June 10th and 11th, 2014
The 2014 Manufacturing Summit officially held by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) each year is over and there were a few surprises at the Summit for all of us attendees.
The first surprise came when we were informed a few days before the start of the Summit that the keynote speaker was going to be Vice President Joe Biden. Mr. Biden certainly is a good speaker from all his years’ experience and even if you don’t agree with his political positions he did a great job addressing the group of nearly 900 attendees at lunch the first day.
The next surprise came when I was asked to do a short interview which would be filmed and then used by NAM for a marketing piece along with a few other interviews from other attendees. Of course I said yes to doing an interview and was whisked to a side room with an interviewer and a cameraman to record the results. Clips of my interview will be posted as soon as they become available.
Day One
The rest of the first day (June 10th,2014) involved visits to congressional offices by the attendees although the die casting group held both a NADCA Board meeting and a Government Affairs meeting.
NAM Summit Coincides with NADCA Conference
The NADCA group of die casters have joined NAM for the Summit for the past three years as a result of my attending the Summit as an observer to determine whether NADCA should hold it’s Government Affairs Conference in conjunction with the NAM Summit.
The NAM Summit is very well organized and NAM has more power in Washington to attract bigger name speakers than a small group of die casters who visit DC once a year. So the decision to hold both the NADCA Conference at the same time of the NAM Manufacturing Summit was an easy one for us at NADCA and I believe it has proven results in NADCA’s Washington DC efforts for the die casting industry.
Day Two
Last Minute Speaker Change
Now the second day of the Summit (June 11th, 2014) had a third surprise for the attendees. The original speaker at the breakfast meeting was supposed to be Eric Cantor, Republican House Representative from Virginia. The day before the breakfast was a primary election in Virginia where a Tea Party challenger was running against Cantor. The big news that night was that Cantor was upset by the challenger who beat him out of his office. Needless to say, Cantor cancelled his appearance at our breakfast that morning.
However the President of NAM, Jay Timmons, called Senator Coons from Delaware at 10PM that night and got him to come and speak at the breakfast the next morning. Senator Coons was a dynamic and powerful speaker who is a supporter of a strong manufacturing base in the US.
The last speaker at the Summit was Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky at the lunch on the second day. McConnell was as dry as he is on TV but is another supporter of manufacturing in the US.
I have been visiting Washington DC for nearly 40 years with NADCA and I am impressed by the job the National Association of Manufacturers is doing to represent all manufacturers in the US. So NADCA and the die casting industry is benefiting from partaking in the NAM Summit each year.
If you have any part designs or parts you would like reviewed and quoted as an aluminum die casting please send your files to sales@diecasting.com.
By Leonard Cordaro, President of Premier Engineered Products
