The video promotes the South Carolina Manufacturing Exposition, a large B2B conference and expo held at the TD Convention Center, the only venue in the state large enough to accommodate the event. The expo occupies roughly 175,000 square feet—about four football fields—and brings together about 1,000 manufacturing employees and 1,000 supply‑chain professionals. Sixteen of the state’s biggest original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as BMW and Boeing attend, offering short pitch sessions where exhibitors can showcase products and services to OEM acquisition and supply‑chain executives. The conference also features 14 training classes covering topics from 3D printing and automation to Toyota Kata, workforce development, and marketing. The anchor event is the Salute to Manufacturing Awards Luncheon, recognizing 31 companies, and a workforce breakfast panel with senior leaders discussing recruitment, retention, and employee satisfaction in a state with unemployment under 4%.
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We have the conference here basically for 2 reasons. One, because it's this emerging hub in southeastern United States for manufacturing. It's just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. But the other reason is the The TD Convention Center, which is here, is the only venue in the state of South Carolina that's big enough to hold the conference. We set up on 4 football fields of space, about 175,000 square feet. Exhibitors as far as you can see. We have a conference and an expo together. It creates this very interesting feel. So we have 1,000 manufacturing employees that will come in, and we'll have 1,000 supply chain people to come in and talk to them and hope to make a match.
It is a huge deal. They get 5 to 10 minutes to be able to pitch their company's product or service to that OEM in the hopes of them being able to use that particular service in the future.
It's a B2B event where we bring in 16 of the largest OEMs in the state. Now, an OEM is an original equipment manufacturer, so we're talking BMW, we're talking Boeing, people who manufacture the original equipment. 16 of those are coming in, and they're going to meet, take the time, acquisition and supply chain executives from those companies to come in and talk to our exhibitors. Again, these exhibitors are supply chain folks from across the country that are coming here specifically to meet those guys and talk to them.
It works. It absolutely works, and companies love this platform. It's a great way for them to get exposure to companies that they've never really had the opportunity to meet, ever.
We're gonna have 14 training classes at the Manufacturing Conference, and it's gonna be everything from 3D printing, automation, to Toyota Kata, to helping you make sure you have the right workforce, to marketing to make sure you help build your brand.
The anchor event of the Manufacturing Conference is the Salute to Manufacturing Awards Luncheon.
31 companies that will be recognized all across the state. This is a very big thing in South Carolina with unemployment under 4%. Not only do you need to attract new employees, you have to retain those employees that you have. We're going to have a workforce breakfast panel that you can come attend and have 4 of the best presidents, CEOs, VPs of North America talking about what they've done to help in their recruitment and what they're doing to help Maintain your employees and keep them happy and very satisfied.
