8th DCMA Annual Conference

National Manufacturing Day is celebrated on the first Friday in October to inspire the next generation to start careers in modern manufacturing. The Manufacturing Institute created this initiative to bring awareness to students, parents, and manufacturers on the training programs and supporting career advancements in this industry. From this model, the Garland Chamber and Dallas County Manufacturers’ Association (DCMA) started its annual tradition of celebrating manufacturers in our community.

In the past, the Chamber’s annual manufacturers event was a day of celebration with an appreciation breakfast or lunch followed by manufacturing facility tours. This event brought companies together to celebrate the contribution manufacturing bring to the Garland economy. Throughout the years and event surveys the Chamber thought of ways to make this event more valuable to its manufacturing community. The feedback shifted the focus for the Annual Conference from a celebration of manufacturing to a focus on best practices in the industry.

DCMA hosted its 8^th Annual Conference on Oct. 7, 2022 with keynote Dr. Pyeper Wilkins, who spoke on behalf of Dallas College, on the State of Manufacturing in Dallas County. Also included in the annual conference were three dynamic breakout sessions with topics such as increasing profits with technology, building and connecting with today’s workforce, and DCMA 101. This event brought together over 30 manufacturing companies totaling 88 attendees. Thank you to all who attended this year's event and helped make it successful.

The feedback from this year’s conference has shown how valuable the sessions and best practices is to our manufacturing community. “The breakout sessions correlated directly to area business interests and needs. The speakers were extremely knowledgeable and very charismatic,” an attendee said in his survey response. Another attendee said, “It is good to get the community together so we can connect and network with each other. Having something that is shorter in length like this was good because everyone is so busy. It is difficult to get away.”

The Garland Chamber and DCMA will continue to improve this annual event to celebrate the manufacturing community in Dallas County, but also provide a platform for manufacturers to share best practices and take-home valuable information that will be beneficial to their companies. We look forward to seeing you all there in 2023.