AUSA, Here We Come

2 March 2016
Military Patrol

It’s the start of the “show season” for us here at Abaco, and the first one up is in our hometown—Huntsville, Alabama. The AUSA Global Force Conference and Exposition opens on 15 March and closes 17 March, so our preparations are well underway.  

To quote the organizers:

“The Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare (AUSA ILW) will return to the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama for the 2016 AUSA ILW Global Force Symposium and Exposition. The region is home to more than 900 defense contractors who collectively provide $5.6 billion in defense contracts for the U.S. government.” 

This event isn’t as grand as the October show held each year; it’s more personal, and gives us the opportunity to engage in meaningful one-on-ones with visitors in a way that’s harder to do at a bigger show. What that means is that it’s a great opportunity for developing relationships—and a real, in-depth understanding of what visitors are looking for. 

It’s also, of course, an opportunity for us to bring those visitors up to speed with what’s going on at Abaco Systems. Last time we talked to some of them—at the big show in October last year—we were still GE Intelligent Platforms and, hard as we’ve tried, we may not have got the message out to everyone who needs to know that we’re a brand new, standalone company on a mission to bring innovation and success to our customers. It’s important they know, though, that while the company name may be new, the people they’ll be working with are the same ones they’ve been working with for years and, in some cases, decades.

Entrepreneurial

As a brand new company, we’re planning to bring a real entrepreneurial spirit to what we do—responsive, nimble, able to move quickly. That chimes well with what this AUSA meeting is about.

To quote the organizers again:

[The symposium] “combines the interests and ideas of warfighters and senior army leaders with the spirit of entrepreneurial and commercial leaders of the defense industrial base and their small business partners.” 

So, of course, as innovators with a strong entrepreneurial attitude we will be there showing off our new brand—Abaco Systems. And if you’re there, we’ll be hard to miss: our bright orange is reminiscent of the Denver Broncos—winners, and believers in a strong defense! (My apologies and commiserations to you Carolina fans…)

Come see us at booth 108 in the main hall. I will be there with our technical team, ready to show you how our start-up culture is energizing our 30 years of experience. As a leader in embedded computing for the Army, we are proud to support our soldiers and “Team Redstone” right here in our home town.  

 

Larry Schaffer

Larry Schaffer has been with us in a business development role since 2001, and works to create and maintain long-term, strategic relationships with key companies engaged in embedded computing for ground systems applications with a strong emphasis on image processing and distribution. He was born in Pennsylvania and educated as an Electrical Engineer in New Jersey and California (where he now lives). Just don’t ask him to tell you about being a war baby…