Kick off the summit with an interactive reception at the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET) Headquarters, where cutting-edge manufacturing meets hands-on innovation. Network with fellow executives while exploring Industry 4.0 technologies, building and racing an electric vehicle, interacting with holographic manufacturing employees and even grabbing a drink from Bev, the robotic bartender. It’s a unique opportunity to connect, explore emerging tech and experience the future of manufacturing in action.
There’s no agenda item more top of mind for manufacturers than the White House’s new tariff regimes and we’ve rejiggered the lineup to tackle it head-on with a new, interactive keynote session from one of the most in-demand speakers on supply chains today, with numerous appearances on Fox News, ABC News, and more. Chances are you can’t just rip up your existing network and start from scratch. So what can you do? What are the levers—and opportunities—you can put to work right now to make sure you’re doing all that can be done to minimize the impact and focus on coming through this period stronger? By examining innovative strategies and technologies, you’ll gain insights into how to optimize operations, improve agility and make smarter decisions to navigate what’s next in the global supply chain landscape.
Author, Supply Chain Ups and Downs; President & CEO, The Atlas Network
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a transformative tool driving real-world results in manufacturing today. Dr. Chetan Gupta, General Manager of Hitachi’s Advanced AI Research Center, Head of the Global AI Center of Excellence and one of the world’s top experts on industrial AI, delves into how AI is revolutionizing manufacturing. Drawing from his extensive experience, Dr. Gupta will present compelling case studies, including how Hitachi’s AI-driven predictive maintenance solutions have enabled companies like Penske Truck Leasing to anticipate equipment failures before they occur, minimizing downtime and boosting efficiency. You’ll gain practical insights into the challenges, lessons learned and tangible benefits of adopting AI technologies in manufacturing. Leave inspired to explore how AI can help your business innovate and thrive in the evolving manufacturing landscape.
GM, Advanced AI Innovation Center, Center for Digital Services, Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd. And VP and Head of the Industrial AI Laboratory Research & Development Division Hitachi America, Ltd.
Proactively planning for operational agility and resilience, in the face of ever-growing risks, can be a significant competitive advantage. In this main stage session, you’ll have a rare opportunity to hear from an insurance industry leader who understands how manufacturers mitigate risks and successfully navigate some of the most challenging and costly claims.
Manufacturing is one of the largest industry segments at Travelers Insurance. As the National Segment Leader, Brian Gerritsen oversees this expansive book of business, which includes over 25,000 manufacturers. Brian will offer actionable insights to help enhance modern risk management practices and how top companies effectively manage their total cost of risk.
Dan Bigman, Editor of Chief Executive magazine, will interview Brian on key industry insights — informed by Travelers data, industry research and Brian’s frontline experience. Gain valuable insights into:
AVP & Manufacturing Segment Leader, Travelers Insurance
Labor shortages, collapsing costs and boundless advances in technology have made factory automation commonplace for every CEO in ways never seen before. But the revolution is just getting started. Top experts from automation powerhouse Siemens will join us to share the state of the art with data-driven production systems, digital twins and robotics, show us where these essential, foundational technologies are headed, and help us build the useful roadmaps you need put them to use–with less cost and less tears—in your shop. This is about pragmatic ideas, about how these technologies can be integrated to elevate your manufacturing operations to gain the competitive edge you need to win in the era of intelligent production.
CTO for US Automation, Siemens
SVP and GM of US Automation Business, Siemens Digital Industries
Join other industry leaders for lunch and practical roundtable discussions. This is your chance to talk directly with peers about key challenges and opportunities in manufacturing. Choose from topics such as:
Facilitated by: Jason Hehman, Vertical Lead – Industry 4.0, TXI
As manufacturers navigate an evolving landscape, the ability to transform data into actionable insights is becoming increasingly important. This peer-to-peer discussion will explore how to harness data to create operational value, improve decision-making, and build long-term capabilities. Join us to discuss best practices, overcome common barriers, and learn how to align data strategies with business goals. Participants will also receive a Technology Readiness Assessment to evaluate their digital maturity and identify key improvement areas.
Facilitated by: Kevin Chambers | Managing Director, Logistics, Distribution and Supply Chain, JobsOhio
No two supply chains are created equal, but there are common strategies to achieve positive outcomes in an increasingly complex manufacturing landscape. This roundtable will explore how companies are addressing the challenges of accelerating supply chains, adapting to evolving market demands, and building resilience to ensure long-term success. Join this collaborative conversation to share experiences, uncover common solutions, and identify strategies to strengthen your supply chain and position your organization for growth. Key discussion points will include:
With shifting trade policies and escalating tariffs, manufacturers are once again facing disruption to costs, sourcing strategies, and customer relationships. This roundtable will bring together CEOs to discuss how they’re responding—whether through reshoring, supply chain diversification, pricing strategies, or rethinking global partnerships. The goal is to share what’s working, what’s not, and how leaders are planning for 2025 in the face of continued uncertainty.
This roundtable will explore how manufacturing leaders can drive scalable growth through operational discipline. The discussion will focus on creating alignment across leadership teams, translating strategic vision into day-to-day accountability and building systems to support scale—such as one-page strategic plans and integrated pipelines. Participants will also dive into managing complexity during periods of growth or contraction, including downsizing, divestitures and facility expansion, as well as how to navigate tough internal conversations while keeping teams motivated and focused.
Experience the innovative design and leadership behind the top steel producer in the US—Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland Works. Recognized as one of the most productive integrated facilities in the world, step out of your office and into the realm of innovation and inspiration.
