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Next Wednesday, October 21st at 2:00PM EDT, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) will be hosting a webinar regarding the next MEP state competition for all of their members. The purpose of this webinar will be to provide a general overview of the MEP program, background on the FFO, discuss evaluation criteria and selection factors for this upcoming announcement. Mark Troppe, Director of Partnerships and Program Development and Bill Kinser, Director of Center Operations will be presenting. The webinar is open to the public, so MEP centers interested in hearing more about the next competition, please feel free to register. For more information, please click here.
Marketing and Communications Working
SAVE THE DATE: November 4, 2015 at 2:00 PM EST
MEP is relaunching the Marketing and Communications working group and will host a kick-off webinar on November 4, 2015. The goal of the group is to exchange information and leverage resources across centers and with NIST MEP in order to strengthen marketing and communication related activities throughout the national network.
The group will help foster a collaborative environment between many marketing professionals to provide strategic and tactical guidance, and exchange information and ideas about MEP’s marketing activities. Membership is open to anyone in the system who supports outreach and communications for the center and is willing to actively participate in the group. MEP connect will be used as the platform for communications and outreach. We encourage those that are interested in being part of the working group to also join the MEP Connect Marketing group.
Webinar Details will be available shortly. For more information or questions contact Kari Reidy, if you would like to be added to the MEP Connect Marketing group please contact Zara Brunner.
Technology Acceleration Working Group
November 17-18, 2015
This meeting will be held in conjunction with the MEP Regional Forum in Atlanta, Georgia and will kick off on the 17th between 3:30 – 5:00PM at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Atlanta Downtown with a discussion of the TAWG background, including outcomes of the Dallas TAWG meeting. The group will continue with a working session on the 18th between 8:00AM – 2:00PM at Technology Square on the Georgia Tech Campus, at which the three TAWG committees — including System Learning, Metrics, and Scale-Up — will focus on efforts to execute the recommendations from the TA Implementation Plan. There will be a tour of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and the Invention Studio at the conclusion of this working session on the afternoon of the 18th. Please note that will be no registration fee for this meeting. To RSVP, or for additional information, please contact Ben Vickery or Clara Asmail.
MEP and nearly a dozen MEP Centers partnered with the NIST Engineering Lab and held its first ever Collaborative Robotics Workshop 2015: Advantages and Challenges for Small Manufacturers on October 7th. The event included over 50 attendees and more than 20 small manufacturers participated in the workshop, gaining valuable insights into flexible automation trends, cutting edge tools, and emerging robotics technologies. For more information, including videos, presentations and an audio recording of the event, click here. For questions contact Samm Bowman.
Along the lines of Smart Manufacturing, the NIST Engineering Lab is also playing a key role in the “digitization” of manufacturing with its Digital Thread for Smart Manufacturing project, and just released a video, "Digital Thread: Stitching Together the Next Industrial Revolution", to help businesses understand and solve major problems that they are dealing with today.
Nominations are now open to nominate a manufacturing company CEO, president and/or chairman to be considered for the Advanced Manufacturing Leadership Award that will be presented on April 28, 2016 at the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing Annual Conference Dinner. This award celebrates excellence in manufacturing leadership and honors a corporate executive who is transforming his/her advanced manufacturing company during an era of profound change. If you have a client whom you believe deserves recognition, please consider submitting a nomination application. Nomination forms are due by December 15, 2015. Contact Fed Wenztel or Mary Ann Pacelli for a Nomination form.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced today the addition of three more cluster organizations to the portfolio of communities supported through the SBA Regional Innovation Clusters initiative.
The three new Regional Innovation Clusters will receive $500,000 for the base year of the contract, with four option years, for up to a total of $2.5 million per cluster initiative. The three new clusters are:
1) BioSTL Bioscience Cluster, St. Louis, Missouri; 2) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Cluster, South Kansas and Oklahoma; and 3) Wood Products Cluster, Appalachian Ohio Region. For MEP Centers in these regions this award could help your MEP Centers reach new clients or provide additional services to existing clients.
For more information on the SBA's Regional Innovations Clusters, click here.
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