Welcome to #158, I have known Stephen Slothuber for a long time; in fact, I worked with him and his father at ATS Automation. The Slothubers were an institution at ATS for accuracy, dependability and getting things done.

I was happy to have Steve on the podcast to talk about CRM for automation integrators and machine builders.

Enjoy the podcast and if you are thinking about a CRM for your machine building company, or are thinking about a Zoho implementation, I highly recommend him and his company

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenslothouber

Emberops is his company name.

I would like to thank my team and our Senior Audio Software Engineer, Geoff Bremner, and you can find more information on his Linketree, linktr.ee/gbaudio

Thanks for listening!

Jim

Jim Beretta

Chris Latour and I have known each other for many years, from our days at ATS Automation, and it was my pleasure to reach out to him to arrange a tour of Element5 in St. Thomas, Ontario. So if you have never heard of Mass Timber, it is structurally efficient wood that is bonded together and used to form small and large buildings: walls, ceilings, floors and is engineered to be easy to use, to look beautiful and be functional. Think of a wall that needs a plumbing stack cutout, but it is actually cut at the factory using 3D CAD model files. Elegant and purposeful.

St. Thomas is just South of London, ON and North of Port Stanley, which is where I grew up in the summer, so the opportunity to have a tour and record a podcast was very exciting to me. Chris is a manufacturing professional who has worked with The Cakerie, Armo Tools, Convergix Automation (JMP Automation), and ATS Automation ~ so we have a lot in common, as many of these companies have been my clients before, and we have a lot in common, living nearby.

St. Thomas (aka Railway City) is also the "Rail Capital" of Canada. At one time, St. Thomas had around 25 different railroads that came into the city, and it was, and still is, a major hub of manufacturing. For the large amount of wood that is required, being connected to CP and CN rail line is a game-changer for Element5.

Chris is now the CEO of Element5 (a member of the HASSLACHER group) and oversees the entire operation, including a 350-square-foot facility with sanding, pressing, CNC cutting, RF pressing, gluing, laminating, X-ray, vision inspection, material handling, and staff and sales.

The build of the operation took place during covid.  The facility was recently expanded substantially in September of 2025 from 137,000 square feet to over 350,000 square feet, adding in a full Glulam production line, and a two-storey mass timber front office. This expansion also doubled the production of the facility from 50,000 cubic meters to 100,000 cubic meters annually of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued-laminated timber (Glulam) products..

Keywords: Dimensional lumber, Engineered lumber, Mass Timber, Element5, St. Thomas, Messenger Freight, Artificial Intelligence. CLT Cross Laminated Timber, Glue Lamination, Build Canada, Canadian Wood Council.

For background information here, see: Element5 Mass Timber Celebrates Grand Opening of Expanded Manufacturing Plant in St. Thomas, Ontario - Element5

Thanks to Diana Tamblyn, Mira Grkavac, and my friends at MPI who did the early connect.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-latour-5a5a044

www.Element5.co for some wonderful pictures!

1 888-670-7713

If you would like to get in touch with us at THE robot industry podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimberetta/

Today’s podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing and I would like to thank my team: Chris Gray for the music, Geoffrey Bremner for audio production and my business partner Janet.

Be safe out there!

Jim

Jim Beretta

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

London, ON

I had the pleasure of recording an episode with Stan Gleizer, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Integrators and OEMs. He works for Mecademic Industrial Robotics and is based in Montreal.

With a background in mechatronics and over a decade of experience in aerospace and automotive robotics, Stan has spent his career working on high-precision systems involving vision, force feedback, and micron-level motion. That path led him to Mecademic, a Montreal-based robot manufacturer purpose-built for microautomation.

Together, they explore how Mecademic is rethinking industrial robotics for applications where space, precision, and system simplicity matter more than brute force. From electronics and medical devices to optics and photonics, Mecademic robots are enabling automation in environments traditional robots were never designed to handle.

You’ll hear about:

Stan also shares insights on Mecademic’s North American manufacturing, global expansion, and what makes a strong integrator partnership in high-precision automation.

I would like to mention A3: the Association for Advancing Automation. they are the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies.  Visit Automate dot org to learn more.

If you would like to get in touch with us at THE robot industry podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimberetta/

Today’s podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing and I would like to thank my team: Chris Gray for the music, Geoffrey Bremner for audio production and my business partner Janet.

Be safe out there!

Jim

Jim Beretta

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

London, ON

If you have been a listener to The Robot Industry Podcast, then you already know Geoffrey Bremner. His fingerprints are all over our podcast. He is my audio engineer, but he is more than that; he is a friend, a supplier, and a neighbour.

Geoff is a true geek, loves recording music and podcasts.

Welcome to Automation Matters Podcast with me, Jim Beretta.

Have a listen.

