March 2016 - In This Issue:
Senator Gardner with Tom and Heidi
Manufacturer's Edge CEO Tom Bugnitz with Colorado Senator Cory Gardner & Faustson VP Heidi Hostetter yesterday in Washington, DC. 
UPCOMING
EVENTS
For a complete listing of events, visit our website 
Beers & Gears Returns! 
March 30th @ 3-7pm
Breckenridge Brewing
Join Manufacturer's Edge and Arapahoe Community College as we tour our client Karcher and learn about the Karcher Management System. This will be followed up by a tour of Breckenridge Brewery's state of the art brewery in Littleton. The event will conclude with beer and a networking session. Sponsored by BKD CPAs and Advisors & Neenan Archistruction. This event is for manufacturers only and attendance is limited to 2 people per company. 

Find out more and register here
Colorado Manufacturing Awards  
April 6th @ 5-7pm
The ART - a hotel
$49/ticket  
The inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Awards recognizes exceptional companies and people leading the modern manufacturing economy.

Find out more and register here
Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership Expo 
April 28th @ 9am-5pm
The Ranch | Loveland 
T he Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership is presenting NOCOM 2016, a show for Northern Colorado Manufacturers to highlight the vast available industries and knowledge in the area. This event will feature over 75 exhibitors, spotlight presentations, a speaker hall featuring industry leaders and a Women in Manufacturing forum, reception, B2B Lounge and more.

Booths start at $275, with attendee tickets available at $10 in advance or $15 day of, with students getting to attend for only $5 (includes $5 food/drink coupon).

SPONSORS
Limited Sponsorships are available! For Sponsorship Opportunities contact event chair Mike Synder - msnyder@epocs.com

SPEAKERS/PRESENTERS
If you are interested in presenting as part of the speaker hall, contact Nathan Morimitsu - nmorimitsu@manufacturersedge.com with an abstract of your presentation.

Find more information here
Colorado Manufacturing Corporate Cup  
May 15
Downtown Denver 
You don't have to run like Forest Gump to participate in the 2016 Colorado Manufacturing Corporate Cup. Last year, 20 manufacturing teams competed for the Golden Gear Trophy, which went to SparkFun for the fastest 26.2 miles with its five-member team.

The top three teams in the division get to select a charity partner to receive proceeds from the marathon and all participants receive great tech shirts, awesome finisher medals and an invitation to the post-run afterparty in City Park, complete with barbecue and beer - a fantastic way to celebrate after completing your 6.4, 3.7, 6.0, 4.0 or 6.1 mile leg.

So, gather four of your co-workers (and up to two immediate family members), register your team and join the fun on May 15!

Find more information here
Manufacturer's Edge Goes to the Capitol to Discuss AdvantEDGE
-Nathan Morimitsu, Manufacturer's Edge Marketing Manager

It has been an exciting few months here at Manufacturer's Edge! We have launched the Manufacturer's Export AdvantEDGE program in partnership with the World Trade Center Denver, begun preparations to launch the Small Manufacturer's AdvantEDGE program with the Colorado Small Business Development Centers.

What does this mean for all of you? It means than we are going to be able to offer Colorado Manufacturers all the same services, including new ones like Gap Analysis for International Trade through the World Trade Center, Market and SEO Analysis through the SBDC and testing and validation of metallic 3D Printed parts for aerospace and other applications with the new facility at the Colorado School of Mines. It also means Colorado Companies can access these services at greatly reduced rates, which helps to improve the bottom line, create more sales and more jobs for Colorado!

To help us achieve the goals of helping Colorado Companies, we are making certain our Colorado legislative delegation doesn't forget about the good work all of you do in Colorado. We have taken our legislative representatives through Colorado Manufacturing facilities to show them the products built here and the jobs created by those products, and visited them in their offices in Washington so they could meet leaders of Colorado Industry and take their messages to the floor. 

