ICC 2025 Recap: We Really Did ‘Level Up’ This Year

As promised, the 2025 Ignition Community Conference (ICC) on September 16-18 leveled up from past ICCs in several ways. With more than 1,500 in-person attendees (including many first-timers) and many virtual attendees, it was clearly the biggest ICC yet. The SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, California, provided more than triple the square footage as the Harris Center in Folsom, where all previous ICCs had been held. The long-awaited Ignition 8.3 was released on the first day of the conference — and it was not the only release announced there. It was ICC on a scale never seen before and yet it felt true to the close-knit, community-based vibe that it's always had. As always, there was a lot to take in at ICC, but in this blog we’ll do our best to capture the key moments.

The Main Keynote

ICC 2025 welcomed the Ignition community to the next level with the Main Keynote address. In light of the day’s biggest announcement (see the section below), the Main Keynote speakers opted for a more philosophical tone, surveying the state of industrial automation at the moment, the increasingly accelerated way forward, and how, whatever the future holds, it starts with Ignition.

The heart of this idea is that industrial automation has crossed into a new paradigm, one that cannot be accurately represented by decades-old models like ISA-95. This new paradigm requires organizations of all types to integrate vertically (and horizontally) beyond the bounds of the traditional segmented SCADA/MES/ERP hierarchy. Acting as an industrial enterprise integration platform, Ignition is only the platform dynamic enough to meet this moment. Ignition is no longer the underdog solution of yesteryear; it is the safe choice for the cornerstone of your Digital Transformation strategy.

It wasn’t all abstract concepts though — there were plenty of big announcements too! During the Keynote, we introduced Ignition Solution Suites, a completely novel way to purchase Ignition. More than simple bundles of modules, Solution Suites are curated sets of Ignition modules built around the most popular use cases for Ignition. Each of the suites at launch — Application Building, Industrial Historian, DataOps, Alarm Management, and Enterprise Integration — pairs the capability, flexibility, and future-forward approach that defines Ignition with the straightforwardness of an off-the-shelf solution.

While Solution Suites are available right now (what are you waiting for?), we also announced the forthcoming Integrator Solutions, which will highlight production-ready solutions built by Premier and Gold Integrators as part of our larger Ignition Technology Ecosystem Program. From full industry-specific applications to AI-enhanced development tools, these solutions embody the striking innovation of the Ignition community. There are five Integrator Solutions already lined up, with more to be announced prior to the program’s launch later this year (and if you’re interested in showcasing your solution, head here and tell us about it).

The Technical Keynote

In a twist too serendipitous to be coincidental, Inductive Automation released Ignition 8.3 on the first day of ICC this year! While there are plenty of resources for seeing what’s included in this major release, CTO Carl Gould and CEO Colby Clegg started this year’s Technical Keynote by making it clear that Ignition 8.3 is not the finish line but actually a new beginning. Ignition 8.3 fundamentally modernizes the core platform while eliminating years of technical debt, ensuring Ignition is leveled-up enough to facilitate systems functioning at a previously unfathomable level of scale and complexity. Think of it this way: Ignition 8.1 was compatible with cutting-edge technologies like Ansible, Helm, K8s, and GitOps, but Ignition 8.3 was designed for them. Our Dev and QA teams have truly leveled up, looking far ahead to make sure that your Ignition system is truly future-proof.

Before they talked about the future, Carl and Colby took a moment to discuss the buzzword of the moment: AI. There have been as many sky-high promises as pseudo-apocalyptic warnings about this new technology, but IA’s take on AI is a far more practical approach, viewing it as not a replacement for humans, but as human-augmentation technology. The limiting factor in creating many enterprise systems is not compute power or engineering knowledge, it is the overwhelming amount of human hours required to translate requirements into working systems.

This is where AI, in conjunction with Ignition, could be transformative in improving deployment and development speed, which is why we announced the forthcoming MCP Module! The MCP Module will allow Ignition and any modules to contribute their own tools, resources, and prompts to easily expose standard Ignition capabilities through MCP, transforming AI into a connected system that works with your real data and applications. And maybe best of all, this module also makes Ignition the easiest platform for you to create your own MCP servers.

