To mark the 20th anniversary of EtherCAT and the 20thanniversary of the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG), Beckhoff invited guests to a gala dinner in the “Kaisersaal” of the Grand Hotel Kaiserhof Victoria in Bad Kissingen, Germany. The ETG board of directors, the Beckhoff team working at the ETG headquarters in Nuremberg, EtherCAT developers from the very beginning, and members of the ETG technical committee and the marketing committee were among those who have made a contribution to EtherCAT’s longevity.
Participants came from as far away as Japan and Korea. The committee meetings took place around the festive evening: Both the technical committee and the marketing committee meet twice a year to discuss the results of the various technical working groups and to coordinate the worldwide marketing activities of the organization.
Martin Rostan, executive director of the ETG, looked back on 20 years of EtherCAT and EtherCAT Technology Group in his tongue-in-cheek keynote speech: from "Fast Lightbus" to EtherCAT, from the ETG start with 33 founding members to a fieldbus organization with almost 7,400 member companies from 73 countries, and from zero to 60 million EtherCAT devices.
Two hundred thirteen ETG trade fair booths, 175 roadshows in 51 countries, 59 Plugfests, countless working group and standardization meetings and the diverse work of the ETG teams contributed numerous photos, anecdotes and remarkable experiences. Rostan thanked the Beckhoff developers for preparing what he recognized as the best fieldbus technology for the ETG for dissemination and further development; he thanked the ETG team for 20 years of dedicated collaboration; and he thanked the ETG board and committee members for helping to shape the organization and the technology. He also thanked ETG honorary member Hans Beckhoff for consistently opening up EtherCAT and his diverse support of the ETG.
In his welcoming speech, Beckhoff first highlighted the role of the original development team, which he said has achieved extraordinary results. He then congratulated the ETG team on their success and thanked them for their energetic work over the past 20 years.