Jim

Notes:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreybremner

https://linktr.ee/gbaudio

I would like to introduce you to my NEW podcast called Automation Matters. In Automation Matters, we are going to concentrate on the front of the house in the automation business. The people who interface, who plan and who provide services, to the companies that build and deploy automation and robotics. 

This podcast will be about marketing, sales, strategy, business development, customer attraction and strategies for growing your automation business. 

We will look at big trends and micro trends, best practices and things I learned helping grow one the largest automation integrators in the industry.

A few of our first podcasts for automation matters will be on CRM, marketing, and yes, even podcasting. We will look at some of the common mistakes and clever ways that companies differentiate themselves in the industry.

My feedback channel is open and you can message me at the email [email protected] or reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening and for subscribing.

Jim

Jim Beretta

Welcome to episode #153. I was lucky to meet up with Tarek Rahim in Windsor, ON, at the Emerging Technologies in Automation conference. The conference also highlights Mobility Transportation. I wish to thank the team at Emerging Technologies for getting me involved in the day.

You can find out more about the organizers (Invest Windsor Essex) at https://www.emergingtechnologies.ca/ or at https://www.investwindsoressex.com/.

If you have not heard of Tarek or Mirsee Robotics, they have built a humanoid robot for use at work, think "end of line" in factories also think pick and place. Their robot is named MH3, and boasts a 10-hour charge. The robot is designed and manufactured in Cambridge, Ontario.

Humanoids are poised to address labour shortages, enhancing safety, and driving economic prosperity. Mirsee robots allow skilled operators remote access to hazardous environments, while providing a safe and cost-effective alternative to traditional human labour.

https://mirsee.com

I would like to mention A3: the Association for Advancing Automation. they are the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies.  Visit Automate dot org to learn more.

If you would like to get in touch with us at THE robot industry podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimberetta/

Today’s podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing and I would like to thank my team: Chris Gray for the music, Geoffrey Bremner for audio production and my business partner Janet.

Warm Regards and continued success for 2026!

Jim

Jim Beretta

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

London, ON

For this edition, #152 of The Robot Industry Podcast, I welcome Caleb Appleton from Bison Ventures.

Bison Ventures is a Venture Capital (VC) firm with $135M AUM for frontier tech. From AI-powered drug discovery to collaborative robotics, Bison backs bold, deeply scientific solutions that have potential for massive commercial scale. An all-engineer team, Bison believes most attractive opportunities exist at the intersection of technical disciplines ignored by mainstream VC. 

Partner Caleb Appleton specializes in physical applications of AI. He’s an early investor in Cobot, a collaborative robotics co. En route to unicorn status following its $100M Series B Previously, Caleb was an investor at Innovation Endeavors, where he focused on frontier robotics (including surgical robotics, $RBOT), applied AI, and next-gen hardware.

My questions for Caleb:

What is series A, B and C?

What is a round?

How do you value a robot company?

How do you fund them?

Where do you get money to manage these companies?

How did you get into the business of robotics and AI?

What is your approach to investing in this sector? 

What’s unique about the Bison team, and how you partner with robotics founders?

You are after the big successes for your investments and time. What does that look like?

What are red flags for you when it comes to investment?

What themes in automation/robotics are you most excited to back right now—and why? It seems much attention is going towards humanoids, but what are your thoughts on this trend vs other paths to pursue?

Robotics is hard because it is both hardware, software, AI and marketing and the long lead time to development. Could you have picked an easier sector? How do you compress this time cycle?

What are the core values and value proposition to being successful in this sector, how do you coach entrepreneurs to not aim for the moon?

What does a de-risked deployment path look like for an early robotics team? What makes a robotics company scalable or suitable for commercialization?

Did we forget to talk about anything?

When you are not helping build robot and AI companies what do you like to do, hobbies?

How can people get a hold of you and find out more about Bison & Caleb Appleton?

Thanks for listening and subscribing and Happy New Year!

I would like to mention A3: the Association for Advancing Automation. they are the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies.  Visit Automate dot org to learn more.

If you would like to get in touch with us at THE robot industry podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimberetta/

Today’s podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing and I would like to thank my team: Chris Gray for the music, Geoffrey Bremner for audio production, my business partner Janet and our sponsor: Mecademic Industrial Robots ~ world leading manufacturers of compact and precise industrial robots. 

Warm Regards and success for 2026!

Jim

Jim Beretta

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

London, ON

A shoutout to Windsor Essex's Wendy Stark and the team at Invest WindsorEssex. I was invited to attend their Emerging Technologies in Automation & Mobility Transformation 2025 event in Windsor, and I was lucky to be able to catch up with him.

From DIN rails to terminal blocks to power supplies, Garrett Renders has seen many automation products from a young age. He is currently the Business Development Manager at Phoenix Contact Canada for Ontario. His role is to help clients solve problems using our PC's automation portfolio (which includes controllers, networking, interfaces, and safety). While Phoenix Contact is well known from a product standpoint, his goal is to demonstrate how their value-added centre and solution partners apply technology to empower an all-electric society!

