The ongoing signs and general mood that manufacturing-related industries are rebounding was displayed at this year's 15th annual National Manufacturing Week, held in Chicago.

Kel Marsden-Kish, industry vice president with Reed Exhibitions, looked back on the meeting as another sign that "the industry is coming out of the recession. There is more buying activity going on," he said. "And more people were coming to the meeting with projects in hand."

National Manufacturing Week is the annual gathering of the U.S. manufacturing community, as Marsden-Kish put it. More than 1,000 exhibitors attended, with many of them previewing their company's upcoming line of new products.

Among the speakers at this year's show were Alain Belda, chairman/CEO of Alcoa; Harry Ghuman, vice president of manufacturing and distributing for Oracle; and James Champy, chairman of consulting at SAP.

Marsden-Kish said that excellent feedback was received from a Town Hall Meeting presided over by John Engler, former Michigan governor and current president of the National Assn. of Manufacturers. During the meeting, attendees were able to ask questions of Bush administration members, among them Don Wainwright, chairman of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Manufacturing Council, and Alan Frink, assistant secretary for manufacturing and services for the Commerce Department.

While Manufacturing Week will be held again in Chicago in 2006, it will be changing locations from the McCormick Place Complex, Marsden-Kish said. The 2006 meeting will be the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center near O'Hare Airport, in Chicago's Rosemont section. What Marsden-Kish described as "extensive research" indicated that attendees wanted a larger facility at a better cost overall.

While attendees wanted Manufacturing Week to remain in Chicago, they requested "a little more convenience and a less-costly venue," Marsden-Kish said. "So by moving it to Stephens, we are addressing those concerns. The Stephens Center is the 11th largest convention facility in the U.S."

He added that the research also showed that "attendees said that if we accomplished those [savings], they'd stay an extra day," something more feasible, Marsden-Kish added, given that the convention center is a five minute cab or shuttle ride from O'Hare Airport.