MEETINGS IN REVIEW

The CISA Mission is to:

Support member companies in order to facilitate growth and prosperity by providing information, education and business opportunities, and by interfacing with other industry associations around the world to benefit the casting industry while fostering rewarding professional and business relationships.

MEETING IN REVIEW

 92^nd CISA Spring Conference

The 92^nd CISA Spring Conference was held at the Hilton Beach Resort, Marco Island, FL April 18-20^th, 2010. The theme for the conference was “Emerging Markets” Vic LaFay opened the conference by recapping the results of the consumable/equipment group questionnaire on the CISA member’s opinions in regard to present and future business opportunities. LaFay aptly entitled his presentation “Forging Ahead, a New set of Rules”

President McLean explained the basis upon which CISA and the American Foundry Society can work more closely to the benefit of their customers.

A round table discussion, chaired by John Maxwell centered around emerging markets and some of the questions CISA members were interested in to better serve their concerns in these difficult times for North American Metalcasters and, in turn, suppliers to the end users.

George Magliano, Director Automotive Industry Research, North America presented the attendees with a most rewarding presentation centering on the global and U.S. light vehicle outlook along with a global economic and auto overview.

Mike Swartzlander, Founder & Managing Director, Cast Strategies LLC who has worked and lived abroad, most recently from living in Mumbai, India gave attendees his personal insights with a presentation entitled “Incredible India! Foundry Opportunities”. 

Swartzlander explained that the growth of casting shipments was being driven by the infrastructure and consumers in India with exports growing in importance. The OEM’S were driving quality and capability expectations. Projections are that casting shipments from India in 2015 will reach 5,000.000 Gray Iron, 1,000.000 Tons of Ductile Iron and 800,000 Tons of Aluminum Castings.

A long time CISA favorite, David Littmann who is presently a Senior Economist with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy leaned heavily on government spending/government employee benefits as being a major contributor to the present poor economic state of our country.

Gary Schine, a consultant for Mergers and Acquisitions forewarned attendees on overpaying for acquisitions and gave the reasons why a strategic acquisition could be a smarter way to grow a small or medium sized company.

Tim McMillin gave an update on AFS with particular emphasis on the potential clash of the AFS CastExpo and the GIFA Exposition in Germany.

Clinton Padgett, President/CEO of Project Success Inc (PSI) gave a most informative presentation on how to achieve project performance in as little as five days. Padgett provides consulting, training and account management to clients worldwide.

As part of CISA’s ongoing member company profiles James Bade, Business Vice President, Foundry for Allied Mineral Products gave attendees an overview of his company’s dedication to achieve “A Global Perspective”.

The Spring Conference brought a series of most positive comments from attendees on the Conference content and benefits to their individual companies.