OT Cybersecurity has become a big issue for SME manufacturers.

Automotive industry has been soft with EV.

M Guard Router concentrator.

PLC Next product.

OEE, uptime - customer machines and systems

Unexpected downtime.

The data conundrum: the cost and the efficacy of collecting the right data.

Phoenix Contact and measuring power data from Milton HQ building realtime and online.

Thanks Wendy and Garrett!

If you are from Ontario and users want to reach out and find out more about Phoenix Contact? You can reach out to Garrett here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrett-renders/

I would like to mention A3: the Association for Advancing Automation. they are the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies.  Visit Automate dot org to learn more.

If you would like to get in touch with us at THE robot industry podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimberetta/

Today’s podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing and I would like to thank my team: Chris Gray for the music, Geoffrey Bremner for audio production, my business partner Janet and our new sponsor: Mecademic Industrial Robots ~ world leading manufacturers of compact and precise industrial robots. 

Warm Regards,

Jim

Jim Beretta

Customer Attraction & The Robot Industry Podcast

London, ON

Welcome to podcast # 150! My guest for this edition is Dr. Yun Yao.

Yun Yao, holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, is a dynamic professional known for her creativity and ambition. In 2010, she co-founded Tactile Labs, a non-profit organization that advances haptics research, where her leadership has fostered innovation and collaboration. After completing her PhD, Yun became a senior engineer, designing wireless communication systems, excelling both technically and in leading innovation initiatives. In 2021, she co-founded Soralink to integrate AI and IoT into the food manufacturing and processing industry, aiming to apply cutting-edge technologies to real-world challenges. Yun's career reflects her commitment to pushing technological boundaries, fostering collaboration and driving transformational change across industries.

Designed and made in Canada (Montreal), Soralink offers a complete solution for industrial machine condition monitoring, failure prediction, predictive maintenance, as well as productivity tracking. Their solution includes smart AI sensors, LTE connectivity, and AI prediction engine.

Yun thanks for joining me for the podcast.

Why did you start the company?

Montreal is kind of a hotspot in North America for AI, Why is that?

What is AI?

What is Model Drift?

What is an algorithm?

Tell us about Soralink (are you an integrator)?

People that think AI is Chat GPT?

How are companies ready for AI?

Fit bit for the machines

What are some of the challenges that you face in collecting information

Tell us about AI in Canada manufacturing

What is keeping mfgs awake at nights?

Who are you having the conversations with ? CEO CTO

How do you get started in the conversation; AI in manufacturing

Do you have some Use cases that you can tell us about

When is AI not a good fit?

Is it good to work on a simple project or a big, complex project?

How long does a project take?

Are there ongoing costs to an AI project?

What are the outcomes?

What are the deliverables?

Did we forget to talk about something?

How do people find out more about you and how do they contact you?

What is your booth number at ADM show

Some information about ADM Toronto 2025:

The Advanced Manufacturing show happens in Toronto at the Toronto Congress Center, TCC which is right by the airport, which is actually located in Etobicoke on 650 Dixon Road.

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Thursday, October 23, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

I know that ADM is one big show, but how is the show divided up? Yes there are 6 co-located shows

Packaging | Automation | Design and manufacturing | Plastics and Processing | EV technology

Here is the show URL:

https://www.admtoronto.com/en/lp-general.html

You can use the code ROBOT to register. If that doesn't work try: SHIFT.

Some info on Soralink: https://soralink.co/en/

And to get in touch with Yun: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsinyun/

See you at the show!

Thanks,

Jim

Jim Beretta

519-716-2262 Mobile

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to The Robot Industry Podcast #149

This episode too is a little different for The Robot Industry Podcast. This episode is about sponsorships and their efficacy. Informa is a client for over 15 years (aka UBM, and Canon Communications).

I have been involved in the ADM (Advanced Design & Manufacturing) Toronto and ADM Montreal shows for many years. If you know me, you may have fielded a phone call or read an email about the show and the efficacy of being involved in trade events.

I have invited Gayle Hutchens, who directs sponsorships at shows.

Some information about ADM Toronto 2025:

The Advanced Manufacturing show happens in Toronto at the Toronto Congress Center, TCC which is right by the airport, which is actually located in Etobicoke on 650 Dixon Road.

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Thursday, October 23, 2025 • 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

I know that ADM is one big show, but how is the show divided up? Yes there are 6 co-located shows

Packaging | Automation | Design and manufacturing | Plastics and Processing | EV technology

Here is the show URL:

https://www.admtoronto.com/en/lp-general.html

You can use the code ROBOT to register. If that doesn't work try: SHIFT.

See you there.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim Beretta

519-716-2262 Mobile