The Aluminum Summit on Sept. 14-16 in Nashville is the collocated event of the Aluminum Anodizers Council’s (AAC) Annual Anodizing Conference and the Aluminum Extruders Council’s (AEC) Management Conference.

Rich KarlgaardRich KarlgaardIt will offer a wide-ranging program that addresses critical challenges faced by the aluminum industry.

The Aluminum Summit program targets shared areas of interest for members, including workplace safety, metal supply issues, workforce recruiting and training, and much more. Thursday’s closing session will feature a keynote presentation by Forbes publisher and futurist Rich Karlgaard. 

Karlgaard’s timely address, “Five Business Trends that will Emerge from COVID-19", examines COVID’s lasting impact on work, location, teams and collaboration.  He will explore the post-COVID landscape on Wall Street, in Washington, Silicon Valley and beyond, assessing today’s economy, business, technology and investment climates delving into the challenges of our time.  Karlgaard will explore what threats may stop the economic recovery, including government overreach, inflation and geopolitical miscalculation. Karlgaard provides the audience with insights and connects today’s unprecedented economic and political uncertainty with future probabilities. 

Rosemary CoatesRosemary CoatesThis comprehensive aluminum industry gathering will draw executives, technical staff and production managers, and highlights issues directly affecting aluminum extruders and aluminum anodizers.  The Summit additionally features Rosemary Coates of the Reshoring Institute presenting the focus session “It’s Time to Bring Manufacturing Back to America”, an especially relevant assertion that can pave the way for economic recovery and supply chain stability.  Coates will present strategic planning for global procurement, logistics, trade and manufacturing.  The Aluminum Summit offers on-site Aluminum Marketplace exhibits showcasing industry product and service suppliers. 

“The Aluminum Summit happens only every few years, and now that on-site events are returning, we relish the chance to combine our knowledge bases in person, to benefit both AEC and AAC members.  There are so many technical and operational advancements that our industries experience in common, as well as shared best practices and information on worker retention and training, workplace safety, manufacturing innovations and trade issues.  The program addresses concerns common to aluminum anodizers and extruders alike, and we aim to cover a lot of ground in Nashville,” said Jeff Henderson, President of both the AEC and the AAC.

The Aluminum Summit also includes panel discussions, five concurrent tracks of Focus sessions, an AAC student posters session, along with abundant and long-awaited in-person networking opportunities. Topics will range from anodizing color, seal, innovations and technology and technical and pretreatment concerns to extrusion market and manufacturing insights and management and strategy issues.

Three important in-conjunction educational events round out the event, and include the AEC’s Extrusion Excellence Workshop: Applied Fundamentals, AAC’s Quality & Troubleshooting Workshop and Advanced Anodizing Class.

Registration is open to personnel from member companies of the two associations with early-bird discount rates offered through Friday, July 16.  A non-member registration rate is available to AAC Anodizing Conference registrants.  For complete program and registration details, visit the AAC website, www.Anodizing.org/AluminumSummit  or the AEC website, www.AEC.org/AluminumSummit 

The Aluminum Anodizers Council (AAC) is the international trade association of firms engaged in aluminum anodizing, whose mission is to support its members – and users of anodized aluminum – through education, advocacy and promotion. Visit www.anodizing.org  for more information.

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) is a progressive trade association dedicated to advancing the effective use of aluminum extrusion in North America. AEC is committed to bringing comprehensive information about extrusion’s characteristics, applications, environmental benefits, design and technology to users, product designers, engineers and the academic community. Further, AEC is focused on enhancing the ability of its members to meet the emerging demands of the market through sharing knowledge and best practices. Visit www.aec.org  for more information.