EEF's 'Manufacturing Week' is making waves in the US.
At their request, I've been talking about Manufacturing Week on the manufacturing social network MfGCrunch. Here's an exerpt from my post:
"With an election looming and our economy crawling out of recession, the simple objective of 'Manufacturing Week' is to put manufacturing at the heart of the debate on the future of the UK economy.
In the UK, the manufacturing sector is plagued by persistent myths - that manufacturing is in decline, that we don't make anything anymore, that industry is dirty and dangerous, that successful kids go to college while the slow ones work in manufacturing, and - even more dangerous - that we can keep the clever stuff in the UK and send the production abroad.
These myths are rooted in dated images of industry and sit awkwardly with the widely accepted need to 'rebalance' the economy by growing manufacturing.
But what to do about it?
Well, the answer was simple - start standing up and shouting about what makes modern manufacturing so great - and so competitive - in the UK.
See, for the past 20 years, we've had bankers and lawyers pushing politicians to support a 'post-industrialist' society. They got what they wanted because they made politicians take notice.
But instead of griping about the recession they caused, we decided to take a page from the bankers' playbook and start 're-educating' the public and our politicians about modern manufacturing and why the sector is so important to the future of our economy.
As part of this campaign, we launched 'Manufacturing Week' to allow UK manufacturers to stand up for themselves, to be heard and to get in politicians' ears.
We've had special reports in the Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Times - all showing modern manufacturing as the diverse and dynamic industry it is.
And manufacturers are hosting events all around the country and blogging on why manufacturing matters.
Sure, it's been a struggle. UK manufacturers are modest by nature - they just like to get on with being a successful business.
But get them going and their passion is contagious."