Enjoy an exclusive evening with fellow attendees at the legendary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where the stories of music’s greatest icons come alive. Explore interactive exhibits and rare memorabilia that celebrate the creativity and innovation of rock and roll—an inspiring backdrop for an evening of networking and connection.
Cocktails and dinner will be served.
In today’s dynamic manufacturing landscape, success depends on more than just technology—it requires a new kind of leadership. Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of the groundbreaking Never Eat Alone and Leading Without Authority will share how manufacturing CEOs can embrace “teamship” to drive collaboration, accountability and results. Based on his latest bestseller, Never Lead Alone: 10 Shifts from Leadership to Teamship, Ferrazzi—the son of a Pennsylvania steelworker—will offer strategies to help leaders build high-performing teams that adapt to supply chain disruptions, labor challenges and shifting customer demands. Learn how to implement stress tests, focused sprints and peer accountability to align your workforce around a shared purpose while driving innovation and efficiency. He’ll offer essential insights for manufacturing leaders seeking to empower their teams, meet challenges head-on and position their businesses for long-term success.
Executive Coach and Bestselling Author, Never Lead Alone: 10 Shifts from Leadership to Teamship; Leading Without Authority; Never Eat Alone
Two of America’s most well-known and respected manufacturing leaders join us for an frank session of peer-to-peer learning, Q&A and candid conversation. Engage directly with these veteran CEOs to learn how they are leading their organizations through this period of change—how they are navigating uncertainty, working on their supply chains, engaging with customers, building their workforces, planning for the future and finding opportunity amid the challenges, with lessons for every U.S. manufacturing leader in this tricky time.
Chairman, President and CEO, Ethan Allen Interiors
Chairman and CEO, Snap-On
Ideas are great. But making them into products that sell? That’s magic. And no one knows how to do it like EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub, the renowned innovation firm behind groundbreaking products like the Arm & Hammer Spinbrush, Swiffer Sweep + Vac and Sherwin-Williams Twist & Pour. With over 1,400 commercialized patents and decades of experience across industries, you’ll get an inside glimpse into their proven open innovation process that transforms ideas into market-ready solutions for both B2C and B2B firms. This session will dive deep into strategies for fostering a culture of innovation, integrating design and engineering for faster go-to-market execution and leveraging cross-industry insights to drive breakthrough product development. Attendees will leave with frameworks and best practices to enhance innovation efforts in their own organizations, positioning them to outpace competitors and meet evolving market demands.
Managing Director, EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub, Ernst & Young LLP
Co-CEO, Nottingham Spirk; Managing Partner, Nottingham Unlimited Ventures
Experience the EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub to see firsthand how the two firms have partnered to create a unique collaboration space with a set of distinct capabilities to develop and bring new products to market with a 95% commercialization success rate. You’ll learn about Nottingham Spirk’s Vertical Innovation process, which has helped its clients bring hundreds of new products to market and generate over 1,500 patents. Hear the stories behind dozens of innovative products across various industries that were designed and developed onsite, then visit the in-house fabrication center to see where looks-like and works-like prototypes are built. Finally, you’ll move into the EY Digital Experience Center, where you will see how the data generated by connected products can be used to improve customer experience as well as manufacturing and supply chain operations, from the shop floor to the top floor.
During this tour, you will see:
Bhargava is not your garden-variety industrialist. The 70-year-old former monk ran a family plastics factory in Indiana for a while but then, about a quarter-century ago, invented energy “shots” — those two-ounce cans of caffeine, taurine and vitamins that people buy at convenience-store checkouts for mental clarity and focus, or just to get through the day without nodding off. Bhargava’s 5-hour Energy brand still manufactures its own shots, and larger energy drinks, but with the first $1 billion in proceeds from inventing the energy-shot category Bhargava has pivoted to becoming a different kind of industrialist: continuously creative, serially innovative, earnestly philanthropic, who wants to solve the world’s problems with technologies, devices and systems that he helps design, market and deploy. Join us for this extraordinary session, with plenty of lessons to unleash more creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in your organization.
Manoj Bhargava’s entrepreneurial breakthroughs stem from a homegrown innovation culture that’s focused on tackling tough challenges without being held captive to old thinking, downsides and impossibilities. In this exclusive tour of his R&D skunkworks, we’ll see how he’s scaling that mindset to build the next generation of manufacturing excellence, where unprecedented speed and agility are the result of an engineering and product focus unlike any you’ve seen before.
From their audacious assault on full vertical integration to solve supply chain problems to their psychological development program to build the next generation of young “can-do” engineers, you’ll see—in person—how Bhargava’s team is able to do the near impossible, like designing and bringing entirely new, complex medical manufacturing facilities online in just 6 months. You’ll have the opportunity to explore the pilot plant where his groundbreaking medical and water devices are built and understand the thinking behind it, witness firsthand how R&D is revved up within their factories while maintaining operational efficiency and see how they find new ways to assess and tackle problems that stall and stump other organizations. It’s unlike any other facility in America, and it’ll challenge you and your team to “think different” about how you approach your future.
Tour At Capacity
We’ll go inside one of metro Detroit’s newest, most exciting factories, for a look at how one of the top 100 automotive suppliers in the world is bringing their just-launched facility to life. It’s a live, in-person case study of ramping up a new factory to supply some of the most difficult and exacting customers at a time of tremendous change and disruption in the mobility industry.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
