The 5 Manufacturing Events That Changed My Career

I’ve been to more manufacturing trade shows and events than I can count. Most of them were good. Some were forgettable. But five of them hit differently. Five events fundamentally changed how I think about this industry, what I do for a living, and where manufacturing is headed. Here they are, in the order I experienced them.

1. IMTS — Chicago, 2012

IMTS was my first major trade show. I’d been to regional events before — the kind where you walk the floor in an hour and collect enough pens to last a decade. IMTS was a different animal entirely.

McCormick Place is massive. The sheer scale of it — over 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing technology, 2,000+ exhibitors, and 100,000+ attendees — overwhelmed me on the first day. I remember standing in the South Hall watching a five-axis DMG MORI machine cut a demo part and thinking, “This is what the top of the mountain looks like.”

But the real impact came from the people, not the machines. I met a tooling rep from Japan who spent two hours explaining why his company’s insert geometry was designed the way it was — not selling it, explaining it. I sat in on a panel about the future of additive manufacturing that turned into a heated debate between a traditionalist and an early adopter. I watched a 17-year-old compete in the Skills USA machining competition and produce a part that most experienced machinists would struggle with.

IMTS taught me that manufacturing events aren’t about buying machines. They’re about collisions — unplanned encounters with ideas, people, and perspectives that shift how you see the industry. Every major career move I’ve made since can be traced back to a conversation that started at a trade show.

2. Expo Manufactura — Monterrey, Mexico, 2018

Expo Manufactura changed everything for me. I’d been doing factory tours and content in North America for years, but Mexico wasn’t on my radar the way it should have been. That was my mistake.

Monterrey is a manufacturing powerhouse. The aerospace cluster in the region is growing at a pace that makes people in the American Midwest nervous, and they should be. The shops I visited during Expo Manufactura week were world-class — not “good for Mexico” world-class, but genuinely, globally competitive.

I remember walking a facility that was producing landing gear components for a major OEM. The quality system, the equipment, the skill level of the operators — it was on par with anything I’d seen in Europe or North America. And the cost structure was better. Not because they were cutting corners, but because the economics of operating in Nuevo León are favorable in ways that Ontario and Ohio can’t match.

But what really changed me was the energy. The manufacturing community in Monterrey is young, hungry, and ambitious in a way that I hadn’t felt at events in Canada or the US in years. People at Expo Manufactura weren’t talking about whether manufacturing had a future — they were building it, right now, at speed. That optimism was contagious.

I’ve been back every year since. I speak at the event, I host factory tours during the week, and I leave every time with more energy than I arrived with. If you work in North American manufacturing and you haven’t been to Monterrey, you’re missing a massive part of the picture.

3. MACH Exhibition — Birmingham, UK, 2022

MACH is the UK’s flagship manufacturing technology event, and my first visit was an eye-opener. I’d spent most of my career in North American manufacturing. I knew the European market existed, but I didn’t understand it — not really — until I walked the floor at the NEC in Birmingham.

Two things stood out immediately. First, the British manufacturing community has a level of institutional knowledge and heritage that’s deeply impressive. Companies that have been making things for 150 years, adapting through world wars and economic upheavals, and still innovating. There’s a seriousness and a depth to UK manufacturing that I hadn’t fully appreciated from across the Atlantic.

Second, the conversations at MACH were different from what I was used to. Less about individual machines and more about systems — how the factory works as a whole. Industry 4.0 wasn’t a buzzword at MACH. It was a practical discussion about implementation, ROI, and what’s actually working versus what’s still marketing.

I recorded several podcast episodes at MACH that year, and they became some of the most listened-to episodes of the season. The UK manufacturing audience was hungry for content that spoke to their reality, and I realized my “worldwide” brand wasn’t living up to its name if I was only covering North America.

4. SIAMS — Moutier, Switzerland, 2024

If you haven’t heard of SIAMS, you’re not alone. It’s a small, niche trade show held every two years in Moutier, Switzerland — deep in the Jura region. Population: about 7,500. The event focuses on micro-technology, turning, and high-precision manufacturing.

It is, without exaggeration, the most impressive manufacturing event I’ve ever attended.

Moutier and the surrounding Jura region are the global epicenter of precision manufacturing. This is where Swiss watch components come from. Where medical device parts are machined to tolerances that most shops can’t even measure. Where a company might have 20 employees and a customer list that includes every major watchmaker and medical device OEM in the world.

The factory tours during SIAMS week were the best I’ve done, period. I walked a shop where the oldest employee was 28 and they were holding single-digit micron tolerances on parts smaller than a grain of rice. I visited a family company where the son was running the same type of Swiss-type automatic lathe his great-grandfather started the company with — except now it’s CNC, and the part complexity would’ve been impossible a generation ago.

SIAMS taught me that manufacturing excellence doesn’t require scale. Some of the most impressive manufacturing operations in the world are small companies in small towns doing incredibly precise work for demanding customers. Size doesn’t matter. Capability does.

5. Expo Manufactura — Monterrey, Mexico, 2025

Yes, Expo Manufactura again. I’m putting it on this list twice because my 2025 experience was fundamentally different from 2018.

In 2018, I was a visitor. In 2025, I was a participant. I gave a keynote presentation to a packed room about the future of manufacturing content and influencer partnerships. I hosted three factory tours during the week. I recorded five podcast episodes on the show floor. And I sat in the audience for sessions delivered entirely in Spanish, understanding enough to know that the conversations about AI, automation, and nearshoring were more advanced than similar conversations I’d attended in English.

But the moment that defined the event for me happened off the show floor. I was having dinner with a group of young Mexican manufacturing professionals — engineers, shop owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, most under 35. One of them told me that my factory tour videos were the reason he started his shop. Another said the podcast gave her the confidence to pitch a major aerospace OEM, and she won the contract.

That dinner reminded me why events matter. Not for the exhibitor badges or the swag bags. Events matter because they connect people across geographies, languages, and career stages. They create the collisions that lead to partnerships, inspiration, and progress.

The Common Thread

Looking back at these five events, the common thread isn’t the machines or the technology. It’s the people. Manufacturing events are where you meet the individuals who are pushing this industry forward — and they’re not always the ones on stage. They’re the shop owner in the second row, the apprentice at the skills competition, the tooling engineer who’ll spend an hour explaining something because they love their craft.

If you’re in manufacturing and you’re not attending events, you’re operating with one hand tied behind your back. The relationships, the ideas, and the perspectives you gain from showing up are worth more than any machine on the floor.

Go to events. Walk the floor. Talk to strangers. Let the collisions happen. That’s where careers change.