IMTS 2026 Preview: Live Drone Production, the Industrial AI Arena, and More

0:00If you're heading to IMTS this year, make sure Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence is part of your game plan. While jumping into an F1 racing simulator or participating in a free throw competition might not sound like your typical trade show booth, Hexagon is anything but typical. Hexagon is the architect of innovation in manufacturing and a global leader in measurement technologies. You can find them in the East Building at booth 134102, and when you visit the booth, you can claim a free LEGO set of their Maestro CMM by going to manufacturinghappyhour.com slash LEGO. Hexagon's precision measurement, digital, and autonomous solutions help vital industries build, inspect, navigate, and innovate with confidence.

0:45Whether you're looking to solve inspection challenges or just geek out over some very impressive manufacturing technology, the Hexagon team will be at IMTS to talk shop. So if you're at IMTS 2026, make sure to visit Hexagon in the East building at booth 134-102 and tell them Chris from Manufacturing Happy Hour sent you. Sign up to meet with them and claim your free Lego Maestro CMM by going to manufacturinghappyhour.com slash Lego, and we hope to see you in Chicago. The largest manufacturing trade show in the Western Hemisphere is on the horizon. This is your preview to IMTS 2026. Welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour, the podcast where we get real about the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers.

1:42Manufacturing Happy Hour. Each week, we interview industry experts that are at the top of their craft and give you the tools, tactics and strategies you need to take your career and your business to the next level. And now your host, Chris Lukey. What's up, folks? We have a quick bonus episode for you this week. As many in the manufacturing world are doing right now, I am getting ready for IMTS. I wouldn't be surprised if you are also getting ready for IMTS, the International Manufacturing Technology Show, coming to Chicago, Illinois, September 14th through 19th, 2026. You know, we just did our 300th episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour Live in St.

2:37Louis, but I should mention that this episode ahead of you was also recorded in St. Louis at Rockwell Beer Co. We actually did this close to nine months ago. I think you're going to get a kick out of the interview. But as a result, I'm going to share a few of the things that I am very excited about for IMTS, and then we'll dive into what that conversation looked like nine months ago. So what am I looking forward to at IMTS 2026? Well, first, the Oak Ridge National Labs Manufacturing Demonstration Facility is one of the things that's front of mind for me. Every day, this is going to be a full-on drone production and flight demonstration area.

3:24To be more specific, every day at IMTS, an automated manufacturing cell developed by ORNL, Oak Ridge National Labs, will produce and assemble drone quadrucopters. Then those will be tested and flown in an adjacent flight testing zone. And this is bringing together technology from exhibitors like Mazak and Fanuc and Kenimetal, OpenMind, Shunk, just to name a handful. so that's one of the things that you are definitely going to want to check out there real manufacturing taking place on the show floor next on my list mc mary cecil neville from imts and amt is going to talk about this during our live interview the industrial ai arena now this is new for 2026 they also have a full-on industrial ai conference and this is all about applied innovation and real world artificial intelligence for the factory floor.

4:22So keep an eye out for the industrial AI arena. Then a couple other things that are front of mind are the main stage. I'm going to be up there doing a 10 year anniversary episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour with Jake Hall. That's going to be on Thursday of IMTS. Don't miss that. And then finally, shout out to IMTS's Investor Summit. One thing I'm always excited about is seeing how shows like IMTS weave in more startups, more manufacturers, or I should say folks that are investing in manufacturing, and this is a very concrete way that they are doing that. So if you think about it, IMTS this year is going to have investment.

5:05It's going to have manufacturing. It's going to have the main stage sessions, of course, and some very concrete activities around artificial intelligence If you're in manufacturing, you need to get out there. But hey, this episode also has a little bit of bonus content towards the end. Brandon Wege of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center in St. Louis or AMIC STL. He's going to jump up and share some of the cool innovations that are taking place in St. Louis right now. Specifically, AMIC STL is a building that is being built in St. Louis, but it's going to include workforce integration development, research and development, and production and prototyping.

