Arizona Technology Council Launches Arizona Manufacturing Catalyst Committee

Arizona Manufacturing is Big, But We Don’t Get Together

The idea for this committee started at a big trade conference in California. PADT has been attending the MD&M West, although the name has changed several times. And every year, we would meet two or three Arizona manufacturing firms there in California. When this happened in 2023, we started asking around about any manufacturing oriented events where people who needed stuff made could find local people to make it. there really was nothing. By mid 2024 it became obvious that the community needed a way to network and start working more closely together.

So, after talking with the great team at the AZTC, PADT and the council did a little brain storming with other organization involved in manufacturing, especially the Arizona MEP and Women in Manufacturing. We also brought the need up with every OEM, contract manufacturer, machine shop, and manufacturing supplier that would listen. The answer was always, “we need some sort of way to work better together.”

So, in October of 2024, we had two trial events. One at PADT’s Nerdtoberfest and the other the the Southern Arizona Tech + Business Expo. It went really well. The only thing we needed was a team to get it going.

Fortunately, Tracey Latham of Latham Industries agreed to be co-chairman with me, and Susan Hayer from Values Matter stepped up to provide us with structure and focus. The last piece was Leslie Marquez as the AZT liaison staff member. We iterated on the charter with Steve Zylstra until everyone was happy, and in June of 2025, we had no more excuses. We set a date for the kickoff meeting. August 12, 2025.

The Arizona Manufacturing Catalyst Committee’s Objectives, Activities, and Sub-Committees

We created the AMCC to not just strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem in Arizona, but to also improve economic opportunity in the state and to drive innovation and collaboration within the sector. To do this, we are starting with six obejectives:

1. Strengthening local manufacturing community
2. Keep manufacturing projects in Arizona
3. Promote innovation and competitiveness
4. Facilitate knowledge sharing
5. Expand industry engagement
6. Encourage a strong manufacturing workforce

We have agreed to three activities to further these goals:

1. Host monthly virtual meetings, including a poll on current challenges, a guestspeaker, and an open general discussion.
2. Organize quarterly volunteer factory tours to adopt practical engagement and on-site learning.
3. Plan and execute a Manufacturing Pavilion event in Phoenix with other community partners, with a target of 200 exhibitors, to be held within two years.

In their other committees, the AZTC has found strong sub-committees are needed to accomplish the tasks the committee wants to accomplish. In our first meeting, the committee agreed to launch the following sub-committees:

• Manufacturing Pavilion – Plan annual trade show and satellite shows
• Facility Tour – Find and manage quarterly field trips
• Member Education – Coordinate webinars from members and vendors
• Partnerships – Build relationships with other groups and paid sponsorships
• Workforce/Pipeline – Not– Not redundant, but focus on finding out what others are doing and sharing that with committee and AZTC members
• AI/Automation – Investigate and share all aspects of hardware and software automation

Let’s Make Arizona Manufacturing Even Bigger

And one way you can do that is to join the Arizona Manufacturing Catalyst Committee and get to know our manufacturing ecosystem and help it grow. If you are interested and not a member, don’t worry, you can come to one meeting as a non-member and then join. It’s not that expensive and well worth the investment.

Learn more at the AMCC website: www.aztechcouncil.org/committees/arizona-manufacturing-catalyst-committee/

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