By Rachael Pfenninger, director of strategic execution, AMBA

It has been nearly a year since AMBA Conference 2024, where AMBA’s Emerging Leaders gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, members of the AMBA community developed skills in assertiveness, peer connection and leadership and stepped off the shop floor to forge industry connections. But what has the Network been up to since? Well… it’s been busy!

After the Network’s pre-conference session at the annual AMBA Conference, it held its second Leadership Retreat, which featured a live, in-person workshop alongside two facility tours. The year continued with a virtual leadership series shared with young professionals from other manufacturing associations, offering abundant peer connection and learning opportunities that have gone on to shape the supervisory and peer connection skills of AMBA members.

Network Strives to Expand Offerings,
Representation in 2025
As it approaches the end of the first quarter of 2025, the growth of the Network shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to adding three new mold manufacturers to the Emerging Leaders Advisory Board and two new supplier members, AMBA has forged ahead with its next Emerging Leaders virtual series. Launching April 2025 (and now open for registration at www.amba.org/events), this series will detail a variety of lean practices and continuous improvement initiatives from member facilities.

Professional Development Continues to Abound
in the AMBA Community
As virtual programming for 2025 takes off, planning for AMBA’s next pre-conference session already has begun. Registration now is open for AMBA Conference 2025 and, specifically, the Emerging Leaders pre-conference session, “The Brain Science Behind Achievement.”

Facilitated by Joe Roberts, keynote speaker and four-time author, this hands-on workshop will equip emerging leadership with the same systems and brain science leveraged by Roberts as he walked across North America during the Push for Change campaign. Roberts will share evidence-based strategies and proven methods that can help AMBA’s emerging leaders build exceptional mental resilience, identify self-limiting beliefs and develop the confidence necessary to pursue personal and professional goals with clarity and purpose. 

During this session, attendees will learn how to implement a process for identifying the unconscious drivers that block productivity and goals, build a simple framework for tackling one’s goals through the use of a practical, science-based model, minimize conflict while conducting productive performance and accountability discussions and navigate the personal and situational roadblocks common to challenge and change. n