PlastiCert President & Owner Craig Porter attended for the annual Plastics News Executive Forum February 24 through the 26th.
The Forum is an opportunity to network with other processors and industry service providers and attend workshops on industry relevant topics. This is also the venue Plastics News uses to announce their Processor of the Year and Best Places to work awards.
Kicking off the first morning of the Forum was a keynote address by award winning speaker Eric Chester, a work ethic expert on What You Need to Know About the Emerging Workforce. It was an superb presentation on the generational differences and how to go about managing the effect on your workforce team.
The rest of the day was spent in workshops covering finance, business models for staying competitive, and analysis of the reshoring phenomenon including details of a reshoring project undertaken by General Electric. Additionally we heard presentations on press operating costs across different geographic regions, multiple assessments of the tooling industry and the efforts to promote plastics processing in the USA.
The first evening was spent in a reception awarding and honoring the Best Places to Work awards followed by networking.
The second day featured another set of workshops to attend. They started with an international flair, discussions on foreign companies operating in North America, how to set up shop in India, and protecting IP in China. We finished the morning discussing how to manage an increasingly complex supply chain. The afternoon was spent hearing about how to increase net profit through reduction and efficiencies; and more financial discussions. This time around, the talks were about working with bankers and a great workshop on use of the R&D Tax Credit.
The second evening was a semi-formal banquet where discussion of the information presented over the last two days was augmented with networking, sandwiched around the awarding of the Processor of the Year.
The final day was a wrap-up session hearing from the award winners, and providing feedback and input on the upcoming year’s possible agenda.
Overall it was a very beneficial conference, many great connections were made, some valuable information was shared and a great deal was learned.