One of our great passions as an organization is promoting the importance of manufacturing and the incredible opportunities that careers in our industry offer. I want to share with you some of the highlights…
Governor Little has once again proclaimed October as Idaho Manufacturing Month. You can read the Governor’s proclamation here. While normally we host our annual Made Here Expo and Job Fair in October, we are again having to hold off. Keep your fingers crossed that we can host this event again in 2022. In lieu, we hosted our Coolest Thing Made in Idaho contest, with sponsorship from Idaho Power and support from TechHelp and the Idaho National Laboratory. This fun contest invites everyone to nominate an Idaho-made product for the public to vote on what they think the #coolestthingmadeinID is! The final round of voting opens on October 21st and ends October 28th with the winner announced on the 29th. Get in on the action and vote for your favorite next week!
As many of you know, we have invested a lot of resources towards our workforce development efforts on behalf manufacturers. We had another reason to celebrate this month as we were granted a 501(c)3 designation for our workforce arm called Forging Futures Idaho! Noé Zepeda, our full-time Forging Futures Coordinator, has maximized our promotion efforts for Idaho Manufacturing Month by dedicating September and October to presenting to nearly 300 students, 25 high school educators, and 3 partner organizations across Southwest, Southcentral, and Central Idaho about the benefits and opportunities within manufacturing. We want to continue this focus of student presentations, student plant tours, classroom guest speakers, etc. If you feel as passionate about this as we do, please consider donating to keep this side of our efforts funded. With the 501(c)3, your donations can be tax-deductible (here’s where we have to say to consult with your tax advisor)! If you want more information on our work in the workforce development arena or would like to help by offering tours, donations, etc, visit our website or feel free to reach out to Noé directly. He’d love to share everything we’re doing!
Finally, we will be celebrating Idaho Manufacturing with our Manufacturing Industry Tradeshow scheduled for December 2nd. It will be a great event focused on leadership, growth, networking, and learning, so please join us! We have an amazing Keynote team in Mack & Ria Story of Blue-Collar Leadership and have seven informational breakout sessions, too. The early-bird registration discounts are good through October 22nd, so don’t delay! And if you are a service provider to manufacturers, or a value-add manufacturer, you will want to be sure to exhibit and show off what you have to offer the manufacturing community.
As we move to the end of the year, be looking out for information on our Idaho manufacturers database, Manufacturers Connect-ID, set to launch by the end of the year. This effort was made possible by generous support of the Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Idaho. We will also be publishing an Idaho Manufacturing Economic Impact Report (again thanks to the University of Idaho and Alturas) with the first copies going to the tradeshow attendees.
We have so many good things going on! Check out our website for upcoming events and our current list of member benefits and discounts. The list continues to grow and members of all shapes and sizes have ways to directly benefit from those offerings.
I can’t wait to see you all on December 2nd, and in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.
At your service,
Sheri & the IMA team