Walmart, Google headline FABTECH 2014 keynote presentations

FABTECH®, North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event, has announced its lineup of speakers and panels that will participate in the show this November. Keynote presentations by executives from Google Enterprise and Walmart, a Veterans Day panel on how veterans can help bridge the skills gap, predictions for the coming year from top manufacturing executives, and a motivational speech by a U.S. veteran and football star are a few of the special events at FABTECH 2014.

FABTECH will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta Nov. 11-13, 2014. The event is expected to bring together 27,000 attendees and more than 1,400 exhibiting companies.

Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart’s vice president for U.S. manufacturing, will kick off the event with a keynote presentation at 9:00 a.m. on Nov. 11 on “Creating U.S. Jobs and Bringing Manufacturing Home.” Marsiglio will discuss how Walmart has committed to spend $250 billion over the next decade on U.S.-made products in an effort to grow and expand U.S. manufacturing and encourage the creation of jobs.

A panel on “Bridging the Manufacturing Skills Gap with Veterans” will mark Veterans Day at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 11. With high demand for people to fill skilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and thousands of veterans and National Guard members exiting military service and looking for civilian careers, five leaders from organizations that connect veterans and manufacturers will discuss how veterans could be the key to bridging the skills gap.

Four-time Super Bowl champion and Vietnam War veteran Rocky Bleier will speak at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 12. Bleier will discuss the parallels he sees between the struggles he faced in the past and the challenges all businesspeople face in today’s crowded, competitive marketplace. He also will make a guest appearance at the Industry Night reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Mike Walton, head of enterprise manufacturing for Google, will give an in-depth demonstration of big data integration for manufacturing at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 12. On Nov. 13, he will speak on “Transforming Your Manufacturing Business for the New Digital Age” at 8:30 a.m. In this presentation, FABTECH attendees will learn how to accelerate new-product initiatives and time-to-profit using the latest digital technology and tools.

The “State of the Industry – Executive Outlook” panel will take place on Nov. 12 at 12:30 p.m. Todd Henry, operations manager at Caterpillar Inc.; Dave Whelan, senior vice president for supply chain at BlueBird Corp.; and Raj Batra, president of the Industry Automation Division at Siemens, will discuss whether they believe the manufacturing sector might be experiencing a renaissance or just an uptick. The panel will be moderated by Edwin Stanley of GH Metal Solutions.

All of these special events are open to all registered FABTECH attendees. For more information or to register, visit www.fabtechexpo.com.