IACMI hosted our annual Members Meeting in Dayton, Ohio, with 300+ attendees, from 31 states and 4 countries, June 24-26, 2025. This year’s theme, “A Decade of Innovation: IACMI’s Impact,” highlighted how IACMI and our members, in the 10 years since our inception, have become a catalyst for increasing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness by connecting people, ideas, and technology. We have been achieving this through a simple formula that works: Technical Innovation + Workforce Development = Economic Growth.
Presented in partnership with JobsOhio, a special thank you to all our event sponsors, including Airbus, American Chemistry Council, Dassault Systemes, Northrop Grumman, TPI Composites, Berndorf Band Group, Composites One, Crown Plastics, ExxonMobil, Fibre Glast, IDI Composites International, James Cropper, McClarin Composites, Women in the Composites Industry, and Vartega.
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We were pleased to welcome leaders from government, national laboratories, academia, and industry, including national experts in energy, transportation, infrastructure, and workforce development. Speakers and panelists included:
- Lou Hrkman, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- Jennifer Fielding, Air Force Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
- Mike Molnar, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- Larry John, Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program (IBAS, DoD)
- Glenn Richardson and Kristina Clouse, JobsOhio
- Jeff Sloan, CompositesWorld
- OEM panel: Jennifer Fielding, (AFRL), Jessica Rader (Anduril), Tim Gaur (Airbus), John Geriguis (Joby Aviation), Eric Barnes (Northop Grumman)
- Supply Chain Resiliency panel: Dustin Davis (Norplex-Micarta), Mike Siwajek (Teijin Automotive Technologies), Evangelos Zympeloudis (iCOMAT), Ben Lamb (Applied Composites), Nathan Jessie (A&P Technology), and Jim Magato (Renegade)[MM1]
- SME panel: Michelle Bonnett (Fibre Glast), Jim Stratton (Agile Ultrasonics), Bill Dykstra (Temper Inc.), Mike Gromacki (McClarin Composites), and Gary Ellerhorst (Crown Plastics)
- Technical Project updates: Christopher Oberste (WEAV3D), Johnathan Goodsell (Purdue University), Hunter Huth (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
- IACMI’s Chad Duty, Uday Vaidya, Dale Brosius, Andrew Pokelwaldt, Erin Brophy, Marianne Donohue, David Roberson, Ralph Workman, and Amy Keesler
We also hosted five Working Group sessions with many roundtable discussions to brainstorm and identify future projects focused on:
- Infrastructure & Construction
- Energy
- Composites Recycling
- Future Mobility / Vehicles Technology
- High-Rate Aerostructures Fabrication
A huge pillar for IACMI, Workforce Development convened partners from multiple programs: America’s Cutting Edge (ACE), Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeships & Learning (METAL), InnoCrate, and IACMI internships. Ten interns representing seven IACMI member companies in four states were there to network with industry professionals and present what they’re working on. IACMI hosted more than 100 internships from 2016 to 2020, and 100% of them received either job offers or acceptance into a graduate program. We followed up with six of them to see where are they now? The Ripple Effect of this internship program is far-reaching and impressive, and we look forward to following the paths of the 2025 young men and women.
A key part of IACMI Members Meeting is giving ample opportunities to learn and network. Thank you to Brian Rice and his team at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) for coordinating several ways to explore the Birthplace of Aviation. Members took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Dayton Composites Center, experienced Joby Aviation’s eVTOL air-taxi flight simulators, mingled at the IACMI Welcome Mixer, and explored the historically rich National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
We are already looking forward to next year’s Members Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Save the date: June 23-25, 2026!