By Rich Merritt, Senior Technical Editor
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ational Manufacturing Week 2005 will be in full swing between March 7 and March 10 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Complex. Presented by the National Association of Manufacturers, the event consists of eight shows and conferences running simultaneously. These conferences showcase best practices for U.S. manufacturers, in the face of increasing competition from global competitors who are not only lower cost, but increasingly sophisticated.
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—Design Engineering, Micro Systems USA, Plant Engineering and Facilities Management, Cleantech Cleaning Technology, Industrial Automation, Enterprise IT and Aluminum USAthe event is structured to cover the entire manufacturing process. It will provide practitioners with real-world solutions to current problems.
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 products that address industrial air pollution, clean technology, energy management, environmental software and waste management, all 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.
Each show has its own dedicated conference track, with two new tracks 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 China 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.
Keynote speakers include James Berges, President of Emerson Inc.; 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.
The conference calendar of events listed by day and hour is found at www.reedshows.com/conference/nmw/grid.asp. Clicking on an entry will return the details of the selected program. In addition, the page can be used as a planner. It allows sorting 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 zero in on information about specific sessions, speakers and tracks.
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ational Manufacturing Week is moving to Chicagoland's newly renovated Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, in 2006, a move which promises to significantly reduce the total cost of exhibiting while greatly increasing value of the event for U.S. manufacturers focused on succeeding in the face of intense competitive pressure.
