{"id":236,"date":"2011-09-20T17:01:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T00:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=236"},"modified":"2011-09-20T17:01:33","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T00:01:33","slug":"imx-event-charts-new-course-for-american-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/general\/imx-event-charts-new-course-for-american-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"imX Event Charts New Course for American Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I attended the imX (interactive manufacturing eXperience) in Las Vegas (September 12-14, 2011.)\u00a0 The imX was jointly sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME<\/a>) and the American Machine Tool Distributors\u2019 Association (AMTDA<\/a>).\u00a0 The event had eight eXperience partners:\u00a0 DMG\/Mori Seiki U.S.A., Fanuc, Kennametal, MAG IAS LLC, Makino, Methods Machine Tools, Okuma America, and Sandvik Coromant, as well as strategic media partner, Manufacturing Engineering<\/em>, and three media sponsors, www.cnc-west.com<\/a>, Micro Manufacturing<\/em>, and Cutting Tool Engineering<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It was different than any other trade show that I have attended in the past 30 years.\u00a0\u00a0 What made it different was that the whole focus of the show was benefits for the attendee instead of focusing primarily on benefits to the exhibitors. \u00a0Traditional shows concentrate on bringing as many attendees as possible to the show to be sales leads for the exhibitors and may offer some technical sessions as an added draw to increase attendance. \u00a0To attend imX, you had to be invited as a guest by one of the sponsors, the eights partners, or other exhibitors in the event. The goal of imX was to chart a new course for the future of the domestic manufacturing industry by fostering collaboration among American Manufacturers of all sizes.<\/p>\n

SME President, Paul Bradley, PE, said that this event was in development for five years.\u00a0 The imX team spoke with members and customers to discover what they wanted and needed from an event. AMTDA and the eight eXperience partners identified the needs of their members and customers.\u00a0 Individual meetings and group discussions between exhibitors and attendees were identified as key needs to provide a higher level of customer engagement and education to create an event that was unlike any other.\u00a0 For the first time, the manufacturing industry came together not as competitors, but as collaborators with the common goal and focus of long-term industry viability.\u00a0 The participants had the opportunity to meet to discuss and foster an understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing their customers and their competition and to explore the latest manufacturing technology.<\/p>\n

imX event manager, Steve Prahalis said\u00a0 that their survey of exhibitors and buyers revealed that some hadn\u2019t been to a show in as long as five years.\u00a0 Instead, they were attending corporate technical sessions at plants around the country.\u00a0 They got together a roundtable of CEO\u2019s over a period of three years to come up with ideas for a new kind of event that would be invitation only and incorporate the kind of experience the corporate technical sessions provided, but in one location and one time.<\/p>\n

For decades, trade shows for the manufacturing industry were events at which you either exhibited or attended every year.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t, you would be missing out on the latest trends in your industry, missing out on getting new sales leads, and missing out on networking opportunities with peers in your industry.\u00a0 For show managers, it was easy to sell booth space because trade shows were the \u201cin\u201d thing to do, and attendance at some shows like COMDEX was as high as 250,000.<\/p>\n

According to Prahalis, two major events changed trade shows forever:\u00a0\u00a0 the internet and 9\/11.\u00a0 It became possible to keep up with industry trends and find out information about potential sources for equipment, products and services on the internet.\u00a0 If 9\/11 and the subsequent recession caused you to miss a trade show, you discovered it didn\u2019t matter as much as you thought it would.\u00a0 You may have missed the networking opportunities, but LinkedIn and Facebook became the replacements.<\/p>\n

This is why education received major emphasis at imX in the form of Learning Labs presented by the eight eXperience partners and \u201cknowledge bars\u201d provided by other exhibitors.\u00a0 The Learning Labs provided a small setting where buyers and sellers could share information on business-critical solutions.\u00a0 Each partner had from one to four theaters scheduled at one to five time slots during the three days of the event.\u00a0 A few examples of the topics are:\u00a0 Delivering Productivity from Art to Part, Tooling Trends and Technologies, The Fearless Use of Today\u2019s Technology, and Training within Industry.\u00a0 The Knowledge Bars were intimate sessions to discuss such trends and topics as:\u00a0 manufacturing software, automation, machining, energy, aerospace and defense manufacturing, and medical manufacturing. .\u00a0\u00a0 Invited attendees were able to sign up ahead of time for technical sessions in the Leaning Lab and \u201cknowledge bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a keynote presentation and an interactive industry panel scheduled each day.\u00a0 The keynote presentation on the first day featured the newly appointed National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Chief Manufacturing Office, Michael Molnar.\u00a0 Mr. Molnar shared information about how individual manufacturers can participate in and benefit from the new national Advanced Manufacturing Partnership<\/a> recently launched by President Obama.\u00a0 According to the Department of Commerce, the Partnership \u201cbrings industry, universities and the federal government together to invest in emerging technologies\u2026building domestic manufacturing capabilities to create the new products, new industries and new jobs for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second day\u2019s keynote presentation featured Peter Schutz<\/a>, Harris & Schutz Inc., author of The Driving Force <\/em>and retired CEO of Porsche AG.\u00a0 Mr. Schutz led Porsche to its peak performance during the 1980s and shared his thoughts on how the leadership of people in a company becomes the pivotal competitive edge for business in his address:\u00a0 \u201cLeadership:\u00a0 Extraordinary results from ordinary people.\u201d\u00a0 I especially liked it when Mr. Schutz said, \u201cOnly you can create jobs, nobody in Washington can do it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He emphasized the importance of putting together a team that has \u201cdiversity,\u201d of views, attitudes, priorities, and outlook so you can listen and learn from others in making decisions.\u00a0 He advised to \u201calways hire character and teach skills.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201clabor costs globally will equalize and transportation costs are going to be critical\u2026quality instead of cost and outperforming will become more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the third day, the keynote presenter was Jim Carroll<\/a>, acknowledged as one of the world\u2019s leading global futurists, trends, and motivation experts.\u00a0 In his address on \u201cWhat do world class innovators do that others don\u2019t?\u201d he outlined eight strategies that world class leaders concentrate on to ensure market success and seize transformative opportunities.\u00a0 In these rocky times, his admonition to abandon doomsday scenarios, put things in perspective, adopt a realistic view, and don\u2019t be afraid of thinking boldly were especially pertinent.<\/p>\n

The interactive panels also provided opportunities for executive guests to engage directly with leading end users and industry observers on topics from future technologies to automation and benchmarking.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the panel on \u201cMarket & Technology Outlook:\u00a0 Charting a Course for the Future\u201d featured an interactive discussion focused on the outlook of key markets and how future enabling technologies impact the way many manufacturers do business.\u00a0 Featured panelists were:<\/p>\n