I had the opportunity to attend the PMMI Annual Meeting the last few days and I learned a ton. PMMI is the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute and has more than 1,000 member companies across the United States. You can find their website here.
The meeting was largely comprised of executive level members of packaging automation companies. Many people in attendance have large influence, or decision making powers their company’s financial decisions including recruitment/retention efforts and philanthropic efforts.
The event contained many speeches and training sessions about employee recruitment and retention. One thing these company leaders were being told is that they need to be more proactive in their efforts to acquire and keep talented employees. They were told that they need to lead the efforts with their companies, but that they’ll require partners to support their efforts. FIRST Robotics was explicitly mentioned as an avenue for companies to get involved in their communities to begin building long term talent pipelines. I thought this was super cool, and it feels like it maybe opens the door for proactive teams to engage with these companies to pitch themselves as a solution to their challenges.
Another topic of conversation revolved around workforce development. Skilled labor and manufacturing was identified as the number one deficit facing companies in the industry. Notably STEM professions weren’t the number one concern… This is an interesting shift in focus (that I’m sure many people have realized for a while) which likely impacts programs like FIRST. At the very least it should impact how FRC teams pitch themselves to companies… Pitching your team as a workforce development opportunity rather than a STEM pipeline might have a broader appeal to companies as they look to find their community partners.
The meeting was a cool opportunity to speak with, and network with a lot of very influential people. It was a very informative meeting as it relates to how the industry views programs like FIRST.
PMMI is insanely supportive of philanthropic efforts for its member companies. PMMI will match donations for companies up to $50,000 through their Skills Fund. I strongly suggest looking into whether you have a sponsor involved with PMMI, and take advantage of the PMMI match for donations to your team.