Business, academic leaders gather in Worcester to promote, celebrate manufacturing in Massachusetts
WORCESTER, Mass. —
Business and academic leaders gathered in Worcester on Tuesday to celebrate and grow opportunities for those making things in the state.
Close to 500 representatives from the state’s leading manufacturing community joined public sector and academic leaders at Polar Park in Worcester on Tuesday for the first Massachusetts Manufacturing Mash-Up.
“The ecosystem here for advanced manufacturing is robust and doing well because of the collaboration with government, with the supply chain and with academia,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said.
“I think manufacturing in Massachusetts is much more vibrant than people realize,” said Christine Nolan, the director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech.
Nolan said the mashup was launched to connect the state’s manufacturing ecosystem to solve challenges that impact the industry and help the community learn from each other.
“The biggest challenge right now is workforce. And it’s our large companies that are struggling with it as well as small,” Nolan said.
Topics addressed include cybersecurity, working with the Department of Defense, robotics, data-driven decision making and workforce development. For some of the companies, Massachusetts is the only place to set up manufacturing.
“Utilizing all of the brainpower and resources and networks of this area has been critical, and our technology could not have been built in any other city in the entire country except Boston,” said Dexter Ang, chairman of Pison.
Advertisement
The event also hosted the sixth annual awards ceremony and recognized excellence in manufacturing here in Massachusetts.