5:46This is going to be a truly advanced manufacturing-centric facility in St. Louis that's meant to help take the region's manufacturing to the next level. Brandon is going to explain more about that in a bit, but with all that, you've gotten my preview. Let's hear it from MC and Brandon. Let's head back to St. Louis, Missouri to Rockwell Beer Co. to meet up with Brandon and MC.

6:16So I've got two guests coming up here on stage with me. But before we start, I know some of you are here for the first time learning about Manufacturing Happy Hour for the first time ever. And in the spirit of the show, I'll describe what Manufacturing Happy Hour is all about as if I was having a drink with you like we are right now. It's a show that's meant to have candid conversations about our industry the same way you would as if you were having a drink with someone, right? We use a lot of buzzwords in the manufacturing industry. This show has always been about just being candid, being real, and trying to solve the biggest issues in our industry by having good conversations with folks.

6:57So that's what Manufacturing Happy Hour is all about. Weekly podcast that comes out every Tuesday. day. It's really a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. But in that spirit, I've got two guests I'd like to bring up here today. And the first is MC Neville. Come on stage, MC.

7:20So MC is with the Association for Manufacturing Technology, and they host the International Manufacturing Technology Show every other year. This event is kind of a halfway to IMTS party because September 14th through 19th, did I get those dates correct? I was going to talk in here, yes. I've almost talked in my beer as a microphone before on a couple occasions. So yes, September December 2026, thousands of manufacturers will be converging upon Chicago. So MC, same thing I was doing. I described manufacturing happy hours if I was having a drink with someone. How do you describe IMTS as if you're having a beer with someone?

8:07I mean, it's the largest community get-together for six days, and it's pretty amazing. I'd never been until – no, I did go before I was in manufacturing technology in 2018. but I always heard about it even when I was in the ski and snowboard industry I heard about IMTS and then went and now I do feel like I have a privilege of working in this industry because it's pretty cool and you're with a ton of friends and a ton of friends you don't know yet but you will meet and you get to see all the coolest technology that's going on and will shape and drive the future. MC and her team do an incredible job with this event it is a massive community In some ways, manufacturing happy hour is an extension of the IMTS community and vice versa.

8:54So if you want to, and if you've been to Chicago before, it takes over the entire McCormick place. We're not just talking about half of it or one hall. It is literally a massive manufacturing city for a full week. I mean, even going into Saturday, people are showing up during their free time to come to this event. So, hey, the reason we wanted to bring up MC is we have them to thank for the drinks, the appetizers tonight. So thank you, MC, and thank you, AMT, for helping make this whole event possible tonight here in St. Louis. Thank you, Chris. And we do it because of you all, so thank you. And we're super excited that it's going to be on IMTS here.

9:34And everything is, I feel like each show, even though I've only done a few, the technology keeps changing faster and quicker and just more and more is happening and it's no different for 2026 as you all know there's going to be automation everywhere there's a lot of automation everywhere in 2024 but even more so and that little thing called ai that's going to be around uh we've done some exciting things just on the floor layout with moving additive manufacturing into the south hall uh because out of manufacturing is really part of truly part of industrial manufacturing. You'll see it in several of the booths already, or more than several, but Okuma and Mazak and all the hybrid that's happening.

10:15So moving them into the south is pretty exciting. We are working on what we're going to release and debut in the Emerging Technology Center. We're working with Oak Ridge National Laboratories again. It's still kind of under wraps of what we're doing, so we will announce that soon. We are pushing out an AI arena. It's not as big as a sector but it's a new focused area just on AI and at this point it looks like we'll have a stage there in some sessions so that's also interesting we are at a show called SBS Atlanta which Chris was there as well it's the first time this German show has been in the US and it's purely automation the full journey and there was a guy I met there with an autonomous AI company and he said he hadn't come to IMTS before because it's so huge and he felt like they were going to get lost even though their company is I think number two in the marketplace and then I mentioned the AI arena and he was like that sounds perfect because it's just a little side off and then we'll have the main stage back again we're looking at bringing uh putting together that lineup with some pretty exciting um big names in our industry and outside of our industry we'll have a lot of video production, investor forum, supply chain.

