MForesight National Summit 2016
Event Recap
On September 29, some of the brightest thinkers from industry, academia, and government came together in Washington, DC to take on a big challenge:
Envisioning a successful future for American manufacturing.
The MForesight National Summit (theme “America’s New Manufacturing Moment”) focused on goals, strategies, and recommendations from policymakers, researchers, and businesspeople — including a series of “Memos to the Next President” on how to restore American manufacturing jobs.
Some big themes emerged:
The biggest threat to American manufacturing isn’t foreign countries. It’s our own lack of interest. We have to get kids passionate about careers in science and technology as a matter of national competitiveness.
We need a “federal challenge grant program” to get universities focused on the creation of innovative new products.
Innovation and discovery are wonderful. But we need to focus on translating big ideas into new American-made products that improve lives.
Rebuilding American manufacturing isn’t just about creating opportunities for college grads — it’s about creating quality jobs for people with diverse backgrounds and skills.
Neither business nor government can solve the challenges of American manufacturing alone. We need integrated thinking and action and diversity of perspectives.
These are just a few of the insights from the Summit. In the weeks ahead, we’ll continue to share big ideas, challenges, and analyses that emerged.
If you missed the event, don’t fret. There’s still opportunity to get involved in the conversation about the future of American manufacturing. MForesight will be hosting an ongoing series of events and dialogues — in-person and online — on the future of American manufacturing. You can find tweets from the Summit using #MForesight16 and you can download PDFs of our reports and other handouts from the Summit. You can also find some of our panelists’ key recommendations featured on Huffington Post.
Special thanks to all our speakers and participants for making the inaugural MForesight National Summit a success!