Watch for the launch of the Manufacturer's AdvantEDGE website on March 21st for complete details and applications for the AdvantEDGE programs. 
Penn State University Advanced Manufacturing Funding Opportunity
An America Makes Challenge for Small Businesses
Partnering with America Makes and MEP, Penn State's Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) is sending an open invitation to SMEs to present ideas for how Additive Manufacturing can revolutionize their business. The challenge will be focused on concepts that utilize additive manufacturing for improving a current product or developing a new product. Although the Challenge will focus on additive manufacturing of metals, applications involving polymer printing will also be considered depending upon the impact of improving or developing a product through additive manufacturing. The top five submissions will be awarded stipends and access to Penn State and America Makes' world class facilities and research personnel in order to validate, demonstrate, and showcase their ideas.
 
*The proposal should include the regional NIST MEP as an integral member of the proposal team. Concepts due March 27, 2016. For more information click here.
Kids Connection Updates
Internship program to shape the future of Colorado's innovative industries
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment recently announced a new internship program designed to encourage employers to provide paid on-the-job training to students and they are looking for potential businesses and student interns to participate!

Internships must be completed in six months or less with at least 130 hours of on-the-job training. Funding is available for up to 90 internships per year with a reimbursement of $5,000 per intern in the areas of: Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace, Bioscience, Construction, Electronics, Engineering and Energy and Natural Resources, and Information Technology.

"Recruitment of businesses and interns is currently underway and we're excited about the opportunities these internships will provide young people, the business leaders who hire them, and Colorado," says Department of Labor and Employment Executive Director Ellen Golombek. "This initiative will take important strides in strengthening our most critical industries."

Learn more and apply for the program here
 
Save for Retirement with myRA 
Find out more at myra.gov
Millions of people across the US have either not started saving for retirement or are not putting away enough money to insure a comfortable lifestyle. The US Treasury hopes to rectify that problem with a new program that will allow people to invest money directly from their paychecks, checking or savings accounts, or even from their tax returns. The goal of
myRA is to allow all American workers the opportunity to invest in their retirement regardless of what programs are offered in the workplace. To see how we can start "building a nation of savers," please visit the website and find out more about
myRA.

As a reminder, additional free materials are available and, if your organization helps individuals prepare tax returns, check out the myRA tax prep toolkit for free materials you can post or share about myRA.

CMTC Announces Drone Tech Scouting Opportunity  
Air Force seeks affordable drone technology
Steve Follows, Royal Air Force,
via Wikimedia Commons
California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC) is looking for manufacturers in the transportation field to submit their ideas to a Tech Scouting opportunity benefiting the Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology initiative.

The general strategy, according to a recent Popular Science article, is to provide the Air Force with drones that can successfully carry out a variety of tactical missions, but not amount to such an enormous financial loss if those drones do not return. CMTC is hoping that transportation manufacturers specializing in automotive technologies, for example, might be able to contribute some innovative ideas to this ongoing discussion.

For more information, call or email Peter Athanas at CMTC for details: 310.984.0662 or pathanas@cmtc.com by March 18th.   
Tickets on Sale Now for the 2016 Colorado Manufacturing Awards  
The inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Awards recognizes exceptional companies and people leading the modern manufacturing economy.

Three finalists in nine industry categories and the supply chain are competing to be named a Colorado Manufacturing Award Recipient. Here's the list of finalists. One winner from each category will be announced at the Awards reception.


Supply Chain
Industrial
Contract Manufacturing
Food & Beverage
Beer & Brewing
Lifestyle & Consumer
Energy & Environment
Bioscience & Medical
Electronics & Aerospace
Built Environment

We'll convene at one of Denver's premier new destinations - ART the Hotel - from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6.

Beer, wine and light appetizers will be served! Business or business-casual attire is recommended.

Cost: $49

Find out more and register here.
Manufacturer's Edge Client Using Products to Audition for America's Got Talent   
Freenotes Harmony Park Creating Music with Manufacturing
Freenotes Harmony Park's in-house band - Freenotes has made a video covering the Adele song - "Set Fire to the Rain" and are planning on submitting it to the TV show America's Got Talent.  Please help them get on the show by watching and sharing this video. All of the music was created using only Freenotes Harmony Park Outdoor Musical Instruments. 

Watch the video here.