As my year as president of the International Society of Automation (ISA) comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect and celebrate all the great things ISA has achieved in 2024. I am so grateful to everyone at ISA for their hard work and strong support of big, member-generated ideas, and I am so proud of where ISA is headed. ISA is undergoing transformational change to meet the future, and I am honored to have served during such a pivotal year.
This blog post is a follow-up to the first blog post I wrote at the beginning of 2024 outlining my plans as the incoming ISA president. I’m pleased to report that our strategies paid off — we met and exceeded our goals and set us up for an amazing 2025.
2024 ISA Highlights
We certainly had an eventful year! ISA continued to make massive strides forward in 2024. Here are just a few highlights:
- The publication of ISA-5.1-2024, an update to ISA’s oldest and most widely used standard
- The launch of a must-requested certification program for ISA-95/IEC 62264
- Release of the world’s first SL3 certifications by the ISASecure® cybersecurity certification program
- Two conferences — the OT Cybersecurity Summit in London and the Automation Summit & Expo (ASE) in Charleston, SC — drew hundreds of automation professionals to network and learn about standards, training, certification and membership opportunities
- The addition of several new sections including Minas Gerais (Brazil), Bahrain, the United Kingdom and Sacramento (CA)
- The growth of Podomation, ISA’s official podcast, to include listeners from 46 countries
- Acknowledgement of ISA as a 2024 Top-Rated Nonprofit by GreatNonprofits
All of these accomplishments took incredible amounts of time and effort from committee members, staff and volunteers alike. I applaud the hard work of everyone involved — ISA would not be what it is without you.
It’s clear that ISA is on an upward trajectory as a direct result of these efforts. I’d also like to point to a couple of recent projects that illustrate how much we are changing as a society and how we are laying the groundwork for an inspiring future.
Membership Growth
In 2024, ISA grew significantly — I’m proud to report that, as of December 2024, ISA membership now includes more than 17,000 automation professionals from all over the world. That’s record membership growth for our society of 15.78%. This is a major turnaround from years past, representing the highest numbers we have seen since 2013.
In an era when many of our peer professional societies have struggled with declining membership, this is a resounding success. We are grateful that our members continue to find such value in being a part of the ISA community, and we are committed to delivering that value to all members.
2024 ISA Strategic Plan
These elements contributed to the fulfillment of the 2024 ISA Strategic Plan. Here are a few highlights:
- Year-to-date revenues are 11.31% better than budget, in line with efforts over the past several years to increase the society’s financial stability (see the 2023 annual report for further details). ISA’s annual Black Friday Week Sale brought in over 1 million USD in revenue this year — significantly more than in any prior year.
- We developed the ISA corporate engagement program, attracting and engaging new companies in the breadth of ISA programs, products and services. Many of these companies have offered their testimonials on what ISA means to them across a number of program areas, including standards, training, events and the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA).
- We continued to foster discussion around evolving and emerging technology, processes and business practices related to ISA’s mission, developing guidance and content around industrial AI, OT cloud and cybersecurity resilience as well as elevating our voice on resilient supply chain, energy transition, digital deglobalization and ethical sourcing.
Celebrating Mimo
MimoSM, an artificial intelligence-powered large language model trained on ISA-exclusive content, launched this summer with full access granted to ISA members. Mimo learns from all things ISA-related to provide its answers to user-generated questions, including ISA standards, training, technical reports, white papers, articles and presentations.
During the first full month of Mimo’s wide release this summer, Mimo answered roughly 4,000 prompts. According to Betty Bot, ISA's partner in building Mimo, that's eight times the prompts a typical association knowledge assistant can expect to see upon launch. Mimo has also answered questions in at least eight languages. It’s a runaway success story that has become a case study on how associations can create a useful knowledge assistant for their members.
Attendees of ASE also enjoyed meeting Mimo firsthand! Bringing Mimo to life as the official mascot of ISA was a great way to create some memorable fun at the event.
Mimo the mascot was the life of the party at ISA ASE 2024.
That’s a Wrap
It’s been a phenomenal year, and I must reiterate how proud I am to have served this wonderful society that means so much to automation professionals around the world. As I hand the reins to incoming 2025 ISA president Scott Reynolds, I can do so knowing that ISA met and exceeded our goals this year. I have been so impressed by our extraordinarily dedicated volunteers, staff and Executive Board this year, and I know ISA will continue to reach new heights with everyone working together.
Please feel free to get in contact with me at president@isa.org. As we enter 2025, let’s continue to make the world a better place through automation.
