2.

2. Bonjour is a powerful word

The first practical lesson on Wednesday morning came from Karine Simard in her opening note to the conference. She gave the attendees a lesson in the French language. She explained that the word "Bonjour" would help them to have better discussions between themselves.

Then, every speaker in the Cobot Stories from Factories panel greeted Samuel Bouchard with a "Bonjour" as they came onto the stage… and the discussion was extremely good. Clearly, the word "Bonjour" is a powerful one!

You can read our summary of the panel via this link or watch the whole discussion that was streamed live here:

3. A gong is a great way to announce new products

One of the highlights on the opening morning was Jean-Philippe's presentation to introduce Robotiq's new products and resources.

We announced a lot of new things at this year's RUC (seven, in fact) so he brought along a prop to help him announce them: a large metal gong.

Along with his extremely dramatic and dangerous demo, this made for a very entertaining presentation!

You can read our summary of the presentation here or watch the whole presentation that was streamed live here:

4. Learning "the language of cobots" is so important

One of our most powerful takeaways from RUC 2019 was the idea of "speaking the same language" that Mathias Wiklund talked about in his keynote.

Learning about collaborative robotics is not just about knowing how to use the technology, although our tech track attendees experienced a lot of valuable hands-on learning over the two days.

Learning about cobots is also about being able to communicate with each other effectively about the capabilities of those cobots. When we can speak the same language, we can help each other to solve problems much more easily.

This was the philosophy behind our amazing Automation Challenge that we held yesterday afternoon. The tech experts — who had been learning to use the cobot technology for two days — had to teach the sales experts how to program in order to successfully complete the challenge.

5. The #RUC2019 online event was a success

We didn't know how the online #RUC2019 event would go before we started this year, but it was quite a success! 

With the help of some shameless bribes, our attendees really upped their online game and kept the #RUC2019 hashtag filled with wonderful comments, videos, and photos (as you can see from the social media posts littered through this blog).

Many great social posts came from our wonderful sponsors here at RUC 2019. So, let's finish off this final RUC 2019 live blog with a big thanks to our sponsors: Universal Robots, Vention, Pendant Armor from Roboworld, Air Vise & Workholding, QC Conveyors, Fortinet, and Festo.

Thanks everyone for making RUC 2019 such a successful event!