As fall comes to a close and winter approaches, our team here at Leading Edge Industrial reflects on the busy, productive summer and fall seasons we have experienced this year. From the Autodesk FDME conference in San Francisco to the Annual SkillsUSA TECHSPO in Louisville, we’ve found ourselves all over the country these past few months! Our team has enjoyed incredible networking experiences and conversations about the future and innovations in the manufacturing industry, listened to insightful visionaries in the field, and showcased our HX Series Machines! Check out some of our favorite highlights from our travels:
2017 Annual SkillsUSA TECHSPO
As third-year veterans and exhibitors at the Annual SkillsUSA TECHSPO, our team was able to spend five days at the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. During this conference, both our HX series HX710 Turning Center and our HX8410 Vertical Machining Center were showcased in our booth – allowing us to machine pens, pencils, and pencil holders directly on-site. This event gave us the opportunity to exhibit our machines on a larger level and see what others in the industry are accomplishing!
Autodesk FDME Conference
In continuation of our partnership with Autodesk, Leading Edge Industrial was one of three companies invited to present our HX Series Machines to Career and Technical Educators from across the country at their two-day annual FDME (Future of Design & Manufacturing Education) Conference. When we weren’t demonstrating the powerful capabilities of our HX Series product line, we invested quality time establishing relationships with like-minded industry innovators and gaining a clearer insight and understanding from educators concerning how we can continue to improve teaching tools and methods in the field!
Our team also raffled three pen sets at the Autodesk FDME Conference. In order to be entered into the contest, visitors who stopped by the booth needed to fill out a contact information form to join our mailing list. The winners were randomly selected from those who completed the electronic form at our booth. This gave us the opportunity to showcase the products our machines can manufacture and have a little fun in the process!
CAD/CAM/CNC Training
From September 28th to September 29th, our team held the first two-day training workshop for the Montgomery County Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors. This session took place at the MatchBox Co-working studio in Lafayette. During this workshop, participants worked directly with our team members and learned how to parametrically design and program a project for manufacturability using computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) in order to better integrate our machines into their classrooms.
2017 ACTE Indianapolis Conference
The ACTE Indianapolis Conference was held on September 22nd – 23rd, and gave us the chance to showcase our HX Series Machines and learn from other incredible industry leaders. Conference highlights included Dan Massa, Challenge Education Coordinator with Porter County Education Services, as Keynote Speaker, participating in “Breakout Sessions,” and networking in the industry.
Manufacturing Week at Ivy Tech
The week of October 2nd – October 6th was Manufacturing Week at Ivy Tech, and Leading Edge Industrial was pleased to take part in the week’s events and activities. We enjoyed meeting with students eager to learn and innovate in the field of manufacturing. We would like to give a special shout-out to Kara Webb, Director of Workforce Development; Jody Hamilton, Vice President of Economic Development; and their team at the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce for putting on a fantastic show for their third year.
As you can see, Leading Edge Industrial has been extremely busy, but we’ve had a fantastic time and our team has continued to learn more and more about this fantastic industry. We’ve enjoyed networking and learning from some of the industry’s greatest innovators and can’t wait to take what we’ve learned and integrate it into our future work.