Basking in the glow of a successful first summit devoted to innovation within the manufacturing industry, Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions director Dan Curtis and Innovation Hub director Warwick Sabin said they would like to partner on similar events in the future.
AMS hosted the inaugural Arkansas Manufacturing Innovation Summit Wednesday and Thursday at the Innovation Hub in downtown North Little Rock, and the event attracted roughly 120 industry professionals, economic development leaders, state agency officials and higher education representatives.
“The Innovation Hub was very pleased to host the inaugural Arkansas Manufacturing Innovation Summit, and it’s yet another tangible economic development advancement that has resulted from our partnership with Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions,” Sabin said. “The Summit provided an unprecedented opportunity for networking and engagement among all sectors of the state’s manufacturing and technology sectors, and it also offered insights from national leaders about innovations and best practices happening elsewhere.
“We look forward to hosting this event on a national basis, and we are confident that it will lead to measurable progress in economic and workforce development for our state,” he said.
Sabin, who represents midtown Little Rock in the Arkansas House of Representatives, and state Sen. Jane English of North Little Rock, represented the state Legislature at the event.
Curtis said he’d love to see AMS host future summits at the Hub dedicated to subjects like supply chain, sustainability and family-owned business transition.
“I was really pleased that so many companies were willing to get up and talk and share their stories and the importance of innovation in our industry,” he said. “The quality of the manufacturers we had there was strong — same on the tech side. Not only did we have manufacturers who shared their stories, but other professionals and experts talked about the future. It exceeded my expectations.”
Gov. Asa Hutchinson provided opening remarks, stressing how “strategically critical” manufacturing is for the country. Other topics addressed at the summit included technology acceleration, 3D printing, robotics, automation and supply chain.
Keynote speaker Robert Tucker of the Innovation Resource, an international consultancy based in California, encouraged manufacturers to stay ahead of the curve and be aware of industry trends.
Panelists included James Phillips of NanoMech in Springdale; Walter Burgess of Power Technology Inc. in Alexander (currently marketing a new laser projection system for the movies); Douglas Hutchings of Fayetteville’s Picasolar (recent winner of a coveted Edison Award); Dan Hendrix, president and CEO of the World Trade Center Arkansas in Rogers; Geoffrey Shorts of Central Maloney in Pine Bluff; Chris Hoyle of Baldor Electric in Fort Smith; Barbara Miller-Webb of D3 Technologies (an international 3D printing and scans provider); Charisse Childers, director of the Arkansas Department of Career Education; and Ben Vickery, senior technical advisor with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Vickery represents a national network of organizations — nonprofits, state agencies and even universities — of which AMS is a member. MEP served more than 30,000 manufacturers in fiscal year 2014, he said, helping retain more than 46,000 jobs and create almost 18,000 more. It fosuses on short-term needs in the context of long-term strategy, he said.
Vickery told attendees that innovation in the industry is multi-faceted, touching a company’s products, its process, business model and even its culture.
“Technology acceleration spans the innovation continuum,” he said. “It can include aspects of tech transfer, tech transition, tech diffusion, tech deployment, and perhaps most importantly, manufacturing implementation.”
AMS is a program of the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority. The Hub hosted the summit on the heels of an announcement of a $1 million federal grant to complete renovation of its Argenta Innovation Center.
On Saturday, the Hub will host the region’s first Maker Faire event in conjunction with the Argenta Arts Festival.