Last week marked my thirteenth anniversary as an industry conference producer, and of all the conferences, summits, forums, and symposia I have worked on over the years, the largest single category must be manufacturing events. I love building events for people who build things. It helps that I worked a bunch of factory jobs to pay my way through school. I crushed rock into powder. I cooked steel until it was hard enough to cut other steel. I made brake parts for trains and gas tanks for cars. When people talk about safety training or shopfloor optimization or materials handling,…