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Former Member

A Cappella groups rock without hardware.   

Your plant floor operations can find a "revenue rhythm"....I sing a song of software.

Many years ago, I was enjoying lunch with my friend and mentor, who is by turns a marketing genius, gourmet, and art collector.  He was discussing a recently acquired photograph and asked me what kind of art I collected. “Art?” I scoffed.  “I like going to galleries and looking at art, and I frequently visit museums, but I never buy it.  I have better things to spend my money on than art!” 

 

He slammed his fist on the table.  “Marcia!” he shouted (and he had a big shout).  “If you enjoy art, if you like looking at it, if it moves you enough to see it in museums and visit in galleries, then you have a responsibility to support it!  If you are taking advantage of the beauty that others create, but you’re not willing to buy their work, then you’re nothing but an art thief!  Those artists can only survive and continue to create beauty if YOU pay for it, if YOU contribute!”

I was stunned.  I had never seen it that way before, and realized immediately that he was right.  I was an art thief!

After much reflection I recognized that the art that most moves me is music.  I enjoy rock, folk,rap,  country, (yes, country!  Go ahead and tease, I’m used to it!)..... And especially – most very, very especially – a cappella.

A cappella is music created entirely from the human voice.  Experienced a cappella groups can create the illusion of instrumentation – I have seen a “beat boxer” perform “wipeout” solely with his voice box, groups imitate saxophones, trombones, and keyboards, pop songs reworked solely with voice, and so on. It brings joy to my life in ways I can never express in words.  To support that art, and end my career as an art thief, I joined the Contemporary A Cappella Society.  I also regularly go to concerts and purchase CDs from my favorite groups so they can in turn continue creating the music that makes my world meaningful. 

Picking a favorite a cappella group is like picking a favorite child.  I love them ALL!  However, very high on the list is “Naturally Seven”.  I love them so much that I once asked their baritone Dwight Stewart, on bended knee, to marry me – a situation made slightly awkward by the fact that my husband was standing two feet away at the time (Dwight turned me down).  Naturally Seven will perform on the 19th of December at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany.  GO. HEAR. THEM.  If you need to be persuaded,  enjoy this video of them performing on a Paris subway (yes, that’s Dwight kicking it off – sigh……)  If they can be that compelling on a subway, how awesome can they be in an arena with a full sound system and a microphone?

And here’s what I want you to think about while you’re enjoying their “Wall of Sound”.  If they don’t need hardware to manage their energy, why should you?  Many industrial customers have the misconception that they must first invest in lots of instrumentation and metering before embarking on a full energy management program.  While submetering certainly has its place, significant energy savings can be realized through software solutions as well.  In music, the chemistry of Naturally Seven allows them to create dynamic harmonies through understanding the relationship of their individual voices to the overall whole.  In manufacturing, the principles of chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, and other scientific principles can be applied to production and operational data to extrapolate information such as energy per batch or quantity of flue gases from a given input.   

Intrigued?  Do your part to support art and buy tickets for Naturally Seven now –they’re touring throughout Europe this fall.  And while you’re in Europe, hop on over to Sapphire Madrid, where you can not only enjoy the musical stylings of Supertramp, but also learn more about software-based energy solutions.

· Ask for a demo of SAP's energy and environmental software solutions – speak (or better yet, sing!) to Kirill Rykov.

· Attend a microforum and learn first-hand about Ferrero's energy management successes - Wednesday from 2 to 3 p.m. (Session IL1633)

· Learn how to "Minimize Operational Risk and Energy Use" - Thursday November 15th from 2 to 3 p.m. (Session "IL1598")

· Do a “sound test” of SAP’s energy management software at the Test Drive area.

There’s more to learn about energy management from big data, owls, pumpkins, and vuvuzelas

Follow @MWEnergy on Twitter for updates.

Shortlink to this post is bit.ly/RC45re

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