Fabtech Expo Recap

by | Nov 20, 2014

Rachel Kerstetter, PR Engineer, Sonnhalter

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I had the opportunity to attend the Fabtech Expo in Atlanta last week. It was my second year at the show and I am continually impressed by the immensity of this industry. The expo brought together more than 27,000 attendees and 1,400 exhibitors covering more than 500,000 square feet of the Georgia World Congress Center.

Fabtech kicked off on Veterans Day and it couldn’t have been more fitting since Workshops for Warriors was selected as the recipient of the Fabtech Cares campaign. Workshops for Warriors is a wonderful organization that I had the pleasure of writing about last year in Production Machining magazine. Workshops for Warriors, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to training, certifying, and placing veterans in manufacturing careers.

It’s no secret that manufacturers are looking for new sources of talent. At the same time, many former members of our armed forces are looking for work. Workshops for Warriors combines these efforts, giving American veterans and wounded warriors the skills U.S. manufacturing employers need. Veterans who are transitioning back to civilian life provide a vastly untapped talent pool of hardworking and disciplined talent for the manufacturing industry. Fabtech hosted a panel on the first day of the show on bridging the skills gap with veterans. You can see the progress of the fundraiser (and donate) here.

Reshoring of manufacturing was definitely another popular topic. The Day One keynote actually came from Cindi Marsilgio, the VP for U.S. Manufacturing at Wal-Mart. The company has pledged to buy $250 billion of products made in the USA over ten years to encourage the creation of U.S. jobs. (You can read more about the keynote and Day One highlights on Fabtech’s blog.) When walking the show and helping out in various booths, I heard the question, “Where are your products made?” Many purchasing professionals in attendance were seeking domestically produced products to us in their own operations.

Day Two of Fabtech kicked off with four-time Super Bowl champion and Vietnam War veteran, Ricky Bleier, presenting on how attendees can be the best that they can be. Later in the day a panel was held on the industry’s outlook. You can see video and other highlights from Day Two on Fabtech’s blog.

Although I headed back to chilly Cleveland at the end of Day Two, the final day of the show was also packed with a presentation from  Google for Work’s Head of Manufacturing, Mike Walton on transforming manufacturing for the digital age. This is a very popular topic, especially with the rise of 3D printing, robotics and digital design capabilities. You can check out some video from the presentation here.

Did you attend Fabtech? What did you think of the show?

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