Going green and being more socially and environmentally responsible can pay significant dividends for manufacturers today and tomorrow. Learn about the new business model within the manufacturing industry and how you can look beyond the cost of being socially and environmentally responsible to drive shareholder value.

Tim Hanley, Vice Chairman and U.S. Process & Industrial Products Leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP

David Brousell, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Automation

Kelvin Cooper, SVP, Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer

What Manufacturing Executives Need to Focus on Beyond the pressures of quarterly financial performance, make sure you're focused on the right priorities. A distinguished panel of leaders from across the spectrum of manufacturing will discuss what the leadership mandates should be for manufacturing executives in today's increasingly competitive global market.

Bruce McKay, Executive Vice President, Livingston & Haven
Craig Giffi, Vice Chairman, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Eric Mittelstadt, Chief Executive Officer, NACFAM
Moderator: MA Editor-in-Chief David Brousell

The digital factory has been stalled by cost, culture, complexity, and an inability by many manufacturers to close the loop between product design and factory floor control. But that's beginning to change as manufacturers increasingly digitize product information, streamline new product innovation processes using digital prototypes, and begin to leverage that digital product information directly in the manufacturing environment. Learn how manufacturers are taking the next steps along the road to the digital factory, what benefits can ensue, what pitfalls to watch out for, and what's needed in the way of systems, technology, and processes.

Brad Heath, President, VirTex Assembly Services
Jeff Richlin , President, Richlin Machinery, Inc.;
John Barcus , Vice President, Manufacturing Industries, Oracle
William L. Rice , VP of Information Technologies, Inalfa Roof systems, Inc.
Moderator : MA Senior Editor Stephanie Neil

In order for manufacturers to create faster, more agile businesses, an unprecedented level of collaboration between IT and automation professionals, and the systems they operate, must take place. Learn how Mitsubishi Electric's information-sharing strategy standardizes the method by which critical decision-making information is shared between manufacturing and the enterprise, removing the barriers that, in the past, prevented this game-changing collaboration

Trayton Jay , Director of Marketing, Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc
Moderator : MA Editor-in-Chief David Brousell

With the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing is transforming from a vertically integrated enterprise that does most of its own product design, supplier management, manufacturing, and integration into a more virtual enterprise that relies heavily on partners and suppliers. It's counting on cutting lead times while significantly reducing tooling, inventory, and other risks that could even accelerate similar changes throughout the aerospace and defense industry. Go inside the story of a market leader working on innovation and internal reinvention to gain the ultimate competitive advantage: speed to market, from design to implementation.

Tim Opitz, Director, Production Operations and Support & Services, 787 Systems Integration, Boeing

Establishing common processes, systems, and metrics to measure performance has become a fundamental for today's global enterprise. Commercial Products Supply is a division of the company that provides a strategically critical "component" in the supply chain. As such, it understands the value of orchestrating this global operation based on these principles. Coke's Fred Yochum will discuss how the company has brought together such key processes as planning, forecasting, and inventory management to manage this global operation as well as future directions in connecting other parts of the Coca-Cola system.

Fred Yochum, VP & Director of Commercial Products Supply, Coca-Cola Company

Voice, data, VOIP, WiFi, WiMAX, mesh -- a myriad of technologies make up today's network infrastructures. As manufacturers strive to become more agile and drive greater speed and efficiency into their operations, where does each of these networking technologies belong? How will they evolve in years ahead? How can manufacturers keep management costs under control while deploying this widening range of technologies? This panel will discuss the state of network technologies today, what they are best suited for, and how they will develop in the future.

Rob Juncker, CTO, Gearworks
Rick DePinto, IT Manager Ce De Candies
Sath Rao, Director - Industrial Automation and Process Control, Frost & Sullivan
Moderator: ME Executive Editor Mark Halper

Due to the proliferation of global sourcing, new classes of risk across the supply chain must be managed, including geopolitical, regulatory, logistical, currency-related, and natural disaster. This is in addition to the time-honored risks of supplier interruption and not having the right product in the right place at the right time. In this session, learn how to reduce risk factors and keep the flow of products moving.

Tom Dadmun, Vice President of Supply Chain, ADTRAN
Larry Lapide, Director, Demand Management, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, MIT (pending)
Lorenzo Martinelli, Senior Vice President, E2Open
Moderator: MA Executive Editor Jeff Moad

Leading companies are employing advanced analytics to outperform and outmaneuver the competition, and the same technology can work for you. The latest advances in computing, data management, and analytical algorithms can now be aligned in ways that will enable you to find hidden profits within the control of your management team. Ultimately, every US manufacturer will need to become an analytical competitor to survive. This talk is a primer for decision makers accountable for the P&L, and for anyone that wants to bring practical advantages back to their company.

Andrew Bielat, President, EIS Analytics

David Brousell, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Automation

Achieving and sustaining peak performance in all aspects of the organization is a business discipline that, if done correctly, can result in significant competitive advantages. As the world's third-largest consumer packaging company and the largest aluminum can manufacturer, Rexam plc is striving to achieve the highest possible levels of performance through best-in-class processes across the organization. Chief Information Officer Paul Martin will discuss how Rexam has established best-in-class principles and how it has leveraged these ideas throughout its business.