11:30We are putting together JobShop's workshop again, which started in 2018. It'll be focused on automation, AI, defense. As you know, there's a ton going on in defense. And it can be tricky to navigate. Can't wait to see you all there. And this is, to sound cheesy, but our time. So it's pretty cool. It is a big event. I will add something from the manufacturing happy hour perspective. There are great parties going on all week. I will be throwing great parties throughout the week as well. I look forward to seeing the AI Arena. I do picture this as some sort of gladiator-like hackathon-style event.

12:08So, hey, everyone give it up for MC. Give it up for AMT, IMTS for sponsoring this event. We did have one question. Was it when is the event, just to clarify? September 2026. 14th through 19th, I believe, are the exact dates. Correct. Thanks so much, MC. And we have one other guest coming to the stage. We've got Brandon Wege. Did I get that correctly? He's going to jump up here just for a moment. Yeah, first time manufacturing happy hour appearance. And he has to go to bowling league here soon. OB Clark's team number two for the win. We're going to do this rapid fire style. But actually, the reason I'm bringing Brandon up here is we were just chatting earlier in the spirit of learning about new things over a drink.

12:53you were telling me about AMIC STL. That's correct. Can you tell our audience what AMIC STL is all about to give a little local flair to tonight's date here in St. Louis? Absolutely. So AMIC STL, so Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center, St. Louis. I did not participate in the naming of this, so I disavow. So what it is, it's a nonprofit. We're building a facility in North City, and the whole point is we want to bring technology to the manufacturers of the region, especially the small and medium manufacturers. What I like to say is, like, I am successful in this if when we are talking about St.

13:31Louis, we are talking about how this is a town where you can get anything you want made because we have a workforce that is ready to go. They know the latest technology. It is cheap to live here. We have good power. We have the ability to get your product out of here, whether it's rivers, highways, or trains. and St. Louis is the town where you make some shit. So that's it. I love that you're putting it in North City. We're seeing, I mean, a little bit of resurgence there. I'm trying to remember the geospatial development is going on up there. Tell us a bit more about why picking that location for this and why that's so critical.

14:07Yeah, I mean, the geospatial is very critical. I mean, so, like, basically there's a, we call it kind of like the manufacturing triangle in some respects. So we have Cortex, you know, where there's new business development going on, but they're not building stuff there. Then you have Geospatial, which is like an opportunity for us to figure out ways of making drones, satellites, whatever, bringing the latest technology into the region, as well as Gateway South, which is like a redevelopment of our riverfront, which is a multi-billion dollar project. And we're looking to figure out how we can do automated modular building systems.

14:40how can we take learnings from aerospace and apply them into building sciences or ag tech that is one of our key hypotheses by the way this is not just aerospace this is multi-industrial because i'll tell you i come from aerospace and we started talking about digital twin a couple years ago and architects have been doing it for about three decades so like you know they they know how to do it and we can learn from them a lot and then also geospatial so like it it was like the right place for it, honestly. Brandon, my last question is, there are a lot of folks that listen to Manufacturing Happy Hour, and we'll hear this from across North America, across the country.

15:19You were hinting at it earlier, but what would you say one of the secret sauce aspects to St. Louis's success and future success in manufacturing and industrials can be? uh well i mean this is just my theory but i'll tell you i lovest louis very much um when i grew up i didn't i didn't want to live in the midwest and i came back after i realized how wonderful of a place this is and the reason is because everybody gets along and they are really trying to help their neighbor and they're working together and i think the real opportunity here is that this is an ecosystem this is a town in an area where people can cooperate and start building stuff together and not necessarily in competition, but like, I think we can do it together.

16:04And so I'm really, really excited about this. Hey, give it up for Brandon, everyone. Brandon, I look forward to following more of what Amec STL does. Best of luck in bowling a 300 tonight, hopefully. Hey, we get three digits. It's good luck, actually. And hey, thank you all for being here. We still got an hour left of this party. Enjoy. Make new connections within our manufacturing ecosystem here. Stay innovative. Stay thirsty. Enjoy the rest of the party. Cheers, everyone.

16:43Thanks for listening to Manufacturing Happy Hour. Powered by the Industrial Network.