Update on Creators Wanted and MFG Day

The National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturing Institute have continued to monitor the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to cancel the campaign’s Making America Festival. The festival was to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio in September 2020. While we are disappointed that we won’t be able to gather as an industry, our primary goal is the health and safety of guests, and we are channeling our resources to support the creators who are on the front lines of this pandemic. 

In addition, to maintain a safe environment and achieve our ambitious campaign goals, we are taking the following measures:

  • Delaying the start of the Creators Wanted Tour. The tour will now launch either in the fall or in 2021, with an exact launch date to be determined as more information develops. 
  • Advancing our digital campaign. A full-fledged digital campaign will be our central focus until the Creators Wanted Tour hits the road.
  • Making MFG Day the central anchor of our Creators Wanted efforts in 2020. October is Manufacturing Month and the first Friday of the month is Manufacturing Day, organized nationally by the Manufacturing Institute. We will deploy our Creators Wanted message via MFG Day across the country either through in-person or virtual events.

We will have additional information about MFG Day by June 22, 2020, and more information about the Creators Wanted tour schedule by July 1, 2020. You can register your MFG Day events right now at this link.

Thanks to the support of our sponsors, we’re building a first-of-its-kind traveling modern manufacturing tour, developing the tools and resources to connect with and inspire students and emerging workers across the country and strengthening the programs of The Manufacturing Institute.

We are committed to making this campaign a success, as we work to inspire a new generation of manufacturing workers, a generation whose ingenuity will help this country face the unprecedented challenges of the future. We will continue to monitor the situation closely with health and safety top of mind. We will advance the campaign in the safest and most effective way possible.

Chrys Kefalas
Campaign manager, Creators Wanted campaign
Vice President, Brand Strategy, National Association of Manufacturers

MFG Day Inspires Future Creators to Explore Manufacturing

Every year, shop floors across the country open their doors to students, parents, teachers and community leaders to showcase modern manufacturing careers through MFG Day. Carolyn Lee is the Executive Director of The Manufacturing Institute, the workforce and education partner of the National Association of Manufacturers. Here she shares what MFG Day is, why it is so important to the future of the industry and how manufacturers can drive attendance to their MFG events.

What is MFG Day?

MFG Day is an initiative to raise awareness for the many opportunities in modern manufacturing. On MFG Day, manufacturers open their doors to open minds about well-paying, rewarding and productive careers that give the next generation the chance to create the future using tomorrow’s technologies today.

When does it take place?

MFG Day begins on the first Friday of October but events extend throughout the month. Last year there were more than 3,000 MFG Day events hosted in 49 states as well as in Canada and Mexico. More than 325,000 students participated in MFG Day events.

What happens at MFG Day events?

Participants get a chance to see what is really taking place on many shop floors. This isn’t your grandparents’ manufacturing industry. Artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and co-bots—robots that work alongside humans—are commonplace on shop floors. And augmented reality and virtual reality are now just reality for many modern manufacturers. All of this and more is available to those who attend an on-site or virtual MFG Day event.

Why is MFG Day especially important this year?

This is a critical moment for the manufacturing industry. The U.S. economy as a whole is facing an unprecedented challenge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturing is no exception, but the industry’s leadership in our nation’s response is showing the public how critical manufacturing is to our country. Manufacturers, the men and women who make things in America, are the ones making the test kits, personal protective equipment and daily items American need right now during this crisis. They are developing medicines and vaccines and the equipment needed to test and study treatments. Throughout our nation’s response effort—and during MFG Day in particular—we hope that more young people will see how creators respond when our country needs them most and choose to join in this effort by pursuing a career in modern manufacturing.

Do you have any advice for manufacturers who want to inspire more people to join the workforce?

Host a MFG Day event, and register it on CreatorsWanted.org, the new digital home for MFG Day, so people in your area can find it and attend! MFG Day is your opportunity to stand up and be counted, showcasing the reality of careers in our industry. Our country’s future is tied to the continued success of the manufacturing industry, and manufacturing’s success will be determined, as it always has, by its next generation of leaders. Join us in this critical effort to strengthen our industry into the future.