To finish off the Tech Keynote, Carl and Colby revealed that Ignition 8.3 would be the last version of Ignition in the “8”-numbered line. That’s because Inductive Automation will be moving to an annual major release schedule starting with Ignition 2027, meaning there will be a new major release of Ignition every year, with maintenance releases every other month. This new versioning redefines what Long-Term Support means as well. Starting with Ignition 2028, LTS releases will be truly static, with no new features or functionality, only critical bug fixes and security updates, providing a rock-solid platform to build, making this an actual game-changer for highly regulated industries.

But wait, there was one more big announcement. Coming soon to Ignition 8.3: external scripting engines. Before you know it, you’ll be scripting in Ignition using Python 3!

Build-a-Thon & Exchange Challenge Winners

Oops … the Build-a-Thon did it again! The event with a history of breaking new ground once again leveled up as SAFEgroup Automation (SGA) become the first team from Australia to win the Build-a-Thon — which this year leaned heavily into the ICC theme with a storyline featuring coins, colors, and Ignition power-ups seemingly straight out of a video game.

In a showdown worthy of its billing as the premier competitive SCADA event, SGA and Barry-Wehmiller Design Group put their respective Ignition knowledge, development prowess, and collaborative spirit on display, creating Ignition projects to color Ignition coins using a groov EPIC anodizer machine by Premier Technology Provider Opto 22.

Tasked with building applications and HMIs to visualize data, track customer requests, and control the machine’s color-anodizing process, the teams passed all technical tests with flying colors using the brand new Event Streams Module to streamline external connections and data.

Wow, that Ignition 8.3 release sure came in handy.

But in true Build-a-Thon fashion, a cameo curveball was thrown when Inductus the Wizard’s onstage shenanigans severed the teams’ cloud connections. No problem, they nimbly navigated the impromptu blip and ran the projects directly from the panel with local HMIs and Perspective. How’s that for some machination magic?!

Keeping things light and lively, the audience was treated to a somehow-simultaneously retro and futuristic music interlude video from the IA Department of Funk, while the Student Build-a-Thon winners quickly trained on using those local HMIs for the final segment before voting.

Congrats to the SGA team on their history-making victory! Wear those orange jackets proudly!

Speaking of triumphs, the Ignition Exchange Challenge winners were announced during the Build-a-Thon:

• 1st Place: Jandas By Andrew Brumleve
• 2nd Place: Customizable, Autoscaling Gauges for Perspective (UDT Included) By Steve Laubach
• 3rd Place: Ignition Backup Utility Using Perspective By Pradeep Paul

The Exchange Challenge honorable mentions are:

• Flip Card Matching Game and Wordle Game By Omer Faruk YALCIN
• Ignition Code Breaker By Jason Hurd
• Perspective Date Range Picker By Jeremy Plunkett
• Calendar Component By Sarah Sonnier
• Perspective Date Picker By Peleg Lider
• Opto22 groovManage API By Sebastian Hillis
• Ethernet/IP Scanner for Factory Talk By Markus Oosthuizen
• Animated 5094 I/O By Alex Bridges
• Rheonics Viscosity and Density Meter By Rheonics Automation
• Siemens Library of Basic Process Perspective Faceplates By CentricPA

Congratulations to the Exchange Challenge’s resource-building wizards!

The Discover Gallery

With a spirit reminiscent of the World’s Fair, the Discover Gallery’s video showcase of exceptional Ignition projects is an element of ICC that attendees always look forward to. This year, we upgraded the experience by enabling attendees to view project videos on-demand via kiosks, rather than playing the videos on a continuous loop. Plus, we added an awards showcase on Day Two to honor all the winners.

In total, there were seven Firebrand Award winners and eleven Discover Gallery Award winners. Projects came from all over the world, including South Africa, Ecuador, Canada, France, the U.S., the Netherlands, and Mexico, along with a whopping four projects from Australia. This geographic diversity highlighted how Ignition’s global presence has grown significantly stronger over the past year, with an emphasis on its growth Down Under.

