On June 2, 2026, the DCU Center in Worcester becomes the center of gravity for Massachusetts manufacturing. The people presenting, sponsoring, and staffing this event are practitioners, men and women who work inside the same pressures, regulations, and market shifts that attendees face daily.
When the planning of this event begins a year prior, the team looks at three important concepts:
- what do attendees take away from the event
- where are we going with manufacturing in Massachusetts and nationally
- why is an event like this so important to Massachusetts manufacturers
From there the wheels start turning, and the excitement of what is yet to come allows the vision to expand to something we have never seen before. Behind it all are the people, those who plan it, build it, teach it, and attend it. The people are what make it work. Always have. Always will. While some of them may be using technology to create the look, develop the content, and process the registrations, they are the ones pushing the buttons behind the scenes to pull off a successful day.
When I began thinking about the welcoming remarks, I knew my words would make a statement and that I needed to involve others whose presence would leave a lasting impression. So we pulled together some of the best from the Commonwealth and the nation to provide perspective from voices beyond our own. This year I am pleased to announce that G. Nagesh Rao, Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a presenter in our Welcome and Opening Remarks. His remarks ground the day’s work in its full context: the national manufacturing agenda, the MEP National Network’s role in strengthening domestic supply chains, and what the Commonwealth’s manufacturers represent to that effort.
Once we peel back the layers from the national level, we take a humble moment to recognize our John “Jack” Healy Innovation Award recipient and celebrate MassMEP’s 30th Anniversary. Both are presented by Manufacturing Caucus co-chair State Representative Jeff Roy alongside State Senator Michael Moore. Their involvement reflects exactly what the award stands for: the connection between legislative leadership and the manufacturers driving economic impact across the Commonwealth. Rep. Roy and Sen. Moore have been consistent advocates for manufacturing’s place in Massachusetts’ economic policy, and their presence on this stage reinforces the alignment between state government and the industry it is actively investing in.
Our John “Jack” Healy Innovation Award recipient is someone who embodies that same standard, and I’m keeping it a secret until June 2. If you want to know who it is, I suggest getting registered.
A Keynote Grounded in What Government and Business Can Build Together
One of our initiatives at MassMEP is Emerging Technology with a focus in AI. We know the manufacturers and we understand they are all on a different page with this topic. So when doing the due diligence for the keynote speaker, we knew we needed someone that could teach in relative frameworks that made sense to the entire audience. Mitchell Weiss, the Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, is that person. His work centers on public entrepreneurship, the intersection where policy, public leadership, and private enterprise produce outcomes that neither can achieve alone.
Weiss’s keynote framing is this: understand what AI can do for your specific operation, cultivate the internal capacity to use it on your terms, and build a roadmap that fits your workforce, your processes, and your growth goals. That is not a technology conversation. It is a leadership and strategy discussion, and it is exactly what Weiss is built to lead.
Attendees will leave with a sharper understanding of where AI stands in manufacturing today, where it is headed, and critically, how to think about its role in their own business rather than waiting for someone else to define it for them.
Five Breakout Sessions Built by Experts Around a Problem You Are Already Trying to Solve.
Keeping the people in mind and using their input from the 2025 Manufacturing Your Future evaluations, we knew we needed to adjust our thoughts around the breakout sessions. The panelists and facilitators were always central to the value of each session, however we knew manufacturers needed more time with them and a simpler selection process. New for 2026, attendees select their sessions the day of the event via QR code. The format keeps the content responsive and the room focused. These are not panels built for general awareness. Each session was structured around a specific barrier Massachusetts manufacturers are hitting right now.
Still on the (De)fense – Suzanne Trinh has navigated the defense supply chain from inside General Dynamics Mission Systems. Jeff Brandt has worked both sides of the equation as a Navy Senior Chief and now Program Manager at Massachusetts APEX Accelerator. What they know about how primes select suppliers, what disqualifies businesses before they ever get considered, and how to close the compliance gaps that keep manufacturers on the outside looking in, that knowledge does not live in a manual. It lives in the people who have been in those rooms. This session puts that experience directly in front of manufacturers who are ready to compete for defense contracts.
Invest “Smart”, Grow Strong – Bryan Miceli has made technology investment decisions at the CTO level. Richard Goyette and Mike Green have guided manufacturers through those same decisions from the advisory side at MassMEP. Combined, they bring decades of real-world experience in what works, what does not, and what separates a smart investment from an expensive mistake. Manufacturers will leave with a framework built from that collective knowledge, not a vendor pitch, not a case study, but a practical process they can apply to their own operation the following week.
Harvesting Your AI Advantage – Tanay Wakhare is building AI tools from the ground up as Co-Founder and CEO of Prompt Inversion and MIT CS PhD candidate. Matt Healy is applying those same technologies inside manufacturing operations every day as MassMEP’s Director of Emerging Technologies. Between them, participants get both the technical frontier and the shop floor reality. The knowledge in this room is not theoretical, it is being built and deployed right now. Manufacturers who engage with it directly walk out ahead of the curve.
Generations to Strength – Mike Nager, Deanna Zarrella, Melora Hosler, and Bethany Pollack are not workforce strategists in the abstract, they are leading multi-generational teams inside real organizations today. The friction between generations on the shop floor, the risk of institutional knowledge walking out the door at retirement, and the challenge of building a culture that retains people across career stages are problems they are actively managing. What those in the room gain from this session cannot be found in a workforce report. It comes from people doing the work, sharing what they have learned.
