2026 Manufacturing (MFG) Summit

Join us for our region's premier, annual manufacturing summit! The Greater Reading region celebrates manufacturing as its highest-priority industry, and shares a dedication to the industry's success with its neighboring partners, training providers and employers the surrounding counties. Be a part of this can't-miss event! Attendees will then enjoy a half-day agenda packed with a keynote and presentations with key takeaway items.

Keynote

Built to Stay: How Great Leaders Keep Great People

This program gives attendees practical strategies for strengthening engagement and retention in manufacturing. Designed for leaders dealing with workforce shortages, changing employee expectations and increasing pressure to do more with fewer people, it helps them understand what makes good employees stay and what quietly pushes them toward the door. Through real-world examples and practical tools, participants will explore appreciation, connection, recognition, communication, purpose and leadership. The goal is to create a workplace where employees feel valued, leaders know what matters to their people and your best employees have more reasons to stay than to leave.

Lisa Ryan | Grategy^®
Lisa Ryan, CSP, MBA, is a keynote speaker, author, and founder of Grategy®, specializing in the human side of manufacturing. Drawing on her background in industrial sales and hundreds of conversations with manufacturing leaders, Ryan helps organizations strengthen leadership, retain workforce knowledge and build workplaces where people want to stay and contribute.

Her current work also explores how manufacturers can embrace AI and automation without losing the human judgment, experience and connection that keep operations strong. She is the author of Smart Plant?: Aligning AI, Automation, and People and Manufacturing Engagement: 98 Proven Strategies to Attract and Retain Your Industry?s Top Talent.

Fireside Chat

Manufacturing in Greater Reading with U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan

Presentation

Tap into local resources to support your workforce

A strong workforce is the foundation of a successful manufacturing company. Investing in your employees is critical to building a skilled, productive, and resilient team. Learn how to leverage county resources to strengthen your workforce, address talent needs, and support your company?s growth.

Amber Columbo | Berks County Workforce Development Board

Amber Columbo is the Director of the Berks County Workforce Development Board. Amber leads the Board?s strategic planning, fiscal oversight, and administrative functions on behalf of the County and the Board of Commissioners. Under her leadership, Berks County is advancing the priorities of the Workforce 2030 study and strengthening partnerships that support a competitive, future‑ready workforce.

Before stepping into her current role, Amber spent over 13 years directing Youth and Young Adult programs across Pennsylvania with EQUUS Workforce Solutions, including long-standing initiatives right here in Berks County. She brings deep experience in program management, talent development, and community collaboration.

Amber holds a B.A. in Applied Psychology from Penn State University and lives in Berks County with her husband and two children.

Presentation

Beyond Traditional Training: What Actually Changes Behavior on the Manufacturing Floor
 
Small manufacturers face the same safety, compliance, and skills-gap pressures as large enterprises ? but without the L&D budgets or headcount to match. This session explores why traditional training approaches, such as generic videos and one-time compliance courses, reliably fail to change behavior on the floor and what does work instead.

Drawing on real deployments ? including a large industrial crane manufacturer and a major Ohio mining equipment company ? Dr. Kryn McClain, founder and CEO of CatapalloVR, will share how VR simulation and scenario-based training are being used not just to teach, but to measure whether training actually sticks ? and how that same data can even inform hiring and role-readiness decisions. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for evaluating whether their own training is producing real behavior change and what "scalable, enterprise-grade training" can look like even without an enterprise budget.
 
Dr. Kryn McClain | CatapalloVR
 
Kryn McClain is the founder and CEO of CatapalloVR, an immersive learning company building custom VR training solutions for manufacturers, healthcare systems, and safety-critical industries. A licensed clinician with a doctorate in health administration, Dr. McClain brings a diagnostic, behavior-first approach to workforce training ? helping organizations move beyond checkbox compliance toward training that measurably changes what happens on the floor. CatapalloVR's work includes custom safety training for companies like American Crane & Equipment and large-scale mining equipment manufacturers.
 

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania
• East Penn Manufacturing
• Levan Machine & Truck Equipment
• NorLink Solutions
• Penn State Berks
• Reading Advanced Machining

• Reading Area Community College

• American Crane and Equipment Corp.
• Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc.
• Caron Treatment Centers
• Gallagher
• Members 1^st Federal Credit Union
• RKL LLP

• Brentwood Industries
• M&T Bank
• Promise to Perform Industries, Inc