2026 TOP SHOPS
FEATURED SPEAKERS
BUSINESS STRATEGIES
Jeff Halonen
CEO & Co-Founder
Steelhead Technologies
The Five Reasons Your Shop
Isn’t Growing (And the Data
That Proves It)
Paul Van Metre
Founder
ProShop ERP
Beyond Heroics: Solving the ‘One Person Deep’ Crisis in Precision Manufacturing
Kim Scott
Founder/VP of Sales
Powderlux
Bridging the Gaps: Innovating for the Future of the Powder Coating Industry
Michael Schroeder
Managing Director & Shareholder Taureau Group, LLC
What Drives Premium Valuations
Jason Davis
CEO
D&D Enterprises of Greensboro, Inc.
Busy, Behind, and Burned Out: What Actually Creates Stress in Manufacturing.
Elisabeth Smith
President & CEO
Acutec Precision Aerospace
Building a Resilient, High‑Rate Manufacturing Ecosystem Through Automation and Workforce Ownership
Mike Payne
Co-Host | MakingChips
Nick Goellne
Owner | Hennig Inc.
Paul Van Metre
Founder | ProShop ERP
Generation CNC: If We
Built a Machine Shop
From Scratch Today
Peter Doyle
President/CEO | Hirsh Precision
Getting AI-Ready Starts on the Floor: What 30-Second Cell Audits Taught Me About Culture
SHOP FLOOR PROCEDURES & PRACTICES
David Caputo
Co-Founder
Harmoni
The Autonomous Factory Has Set the Standard. Can You
Keep Up?
Parth Shah
QC Manager/Engineer
S&B Finishing Co., Inc.
Operational Process Standardization in High-Mix Powder Coating Operations: Impact on Delivery Reliability, Process Capability, and Strategic Customer Retention
Alex Klimov
CEO
SkodyAI
If You Take This Job, What Breaks? How Shops Should Quote Against Real Capacity
Nick Kelly
VP of Product
1factory & Chandler
Justin Struab
Director of Quality
BTX
Four Sites, One Playbook: Chandler / BTX’s Proven Approach to Rolling Out Quality Software Across Manufacturing
George Lovell
Product Manager
Joe Thompson
General Manager
Lippert Components
From Blank Floor to First Part:
A Practioner’s Guide to Planning, Buying, and Commissioning an Ecoat Line
HUMAN RESOURCES
Drew Crowe
Founder
The New American Manufacturing Renaissance
The Courage Gap: Why Your Talent Problem Has Nothing to Do with Talent
Ted Toth
Senior Technical Advisor
Rosenberger North America
Dyslexia in Manufacturing
MACHINING TECHNOLOGY
James Marzilli
President
Marzilli Machine Co.
The Knowledge Cliff - How Marzilli Machine Is Using AI to Stop Losing What We Know
Matt Sand
CEO
Avalon Mfg., Inc.
Real World Machine Shop Automation - Lessons from
3 Years of Brain Damage