Last month at the Holiday Inn Pittsburgh Airport hotel, our very own Larry Bachus (a.k.a. “Pump Guy”) presented a three-day training seminar to a group of eager engineers and maintenance and operations professionals. The event was Larry’s second Pump Guy Seminar this year, and for me it offered another example of just how useful a good training event can be.
Flow Control magazine has been working with Larry to present Pump Guy Seminars throughout the United States since 2007. After each training we offer, I must say, I find myself more impressed with Larry’s innate ability to relay fundamental principles in pumping systems design, operation, and maintenance in a way that makes attendees have those proverbial “lightbulb moments.”
I acknowledge this editorial may seem more than a bit self-serving, and surely it is. However, if you bear with me, I’ll provide two specific examples of just how much the attendees benefited from our recent Pump Guy Seminar in Pittsburgh.
Lightbulb Moment #1: After Day One of the Pump Guy Seminar in Pittsburgh, Larry and I were having dinner at the hotel restaurant. After we finished our meal, Larry and I joined two of the attendees at their table to talk shop for a bit.
Before we had even settled into our chairs, one of the attendees asked Larry, “When were you in our plant?” Larry looked at the fellow with some confusion, to which the fellow responded, “I mean, we’re having some of the exact same problems you covered today, so I know you must have been in our plant.” Larry laughed, and said, “Well, you’re certainly not alone.” And I sat back for a half-hour or so and listened to Larry explain how a few relatively minor design issues were responsible for some of the chronic pump problems these fellows were dealing with at their plant. After the discussion had ended, one of the guys said, “I can’t wait to get back to the plant; our design engineers have to hear this.”
Lightbulb Moment #2: Toward the end of Day Three of the seminar, when you would think folks were starting to get a little weary from all of the pump talk, I saw one of the attendees walking out of the seminar space. I looked up and asked him if he was leaving to catch a flight, thinking I’d say my final goodbyes and thank him one more time for coming to the seminar. But, to my surprise, he said, “No, I’m not leaving, I just have to make a call back to the plant to see if I can catch them before they order that new impeller for one of our pumps.” The fellow went on to explain that Larry had just hit upon a point that helped him figure out how he could resolve an application issue by increasing the size of the impeller on one of his pumps. He said he didn’t want to wait to relay the information back to the plant because a replacement pump was set to be ordered, and he wanted to revise the order before it went out.
Now I can’t say I’ve ever been to a seminar where the attendees were so excited by what they were learning that they couldn’t wait to get back to work or they had to rush out of the room to relay some of the information back to the office. And while I can’t take credit for the technical content of the Pump Guy Seminar – that’s all Larry – I must say we at Flow Control magazine are proud to present such a valuable training.
If you would like more information about the Pump Guy Seminar Series and/or would like to register for one of our upcoming trainings, please feel free to contact me directly.
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