ABB announced today the 2006 dates and venue for its popular ABB Automation World Users Conference and Exhibition; it will be May 9-12, 2006 at the Hilton Americas in Houston, Texas.  Following the success of this year's event, which attracted over 1,700 attendees, the 2006 event announcement has been widely anticipated by ABB's customers.  Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a number of user and ABB presented technical sessions that demonstrate how ABB's automation solutions deliver measurable results and discuss practical applications of existing and new technologies.

"ABB Automation World is an exciting opportunity to bring a broad cross-section of ABB customers, channel partners and employees together under the same roof," said Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman and CEO of ABB Inc. and head of group operations in North America. "Our customers were very enthusiastic about what they experienced and learned at this year's conference. The combination of formal information exchange and hands-on demonstration is an important tool for strengthening stakeholder relationships within our industry. We are pleased to invite our customers and channel partners to join us in Houston for ABB Automation World 2006."

ABB's largest Americas region customer event is designed for automation users in engineering, mill, plant and general management, in a number of industries such as Chemical, Oil & Gas, Consumer & Pharmaceutical, Metals, Mining and Minerals, Pulp & Paper, Utilities and others.  Attendees participate in informative technical sessions presented by their peers and ABB technical experts, share problem-solving approaches, and visit the event's hands-on exhibit, which will showcase the full scope of ABB's automation offerings. Further information will be available at www.abb.com/automationworld
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 103,000 people.