A wide variety of industries and use cases was represented as well, with projects that took innovation to a whole new level. Projects spanned Abnormal Status Monitoring-style SCADA in the mining industry, increasing traceability for a paint manufacturer, digitally transforming Australia’s busiest airport with zero downtime, preventing dangerous backfeeding of power in energy systems research labs, and more.

Additionally, Nick Minchin received a Community Impact Firebrand Award for the valuable contributions he’s made to improving both Ignition and its community. And this year’s inaugural Educational Engagement Firebrand Award went to HebronSoft and Hebron IT Academy for an entirely student-developed project. This project aids individuals who have lost limbs with a 3D-printed hand prosthesis that’s trained by Ignition and Arduino-based muscle sensors.

Overall, the Discover Gallery provided conference-goers with a big dose of automation inspiration that they eagerly took back home with them to fuel innovation in their work. To get your own dose of inspiration, check out the online Discover Gallery.

Community & IA Breakout Sessions

At ICC, there were more than 30 breakout sessions presented by IA team members and by Ignition community members who work in a wide variety of industries. Below are observations from some of the sessions, which offered attendees an abundance of topics to choose from and a plethora of real-world insights to learn from.

In “Removing Digital Muda (Waste) Via Digital Tools,” presenters Jason Denham and Chase Brown from Toyota shared their best practices for reducing digital waste: starting small by piloting with one line or area, proving value quickly by seeing results in weeks instead of months, scaling confidently with a templated approach to ensure consistency, and providing full support, including training, templates, and ongoing guidance. They demonstrated how they reduced time-to-value in their manufacturing environment from hours to mere seconds, highlighting how eliminating waste provided a real return on investment.

“Making Music: Ignition in Manufacturing at Taylor Guitars” was presented by Tyler Robertson from Taylor Guitars, which is known as a leading maker of acoustic guitars. Tyler described Taylor Guitars’ crafting process, noting that their California factory produces over 100 guitars daily, while their Tecate, Mexico factory makes over 500. He explained they chose Ignition after finding out that Stone Brewing and a local water district also used it. Ignition allowed them to approve production requests they previously had to deny. A common saying at Taylor Guitars, "Yeah… but it’s wood," refers to how the variability of wood requires machine-speed adjustments. They constantly adapt to materials and specifications, creating new SKUs daily. Ignition helps them work faster, limiting them only by time, not technology. This fosters a culture of feedback, helping to close manufacturing gaps.

“Ignition Perspective UX Development & Model-Driven UI” was presented by Oliver Marshall and Rickard Moberg from Tetra Pak. Although they covered many topics, one thing that they stressed was the importance of continuing to keep digging to get at true user needs for UX development, because what the user needs can often be different from what they request.

“Hello AI, Meet Ignition: Leveraging LLMs in the Ignition Ecosystem” was presented by Reese Tyson and Matthew Raybourn from IA’s Sales Engineering team. They shared tips on how to streamline development by integrating LLMs and AI into Ignition systems. They were joined by a surprise third speaker, Iggy: a sassy AI assistant whom they’d built. Onstage, they verbally asked Iggy to do a variety of tasks, such as generating a list of tags and providing the current value of a tag, which he accomplished in seconds. They also shared the ABCs of using Ignition and AI: Accuracy of information; be mindful of data access; and coordinate actions with a human in the loop. Best of all, they made the Iggy AI assistant project available to everyone on GitHub.

“Ready to Level Up Your Machine Monitoring Game?” was presented by Dan White from Opto 22, who described how you can start small with implementing machine monitoring and what’s achievable for a thousand bucks. Dan described the value of machine monitoring, citing that it helps you catch failures before they occur, prevent dreaded unplanned downtime, and more. He also shared a real-world Ignition machine monitoring application for a Tier 1 automotive supplier, which had started out by testing on one single machine with a Raspberry Pi and then expanding from there.