Access to Capital – Nancy Lee Monroe, Lily Fitzgerald, and Ili Spahiu collectively represent the full capital landscape available to Massachusetts manufacturers, institutional lending, state investment programs, and federal small business resources. Understanding how those tools work together is one thing. Hearing directly from the people who administer and deploy them, what they look for, what slows approvals down, and how to position your business to access what is available, is something manufacturers rarely get in a single conversation. This session delivers exactly that.
Compliance Corner: New in 2026
Compliance does not have to be the thing that keeps you up at night, but for a lot of manufacturers, it is. Not because they are not trying, but because they do not always know what they do not know. A regulation they have never heard of. A certification that is now required to compete for a contract they want. An environmental standard that has changed. The gap between where a manufacturer is and where they need to be is rarely as large as it feels, but you cannot close a gap you cannot see. That is exactly why we built Compliance Corner.
This year, for the first time, Manufacturing Your Future: Power of Change will have a dedicated space where manufacturers can sit down one-on-one with specialists across every compliance area that governs their operations. No presentation. No waiting for a panel to get to your specific question. Just a direct conversation with someone who has the answer.
The organizations that make up Compliance Corner, SafetyTrainers, Synagex, Exolytic, Eversource, Massachusetts APEX Accelerator, the Office of Technical Assistance, MassCEC, and Forge, each bring deep, specific expertise, and every single one of them is invested in the outcome, not just the exchange. That distinction matters. When you sit down at one of these tables, you are sitting across from someone who genuinely wants your business to come out of that conversation better positioned than when you walked in.
Manufacturers navigating CMMC requirements, clean energy mandates, environmental compliance, or certification pathways for new contracts will find the right specialist within reach, without a separate consultation, RFP, or vendor search. The answers in this space have direct cost and contract implications. Come ready to ask the question you have been putting off.
On both sides of those tables are people who care about Massachusetts manufacturing. The manufacturers who show up asking hard questions. The experts who have spent careers building the knowledge to answer them. That exchange, that human-to-human transfer of hard-earned knowledge, is something no technology replicates. It is the whole point.
Sponsors Who Make the Day Possible
Manufacturing Your Future runs on the commitment of sponsors who have a direct stake in the health of Massachusetts manufacturing. This year’s roster reflects the full ecosystem surrounding a manufacturer’s growth: financing, energy, cybersecurity, managed IT, workforce training, quality certification, and advanced metrology.
Sponsorship at Manufacturing Your Future is not transactional. Every organization on this list was vetted with one question at the center: are they the right fit for the manufacturers in attendance? MassMEP works closely with manufacturers across the Commonwealth to support their growth, competitiveness, and sustainability, and that same standard applies to who we invite to the table. We are intentional about the full ecosystem. The goal is not visibility for sponsors, it is meaningful engagement and relevant solutions for manufacturers. If an organization cannot deliver that, they are not in the room.
Flagship sponsor Bank of America brings institutional lending capacity and a specific interest in manufacturing sector growth in the Commonwealth. Prototype sponsors include Creaform, Eversource, Exolytic, MassMFG, OTA, SafetyTrainers, SideChannel, Synagex, Toolingu/SME, TUV, Nterprisers, and Howden. KDM anchors the Breakout Room sponsorship.
Because of the investment of time and financial contribution from every sponsor on this list, there is no registration fee for manufacturers to attend this year. That is not an accident, it is a direct reflection of what these organizations believe about Manufacturing Your Future and the Power of Change. They have put their support behind this event because they understand what is at stake for Massachusetts manufacturing, and they want manufacturers in the room without cost as a barrier. The expanded vendor networking time built into this year’s agenda is intentional. Manufacturers get direct access to these organizations in a setting designed for real engagement.
30 Years. One Room. The Work Continues.
Manufacturing Your Future 2026 marks both the fifth anniversary of the event and MassMEP’s 30th year serving the Commonwealth’s manufacturers. When we came back to those three planning questions a year later, the answer was the same one it always is. People.
The people who planned this day. The people who built the sessions, vetted the sponsors, staffed Compliance Corner, and showed up to share what they know. The people who registered, cleared their calendars, and walked through the doors at the DCU Center ready to do the work. Technology helped create the look, develop the content, and process the registrations, and every button pushed behind the scenes had a person behind it. That is what makes a day like this work.
Massachusetts manufacturing employs nearly 250,000 people and contributes more than $40 billion to the state’s GDP. Those are not just numbers. They represent the people inside every facility across the Commonwealth who show up every day and make things. The state’s investments in workforce, clean energy, defense readiness, smart manufacturing, and capital access are built on the belief that those people, and the businesses they work for, are worth investing in. Manufacturing Your Future is where that investment becomes a conversation, a connection, and a next step.
There is no registration fee for this event because the sponsors on this list believed in that mission enough to fund it. And the manufacturers in the room believed in it enough to show up. That exchange, between the people who support this industry and those who are this industry, is the Power of Change.
Pre-registration is open until May 31. June 2. DCU Center, Worcester.