Paul Martin, CIO, Rexam

Only 41% of today's manufacturing industry workforce in the United States is directly engaged in production; the remaining 59% includes engineers, IT professionals, mathematicians, and business professionals. Even assembly-line positions require new skill sets. Learn how to find the right formula for hiring in this future-focused session.

Stacey Wagner, Principal, Jarrett Wagner Group and former Managing Director, National Association of Manufacturers' Center for Workforce Success
Eric Mittelstadt, Chief Executive Officer, NACFAM
Maureen Steinwall, President, Steinwall, Inc.
Moderator: MA Online Editor Chris Chiappinelli

The wall between IT and automation functions is crumbling. The migration of standards-based technologies from IT to the plant floor is a catalyst for change, and wireless networks require teamwork. Learn how leading manufacturers are navigating complex organizational and cultural issues to exact collaboration and drive success.

Darren Allison, IT Manager, Martinrea
Robert Reed, VP Manufacturing, Coffee Bean International
Alison Smith, Research Director, AMR Research
Matt Lopinski, VP of Sales and Marketing, Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc.
Moderator: MA Executive Editor Jeff Moad

How is the concept of mobility being applied effectively in manufacturing companies? The value of information in electronic form can be virtually limitless if it can be accessed on the front lines of business -- in the field, on the shop floor, at a customer site -- wherever and whenever that business activity is taking place. This panel discussion will explore leading applications of wireless mobility in manufacturing organizations, how these applications are best deployed and managed, and how manufacturers can achieve tangible business benefits from them.

Abhi Ingle, Vice President, Mobility Applications Consulting, AT&T
Gary Robertson, CTO Emeritus Delphi Corporation & Board of Advisors Programs The Harvard Group
Chris Hendley, Director, Applications Development & Business Integration, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation
Peter Swartz, Director IT for Dell's Global Site and Data Center Services, Dell, Inc.
Moderator: MA Senior Editor Stephanie Neil

Innovation has become a celebrated cause in manufacturing companies. As companies attempt to move innovation from theory to practice, however, they are seeking to understand how manufacturers have successfully mastered the processes and practices of innovation. Lisa Bodell, the founder of futurethink, a company created around the idea that anyone can innovate, will provide a roadmap to enable more manufacturers to make the journey to successful innovation.

Lisa Bodell, CEO, futurethink

Most of the key ERP, supply chain, and manufacturing systems that manufacturers rely on cannot quickly or easily be changed and integrated to reflect changing business requirements. Services-oriented architectures (SOA) promise a solution as simple as snapping Lego blocks together. But is SOA delivering on that promise? What strategies are working best? Find out in this session.

Eric Marks, Chief Executive Officer, AgilePath Corp.
Joshua Greenbaum, Principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting
Paul L. Gonzalez, Global IT, ViewSonic Corporation
Moderator: MA Online Editor Chris Chiappinelli

Is your company "going green?" Has your business clearly defined what it means to be environmentally excellent? There are many questions surrounding the sustainability trend as manufacturers move forward with the idea. This session will discuss what changes in business operations, including the IT department, manufacturers have to anticipate and plan for, and how they can develop sustainable practices as they "go green."

Donald J. Weintritt , Global Supply Chain Technology Director, Dow Chemical Company
Bill Canis , Vice President for Research and Innovation, The Manufacturing Institute at the National Association of Manufacturers
Kimberly Knickle , Practice Director, Emerging Agenda, Manufacturing Insights
Moderator : ME Executive Editor Paul Tate

What are some of the ideas and technologies that will drive significant business change for manufacturers in the years ahead? How will computing be conducted in the future and how will people interact with systems? Our panel of analysts and futurists will share their insights into such topics as the mobile enterprise, advanced sensor technology, new forms of user interfaces and interactivity such as telepresence, and the idea of utility computing. We will look at what these technologies may look like in the decade ahead and the significance they hold for manufacturing.

Bob Parker, VP, Research, Manufacturing, Managing Insights
Ann Grackin, Managing Director- Supply Chain Intelligence, Marsh
Simon Jacobson, Senior Research Analyst, AMR Research
Moderator: MA Editor-in-Chief David Brousell

Celebrate the new Progressive Manufacturing 50 Award Winners, witness the unveiling of the 2008 Progressive Manufacturer of the Year, and be the first to congratulate the High Achievers selected by our distinguished panel of judges for each of Managing Automation 's eight Progressive Manufacturing Award categories. As the evening transpires, mix and mingle with past and present award honorees as you enjoy the Four Seasons' best dining accompanied by fine California wines. This is an exclusive, black-tie gathering that is open only to attendees of the Progressive Manufacturing Summit, past manufacturing award alumni, and guests of 2008 honorees. This is the annual gathering of the manufacturing industry's elite.