What a success!

The 2017 Bay Area Urban Manufacturing Summit last week brought over 400 people together in support of regional manufacturing! Senator Dianne Feinstein greeted the crowd via video address and officials from 30 Bay Area cities were in the room, including the mayors of Oakland, Fremont, Berkeley, Alameda, Pittsburg, and Newark.

 

Senator Dianne Feinstein speaks on the importance of manufacturing for California’s workforce. from SFMade on Vimeo.

The many wonderful speakers included Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, CA State Assemblymember Rob Bonta, and manufacturers from throughout the Bay Area. Mayor Schaaf discussed how municipalities can and do support local manufacturers. Assemblymember Bonta shared how manufacturing can be used as a way to retain and create middle-class jobs for a more equitable Bay Area. From the stage, manufacturing companies from across the region spoke about the ways they have worked with cities to make manufacturing viable in the Bay Area.

The 2017 Bay Area Urban Manufacturing Summit was the culmination of the second year of a three-year Initiative launched and run by SFMade, to facilitate the creation of a well-defined and interconnected regional manufacturing ecosystem. This year, two toolkits were developed with the input and guidance from industry leaders and economic development officials from participating Bay Area cities. These toolkits are now available for download:

Promotion and Engagement Toolkit: Get ideas and examples from all over the country on how your city can reach out to and engage manufacturers

Real Estate Toolkit: Find out what tools you can use to protect industrial real estate in your city and create affordability for all manufactures.

In collaboration with JLL, SFMade released an exciting infographic on Bay Area manufacturing that shows just how strong the sector is in the region. Use it to help spread the word on what’s happening in Bay Area manufacturing.

We extend a big THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, speakers, and attendees!

On behalf of all of SFMade, thank you for your support!