GET REAL! SOREDI Hosts 2019 Manufacturing Summit

SOREDI is pleased to announce it will again host the Manufacturing Summit at the Table Rock Campus of Rogue Community College in White City on Friday, September 27. Registration begins at 7:30 am, with the program beginning at 8 am. The program will conclude by 2 pm, when RCC will conduct an optional tour of its High Tech Center. The summit will complement the upcoming National Manufacturing Day, is designed to bring multiple manufacturing and technology companies together to learn of opportunities and trends in their industries and to provide a peer to peer networking interface for companies to share resources and best practices. Tickets are available to SOREDI Members for $45. Tickets for Non-members are $55. Ticket price includes coffee and morning refreshments and lunch. There will be time to network with sponsors and presenters, and a door prize drawing at the conclusion of the summit. Register at www.soredi.org/events.

Smart Factories integrate machines that are augmented to create data and connected to share it. Computers can now communicate and make decisions without human involvement in a combination of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Systems. Is your current workforce ready? The human resources required to visualize the entire production chain, digitize manufacturing and collaborate with robotic elements may already exist inside your current staff. Do you know how to recruit your existing workforce, motivate and upskill them for the future? In a digital environment, how do you monitor financial transactions to make sure that no one on your team is committing fraud during the normal course of business? How do you protect your company from security threats initiated online?

The theme for the summit, “GET REAL! Future Proofing Your Reality” shares the urgency of integrating emerging technologies into your workforce and existing practices. Keynote speaker, Cheryl Collins, co-founder and former CEO of Ninkasi Brewing, will speak about how to transform your company culture and adapt to change. She will prepare guests to understand organizational culture and the role it plays in a company, as well as how to identify elements that are impacting a company’s culture and determine effective methods for cultural transformation.

In addition, the summit will provide breakout session to help guests GET REAL about various topics, including: Foundations of Augmented Reality, Connecting with Employees to Communicate Outcomes, Cybersecurity, and Protecting Yourself & Your Company from Fraud. Participants will have the opportunity to attend two breakout sessions.

Colleen Padilla, Executive Director of SOREDI, is looking forward to MFG Summit 2019. “Technology is moving ahead so quickly now, it’s becoming integrated in every part of a company’s enterprise. At SOREDI, we think it’s so important to stay informed about what is happening and to give companies that opportunity to meet one another, share their stories and ideas, and really hone their best practices from a local perspective. This summit gives us the chance to do that every year.”

GET REAL! Future Proofing Your Reality, MFG Summit 2019 is made possible by SOREDI Members and these generous sponsors: Umpqua Bank, Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), Rogue Community College (RCC), and Rogue Workforce Partnership (RWP), MossAdams, Neuman Hotel Group, and Energy Trust of Oregon.

About SOREDI: SOREDI is a private, membership-based, non-profit organization, governed by a board of directors. Its eight-person staff is charged with local business expansion and new business recruitment efforts, financial assistance to start-up companies through its business loan fund, and management of Enterprise Zones in Jackson and Josephine Counties. The agency was formed as a regional economic development agency in 1987. Learn more at https://soredi.org.