Promoting unity in an industry that has faced huge declines over past decades could be quite a challenge — but it is one local manufacturing trade organizations are willing to take on.
Using the motto, “We are all in this ship together,” a number of the state’s trade organizations have come together to create the New England Manufacturers Expo.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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To be held in the student union at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, on Tuesday, March 13, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the expo is the first gathering of its kind in more than a decade.
“For many years there was the Little Rhode Island Tool Show at Rocky Point,” said Whitney R. Frost, executive director of the Rhode Island/Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tool and Machining Association (RI/SM NTMA). “It was a big deal. People came from all over New England. While we aren’t pretending to be that, we missed the opportunity to share with one another in this format.”
According to organizers, the event is designed to give local manufacturing, purchasing, technology, and engineering societies, associations and their members a chance to showcase and promote them.
Frost said both associations and individual companies are expected to display at the expo.
“I think it’s going to be quite a showcasing of people and capabilities,” she said. “It will help businesses in the state understand that there are a lot of things available to them right here.”
John Grady, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturing Association, said the displays also provide companies with the ability to see what’s happening in the Rhode Island market.
“We are trying to stimulate member to member business,” he said. “Getting members of one organization to sell to the members of another and so on. We have to remember we are all in the same back yard here.”
The day also includes a variety of presentations and seminars, ranging from e-commerce to Business Transformation by Design, lean manufacturing and water jet cutting.
“So many of these businesses have under 25 employees that it’s hard for them to keep up with individual topics like these,” Frost said. “We are hoping that this day will provide them with that opportunity.”
In addition, many of the trade organizations involved with the expo will outline their goals for the coming year through presentations.
“It’s an opportunity for us to tell people what we have going on,” Frost said. “We are letting the business owners know what we can do for them.”
In addition to the NTMA, other groups involved with the expo include the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Purchasing Managers Association of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Manufactures Association, the Society for Plastics Engineers, the American Production and Control Society, the Precision Metal-forming Association, and the American Society for Quality Control.
For more information on the expo, business can visit www.thetek.net
or call 885-2494.
