April 24, 2006 - Hannover, Germany - ODVA today announced that it has launched a series of EtherNet/IP™ seminars designed to increase industry awareness and technical expertise of how to implement EtherNet/IP, the industrial Ethernet technology managed by ODVA. The free, one-day seminars for potential users and vendors of EtherNet/IP products and networks will be held at various locations around the world.

“By leveraging the economies of scale found in standard, commercial Ethernet technology, EtherNet/IP is re-defining the use of Ethernet on the plant floor by making it a viable option for most industrial applications,” said Katherine Voss, Executive Director of ODVA. “With this series of seminars, ODVA will provide potential users and vendors with the basic knowledge they need to critically evaluate how EtherNet/IP is the right investment for decades to come.”

The seminar titled “EtherNet/IP: The Proven and Complete Solution for Manufacturing Automation” will present the value proposition of implementing EtherNet/IP industrial networks. The first seminar in this series was given during ODVA’s 2006 CIP Networks Conference & 11th Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Upcoming confirmed dates and locations in 2006 are:

     - May 19: Shanghai, China
     - June 15: Guangzhou, China
     - June 22: Southfield, Michigan, USA
     - October 19: Houston, Texas, USA

Other dates will be announced this year for the following locations: Japan, Denmark, Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The “EtherNet/IP: Quick Start” seminar series will educate potential vendors of EtherNet/IP products about the basics of designing an EtherNet/IP product. This series will commence during the second half of 2006, and also will be held at locations around the globe.

For more information about either of these seminars, including additional dates and locations as they are announced, or to register, visit: www.odva.org.

About EtherNet/IP
EtherNet/IP extends commercial off-the-shelf Ethernet to the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP™) — the same upper-layer protocol and object model found in DeviceNet. CIP allows EtherNet/IP and DeviceNet™ product developers, system integrators and users to apply the same objects and profiles for plug-and-play interoperability among devices from multiple vendors and in multiple sub-nets. Combined, DeviceNet and EtherNet/IP promote transparency from sensors to the enterprise software.

About ODVA
ODVA, founded in 1995, is an international association comprised of members from the world's leading automation companies. Collectively, ODVA and its members support network technologies based on the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP™). These currently include DeviceNet™, EtherNet/IP™, CIP Motion™, CIP Safety™, CIP Sync™ and CompoNet™. ODVA manages the development of these open technologies, and assists manufacturers and users of CIP Networks through tools, training and marketing activities. In addition, ODVA offers conformance testing to help ensure that products built to its specifications operate in multi-vendor systems. ODVA also is active in other standards development organizations and industry consortia to drive the growth of open communication standards. For more information, visit its web site at www.odva.org.