Celebrating 25 years of the ETFA conference series

In September 2017, it will have been 25 years since the first ETFA event took place in Melbourne, Australia. That conference attracted over 200 attendees. A fairly sizable event for an upstart, attracting people from all parts of the developed world. Preparations started at the beginning of 1990. The idea of the conference dates back to the late 1980s. Since then, the ETFA conference series has evolved to become one of the largest and most important technical events, co-sponsored by IEEE, to focus on the cutting edge ICT research and technical developments in diverse areas of industrial automation such as factory and process automation, automotive applications, avionics and space technology, building and urban automation, etc. The conference's history is briefly reviewed.