Category: Announcements

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

A Message about The Creators Wanted Campaign and COVID-19

First and foremost, the National Association of Manufacturers is committed to the health and safety of our workforce and our communities. The association is responding and mobilizing in an unprecedented way to the threats posed by COVID-19. For the latest resources and information, please visit nam.org/coronavirus.

With public health in mind, the NAM and the Manufacturing Institute have adjusted our plans for Creators Wanted, our historic workforce campaign. 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 officially launch at the Making America Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 23-26, 2020. This means that the bulk of our tour stops will occur between September 2020 and early 2021.
• Making plans to participate at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference. Provided organizers host the conference and dependent on the latest public health directives, we intend to participate at this showcase of career and technical education students, June 22-26, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky, with enhanced cleaning and disinfectant protocols for guests and staff.
• Moving forward with plans for the Democratic and Republican conventions. We still plan to leverage the election spotlight to focus attention on our industry and modern manufacturing careers. We intend to bring the tour to the Democratic National Convention, July 13-16, 2020, and to the Republican National Convention, Aug. 24-27, 2020.
• Advancing our digital campaign. A full-fledged digital campaign will be our central focus until the tour hits the road.
• Deploying our mobile Creators Wanted display at manufacturing stakeholder events. Manufacturers and other key NAM and Manufacturing Institute partners have invited our team to participate in events with manufacturing and community leaders in the next few months, and we will make every effort to be a part of these important events.

We will have additional information about the tour and festival schedule by May 1, 2020.

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 tour and campaign a success, as we work to inspire a new generation of manufacturing workers. 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