The International Society of Automation (ISA) podcast, Podomation, curates and shares insightful discussions from top thought leaders in automation and industrial cybersecurity. Keep reading for a recap of a special episode recorded at ISA’s flagship event, the 2025 Automation Summit & Expo, where more than 630 attendees explored how to “adapt faster” in an era of accelerating change.

On this episode, Podomation 007, we walk listeners through three major themes from the conference: building cyber resilience, turning data into decisions at the edge and preparing the next generation of automation professionals through immersive training and strong leadership.

What Is Podomation?

Podomation is ISA’s official podcast featuring top subject-matter experts across the industrial automation community. Guests cover the topics that matter most to automation professionals, including industry 4.0, digital transformation, manufacturing and machine control, connectivity and cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) and continuous and batch processing.

Some episodes are recorded live at ISA events, while others are recorded in studio. Every conversation focuses on the vital role of automation in making the world safer, more resilient and more efficient — as well as the impact of ISA’s global community.

Podomation Episode 007: Recapping the Automation Summit & Expo

This episode goes deep on security and cyber resilience, explores edge intelligence and how automation informs decision-making and investigates how immersive training and ISA’s community are shaping the next generation.

Podomation 007 Speakers

• Matt Bolick, Fortinet
• Mike Bova, Acronis
• Sachin Vasudeva, ZEDEDA
• Adne Olsen, representing ISA100
• Tom Liston, Bad Wolf Security
• Joe Bastone, Honeywell
• Bob Rice, Control Station
• Brandon Turnage, Igloo Vision
• Steve Mustard, National Automation, Inc.
• Andrea Holovach, ISA
• Elijah Bracken, Missouri University of Science and Technology
• David Sanni, Houston Community College
• Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, Bee Downtown
• Ashley Weckwerth, ISA President-Elect
• Leticia Zarpellon, Audubon Companies
• Felipe Sabino Costa, MOXA Americas
• Scott Reynolds, ISA President
• Douglas Hurley, retired NASA astronaut

Part 1: Security and Cyber Resilience

Asset owners face an urgent reality: operational technology (OT) environments are under constant attack from adversaries who are faster, more automated and often already inside traditional perimeters.

Resilience, the episode emphasizes, means being able to:

• Prove that critical systems are protected

• Detect malicious activity quickly

• Recover fast when an incident occurs

That mindset shift is echoed in an interview with day-two keynote speaker Tom Liston, owner of Bad Wolf Security. Liston urges organizations to rethink implicit trust — especially in technologies they have configured themselves, such as VPN connections. Trusting a single layer of defense, he explains, is a common and dangerous pitfall.

He compares effective security to a bank: there are locks on the doors, but also alarms and guards. In OT environments, that translates to multiple layers of prevention and detection, backed by rehearsed incident response. 

Wireless safety and interoperability are another important piece of resilience. From the expo floor, Adne Olsen discusses ISA100 Wireless, both a standard and a conformity assessment program for industrial wireless systems. The goal is guaranteed interoperability and flexibility: customers can mix devices and infrastructure from different vendors on a single network, rather than standing up a separate wireless system for every application. Olsen highlights a unique implementation that tunnels a safety protocol over ISA100 to support SIL 2 fire and gas detection, showing how standards-based wireless can support even high-integrity applications.

Part 2: Edge Intelligence and Data-to-Decision

From cybersecurity, the episode shifts to another core theme at the summit: using automation and edge computing to move from raw data to better decisions.

Everyone has data, but not everyone can turn that data into actionable insight. Two threads emerged at the summit again and again:

• Break organizational and technical silos

• Prioritize causal insight that leads to action, not just dashboards

The episode summarizes “data-to-decisions” as a suite of capabilities working together: instrumentation and contextualization, causal analytics, edge orchestration and resilience. 

Part 3: Career Development and the Next Generation

The final segment of the episode focuses on people: how ISA, its community and its partners are helping prepare the next generation of automation professionals with modern, engaging learning experiences.

One highlight from the 2025 Automation Summit & Expo was ISA’s Student Simulation Showdown, presented with technology partners Igloo Vision and Visco. Brandon Turnage from Igloo Vision explains how their immersive rooms work: large, projector-powered environments that surround learners with content, without the discomfort or isolation of individual headsets. These spaces are used globally for safety training, engineering and education, creating memorable experiences that participants retain long after the session.

While real-world incident response exercises on operational facilities are costly, time-consuming and introduce safety risk, these immersive rooms create 3D digital twins of facilities and use AI to generate realistic scenarios, allowing highly realistic training to be delivered in a safe, controlled environment. Teams can work together, communicate in real time and practice responding to complex cyber incidents.

Andrea Holovach from ISA describes how the Student Simulation Showdown combines these technologies with AI and game design. Students interact with an AI-driven tabletop exercise — such as responding to a ransomware attack on robotic arms in a manufacturing plant — through VR headsets or inside an Igloo room. ISA’s vision is to expand this model, partnering student teams with corporate sponsors who define real-world critical infrastructure scenarios.

The episode closes with inspiration from day-one keynote Doug Hurley, retired NASA astronaut. Hurley reflects on working at the intersection of a nimble startup (SpaceX) and a large, established organization (NASA) to develop the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Keeping teams small, staying open-minded, blending new approaches with hard-earned lessons learned and moving quickly despite bureaucracy were all critical to success. Those same principles, the episode suggests, can guide automation leaders as they navigate their own transformations.

Listen to the Full Podomation Episode

To hear the complete conversations — from cyber resilience and industrial wireless to leadership lessons, reflections on the ISA State of the Society address, immersive training and spaceflight insights — visit ISA’s podcast hub at www.isa.org/podcast or search for “Podomation” on your preferred listening platform, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To catch new episodes as soon as they’re released, subscribe on your podcast app of choice. You can also stream past episodes any time at www.isa.org/podcast.