Hugh Roddy and AJ Kahler from Chobani presented “The OT Operating System: Ignition’s Central Role in Chobani’s Past & Future.” Hugh shared a riveting story from his early days at the organization, when he discovered a bird's nest of cables and corroded ports. An IT co-worker told him not to touch anything, but he ignored the warning and, as a result, shut things down at the plant. After this happened, he told them that they needed to shut the plant down or it was going to shut itself down and destroy all the equipment. AJ showed screens of their La Colombe plant’s system, which is built with 8.3. He discussed how in the future they’re looking at building a “Lego” of the OT environment, believing that project modularity increases success.

“Delivering Value Through Digital Transformation” was presented by Ryan Crownover from Vertech. Ryan spoke about how instead of reinventing the wheel, his team wants to steal the wheel; in other words, to use proven, battle-tested practices. So he provided a “Steal the Wheel” toolbox, and emphasized how you can get ROI from Digital Transformation within 90 days. Ryan also asked the audience questions in addition to taking their questions.

The Industry Panel brought together panelists from Raytheon, Tetra Pak, Lucid Motors, Multi-Dimensional Integration (MDI), The Integration Group of Americas (TIGA), Artek Integrated Solutions, and Clovis Community College, and was moderated by IA’s David Grussenmeyer. The panel discussed questions such as how education is helping to meet the demand for new workers and preparing them for the realities of working in manufacturing, which 8.3 feature they are most excited about (Event Streams was the clear favorite, followed by the new historian suite and Git integration), the biggest opportunities for leveling up operations through the enterprise, and what integrators need to make scaling a smoother process.

Chris McLaughlin from IA, Liliya Valihun from Hebron Ecosystem, and Kostiantyn Polosukhin from HebronSoft presented “Empowering Humanity: Prosthetic Arm and Open-Source Homeless Management System Powered by Ignition.” This session was a beautiful example of how technology can bring people together to help solve problems in society. Chris McLaughlin explained how over 150 people in the Ignition community from around the world pitched in to help develop a Homeless Management System to help people in need. Kostiantyn and his team at HebronSoft cleaned the system and made it open-source and available on GitHub so anyone can use it in a variety of environments. Liliya also explained a project where orphans in Ukraine got to work with Hebron IT Academy to build a bionic prosthetic arm using Ignition for a wounded Ukrainian soldier, bringing people who have experienced hardships together to improve each other's lives.

Of course, there were many other excellent sessions you should see including “Return Of The Dev Panel,” “Taking the Helm With Ignition on Kubernetes,” and “Ignition Maker Edition Electronics Inventory and Storage System,” just to name a few, so be sure to watch the recordings when you have a chance.

Exhibitors & ProveIt! Showcases

Ignition’s technology ecosystem has been growing a lot lately, and you could see that in evidence at ICC. More than 30 exhibitors were onsite at the conference, with booths where attendees could step up to see the exhibitors’ solutions, ask questions, and maybe come away with a snack or swag item.

This year, 16 exhibitors also participated in something new at ICC: The ProveIt! Showcases. In these unique showcases, exhibitors demonstrated working solutions that were powered by live data from the ProveIt! Virtual Factory, built on Unified Namespace, and used Ignition as a core component.

4.0 Solutions President and Solutions Architect Walker Reynolds hosted each ProveIt! Showcase, where he asked the presenters for specific information about their solution, and then let them demonstrate how their solution accomplishes what it claims to do, followed by additional questions from the audience.

After ICC, Walker commented on LinkedIn that “ProveIt! and ICC were a perfect fit ... synergy and contrast all in one. IA is known for their polished, controlled messages and we are known for being blunt — and it worked together perfectly.” Judging by the audience turnout and reaction, it looks like ICC-goers agreed.

Women In Automation Breakfast

ICC 2025 featured our first-ever Women In Automation Breakfast. The event started bright and early on the terrace, where women and allies enjoyed light breakfast dishes ranging from yogurt parfaits to chicken and waffles, along with coffee, orange juice, and champagne. It was an incredible opportunity to network and meet automation professionals from a wide array of backgrounds and companies.

