“World-Beating Manufacturing” is the theme for National Manufacturing Week 2005, which will be in full swing March 7-10 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Complex. Presented by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the event consists of eight shows and conferences running simultaneously.
New this year is an opportunity for engineers who are required to show evidence of continuing education. Under an agreement with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, participants in any of 50 conference sessions will be eligible for 0.1 CEU per session.
With more than 1,000 exhibitors participating in the shows – including Design Engineering, Micro Systems USA, Plant Engineering and Facilities Management, Cleantech Cleaning Technology, Industrial Automation, Enterprise IT and Aluminum USA – the event is structured to cover the entire manufacturing process. It will provide practitioners with real-world solutions to problems.
Also new this year is the EnviroTech Expo and Conference, which will be co-located with the National Plant Engineering and Facilities Management show. Sponsored by OSHA and EPA, this part of the event showcases the products that address industrial air pollution, clean technology, energy management, environmental software and waste management, all of which are aimed at achieving compliance with environmental regulations more efficiently.
For the third consecutive year, the CleanTech Cleaning Technology Show and Conference will present information dedicated to industrial and precision cleaning for manufacturing and maintenance.
Stronger conference
Each show has a dedicated conference track, and two new tracks have been added for the plant’s legal and general management, general counsel and senior-level engineers. These conferences will focus on legal issues and management topics ranging from the challenge of Chinese manufacturing to successful CRM strategies.
The 400 speakers listed on the schedule represent nearly a 50% expansion in the scope of the conference program. Of the 322 conferences, 46 have been developed specifically for plant engineers, facility managers and maintenance personnel.
Killer keynotes
Keynote speakers include James Berges, president of Emerson Process Management; Al Frink, assistant secretary for manufacturing and services at the U.S. Department of Commerce; James Champy, chairman of consulting for Perot Systems; Alain Belda, CEO of Alcoa; and Phil Wilmington, co-president of PeopleSoft.
You can find the conference’s calendar of events listed by day and hour at www.reedshows.com/conference/nmw/grid.asp. In addition, the page can be used as a planner; it allows you to sort the activities by day and by track.
Another listing at www.reedshows.com/conference/nmw/program.asp shows the individual conferences in chronological order. At the bottom of the page is a search feature that allows you to enter a keyword or to home in on information about specific sessions, speakers and tracks.
