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Mfg Forum & EXPO scheduled in Bowling Green

EXPO Exhibitors to feature industrial suppliers

The 2010 Northwest Ohio Manufacturing Forum & EXPO has been scheduled for Friday November 12, 2010. The event will take place on the campus of Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in the Perry Field House. Registration for the Forum will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the program session will run from noon until 2:00 p.m. The EXPO will start while the Forum is in session, running from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.

The Forum & EXPO is co-hosted by the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) and the Northwest Ohio Regional Economic Development Association (NORED). The event is being organized by the Supplier Recruitment Program (SRP) committee. It is part of an economic development effort to advance manufacturing in the region and to increase opportunities for networking for area manufacturers.

Sponsors of the 2010 Northwest Ohio Manufacturing Forum & EXPO include the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP), the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, CSX, the BGSU College of Business, The University of Toledo, MAGNET, IPS, and the Wood County Economic Development Commission.

The Forum portion of the event will begin with a program session of speakers. The program is titled Financing and New Business Opportunities For Area Manufacturers. A series of speakers is being put together to present information on financing alternatives for area industrial companies. SRP committee members received program suggestions from a large number of people. The program session on Financing and New Business Opportunities was selected as a result of the input received.

The Forum will be followed by an industrial tradeshow, or EXPO. Attendees at the EXPO will include manufacturers and others who attend the Forum program session. Area manufacturers and others who wish to only attend the EXPO may do so. Admission to the EXPO portion of the event is free for manufacturers who register in advance. There is an admission fee to the EXPO for non-manufacturers.

Exhibitors at the EXPO will be area companies providing products and services to manufacturing and industrial companies in the region. An Early Bird Special discount is being offered to Exhibitors who register for booth space before September 10.

The Northwest Ohio Manufacturing Forum & EXPO is being managed by Telex Communications, Inc., publisher of Toledo Business Journal and Lake Erie West Manufacturing & Construction News. Attendance by manufacturers at the Forum & EXPO is the highest priority that has been set by Telex Communications and the co-hosts for the event. A number of efforts similar to the Exhibitor Marketing Partner program are being put in place to assist attendance.

Plant and facility tours of a number of manufacturing operations in the Bowling Green area are being set up. Attendees who wish to come to Bowling Green before the Forum & EXPO will be able to select and register for a plant tour from any of a number of different facilities. These plant tours may provide important assistance to manufacturers looking for solutions to a problem in their own operations.

These plant tours may also enable manufacturers around the region to find new area Suppliers to replace a Supplier from outside the region. The plant tour will allow a manufacturer to inspect the operations in advance.

The SRP committee is working to set up these plant tours. One of the initiatives that it has put in place is called Buy Lake Erie West. It is a program aimed at assisting area industrial companies to replace Suppliers outside the region with companies located in the area. The SRP committee has set up a large searchable database of industrial products and services with operations located in the region in order to assist industrial purchasing professionals. There are over 66,000 categories of products and services on the database, which is being supported by ThomasNet. There are several thousand Suppliers with operations in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan included. If there is no local Supplier for a product that is searched, a list of Suppliers around the country are then provided. The Buy Lake Erie West searchable database can be found at www.toledobiz.com/ buy_lake_erie_west.html.

Some of the Bowling Green area manufacturers offering a tour of their facilities will be inviting prospective manufacturing customers to see their operations and then at the conclusion of the tour attend the 2010 Northwest Ohio Manufacturing Forum & EXPO on the campus of BGSU.

There is no cost for attendance of the EXPO by professionals at area manufacturing companies if registration is done in advance of the show. Registration can be completed online at www.toledobiz.com/MfgForumReg.html.

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