Shortly after breakfast, Mara Pillott, Kathy Applebaum, Shay Johnson, and Christine Lee shared their stories about how they got started in the industry and their experiences working at Inductive Automation. Mara, an IA Application Engineering Manager, shared that all roles are welcome at ICC, whether they’re technical, marketing, or operational. Mara also noted that “ICC is not just a tech conference, it’s a community conference.” Kathy, an IA Development Department Manager, echoed that sentiment, sharing her appreciation for seeing women’s roles grow within IA. Shay, an IA Product Manager, explained how IA has helped shape and grow her career, and how “success requires community and getting others involved.” Lastly, we heard from Christine, an IA Sales Engineer, who spoke about finding role models and allies on her team who helped her grow and achieve her current role.

Everyone who attended received a scarf commemorating the event, which can be brought to future IA events for years to come. This historic event highlighted the importance of growth for women and allies in this industry and helped create relationships that will last for years.

Memorable Meals And Music

The dinners at ICC provided enjoyable endings to the first two days of ICC. At the Culinary Connection dinner on Tuesday evening, attendees got to select from tasty options like tacos, sushi, prime rib, roasted turkey, falafel, and Bananas Foster. It was a great way to try a variety of delicious foods and chat with a variety of people, somewhat like an indoor version of the food-truck dinners of ICCs past.

The Eat & Greet dinner on Wednesday proved to be even more memorable. Yes, the food itself was very nice, which was a more conventional dinner with salad, entrees, sides, and desserts served in buffet lines, but the evening’s musical entertainment is what really stood out. Once again, the IA Department of Funk brought down the house. This year’s band lineup included Kent Melville, Kevin McClusky, Dara Claiborne, Mathias Abajian, Tyler Earnest, Arnell Ignacio, and Chris Fischer. Their set included hits from the 70’s up to today like “Don’t Fear The Reaper” (featuring guest Travis Cox on cowbell), “The Boys of Summer,” “All Star,” “Drive,” “1985,” and “Flowers.”

The attendees were also treated to a shorter set by IA’s Eric Knorr and Colette Matthews. Eric and Colette played acoustic versions of songs like “Dance Monkey” and “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” But the music didn’t stop there, because then, in an ICC first, it was time for karaoke. Community members took the stage to belt out their renditions of “Lose Yourself,” “Friends In Low Places,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Apologize,” and other tunes. It was the most music-filled gathering yet for the Ignition community, hands down.

Table Talks, Co-Lab Room & More

ICC offers plenty of action and interaction apart from the main sessions. Table Talks (which were introduced at ICC 2023) certainly leveled up this year. There were 20 Table Talks moderated by experienced professionals from The Brydon Group, AT-Automation, Flexware Innovation, Concept Reply US, DMC Engineering, Actemium-Avanceon, Primoris Renewable Energy, and other companies. Topics included agentic AI development with Ignition, renewable energy, data centers, ROI, utility-scale solar SCADA, and more.

In the new Co-Lab Room, attendees had a chance to interact through two main activities: Community Huddles and the Community Design Challenge. The Community Huddles were like a mini-expo where speakers, exhibitors, and attendees show off their projects, answer questions, and have small-group conversations. The Community Design Challenge was more like a community Build-a-Thon, where attendees were grouped into three teams and given a series of prompts that each required the attendee to build something in Ignition. Ultimately, the Blue Team bested the Orange Team and Green Team to win the Community Design Challenge. Way to go!

In another room called The IA Hub, attendees could connect directly with representatives from Sales Engineering, Software Engineering, Product Management, Support, Training, and The Distributed Architecture Working Group.

When attendees wanted a little break from the bustle and bright lights of the main conference areas, the SCADA Arcade gave them a chance to hang out, enjoy snacks, and play video games like Cosmos Assaulters, Pro SCADA, and Pasta Fury, or classic physical games like foosball and air hockey. More than before, the SCADA Arcade looked and felt like the classic arcades we grew up with.

Save The Date For Next Year

Although ICC 2025 is technically over, the learning opportunities continue. If you didn’t attend ICC in person or watch the livestream, you can still purchase an On-Demand Pass, with access to the recordings of all the keynotes, general sessions, and breakout sessions from Days 1, 2, and 3 of the conference, for only $175 (a limited time offer). And plan to join us next year, because we'll be back at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center on September 22 - 24, 2026 for ICC 2026. We can’t wait to see you there!