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By Krishna Vuppala, Chair, Waterloo Chapter 186

Annually, the Waterloo chapter arranges transportation from Waterloo, Iowa, to FABTECH in Chicago. This year, we gathered a large group of professional and student members for a five-plus-hour bus ride to Chicago as part of the FABTECH Member's Day event!

For anyone who hasn't attended FABTECH before, it's a great way for our professional members to have an opportunity to meet with suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to different kinds of metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs. 

In November 2019, we were very fortunate to have our student chapters — Northern Iowa University and Waterloo Career Center as well as Cedar Falls High School, an SME PRIME School — join us. About 50 students attended and met at the SME Zone, which showcases SME's business units and to participate in a career presentation held in the Zone. The students and chapter members then toured McCormick Place.   

Students leveraged the benefit of attending FABTECH to showcase their skills and experience with the exhibitors and were guided by faculty when discussing potential job opportunities, product knowledge and advanced technology innovations. 

For our professional members, it was a mentoring event, as well as an opportunity to advance our next generation of manufacturing leaders.

I would encourage all chapters to plan a joint trip like we did to attend an SME event, tour or other activity and include your local student chapter members to come along. It's a great learning opportunity and an even greater way for our professional members to network with and help influence the career paths of our student members. If you'd like more information on how we planned and coordinated this joint venture, please reach out to me through SME Connect.