A Manufacturing Evolution

I believe everyone agrees that we need to paint a new picture of manufacturing if we want to attract that next generation workforce, and that's exactly what one group of manufacturers in Eastern Conneticut tasked high school students to do. I was honored to be invited to attend this year's event because there is nothing more motivating when it comes to tackling our industry's biggest challenge, than being in a room full of high school students beyond excited to share their message about manufacturing. 

This collaborative and innovative competition brought high school students, teachers and manufacturers together to showcase modern manufacturing through video. The Eastern Advanced Manufacturing Alliance presented its third annual Video Challenge Film Festival at Three Rivers Community College last month.

Fourteen manufacturers and schools teamed up to develop the videos. With a theme of "Join the Evolution," this year's project challenged students to discover how their manufacturing partners have evolved over time to adopt new technologies, processes, markets and strategies.  Judging categories included narration, creativity, audio quality, soundtrack, visual quality and clarity of message. The overall winner across all categories was Norwich Free Academy (Wildcat Productions) for its video feature on Freeport McMoran, the world's largest publicly-traded copper producer. Here is their video entry.

Among the member manufacturers was 2014 Leadtime Leader winner and employer of new Editorial Advisory Board member Kylee Carbone, Westminster Tool of Plainfield, Connecticut. Their team won Viewers' Choice. See below for their entry.

And click here to check out their reaction when they were announced the Viewer's Choice Winner.