schedule 2025
This two-day event is designed for job shops to step away from the shop floor for networking, growth, and a bit of fun! The details are still developing, session titles and presenters will be added as they are confirmed.
EXPANDING INTO FABRICATION
Skylight A
DAY 1
7:30 AM
CHECK-IN, NETWORKING
8:15 AM
NATIONAL ANTHEM
Southwest Atrium
8:30 AM
OPENING COMMENTS & EVENT LOGISTICS
Southwest Atrium
Anchor Bay’s 30-year journey has taken the company from auto repair to advanced military coatings. Over the past seven years, they’ve expanded from one shop to two and grown their team from 30 to more than 70 employees. In the last three years, they’ve gone fully digital, added new services such as delivery and chemical processing, and received significant external investment to fuel their continued growth.
9:00 AM
A WINNING JOB SHOP JOURNEY
Southwest Atrium
Discover what to expect when working with larger OEM customers and how to prepare for securing long-term, high-value contracts. This session offers insights gained from years of leadership and consulting across the manufacturing industry.
10:00 AM
TABLE DISCUSSIONS
Southwest Atrium
11:00 AM
CONSIDERATIONS & STRATEGIES WHEN SELLING YOUR BUSINESS
12:30 PM
South Club
Skylight B
Southwest Atrium
SMART WATER FOR THE METAL FINISHER
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM BIGGER/OEM CUSTOMERS
Selling your business is one of the most important decisions you’ll face, and choosing the right buyer is critical. This session will explore key considerations, from the level of post-sale involvement that fits your goals to ensuring a buyer’s values, ethics, and commitments align with your expectations.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Water is one of the most overlooked resources in metal finishing, yet it has a major impact on cost, compliance, and efficiency. In this session, you will learn how “smart water” practices, like water mapping, cost tracking, and reuse strategies, can reduce wastewater expenses, improve quoting accuracy, and support sustainability goals.
11:15 AM
EMBRACING CHANGE TO FOSTER BUSINESS GROWTH
Southwest Atrium
Learn how to embrace change and transform it into a driver of business growth. Andrew will advise on powerful growth lessons that can be readily applied to your shop. Drawing from his personal experience in the Military as well as his experiences in running a strong team of metal finishers.
Southeast Atrium
11:45 AM
LUNCH
1:15 PM
LEADING CHANGE WITH ERP IMPLEMENTATION
Southeast Atrium
MARKETING TIPS FOR YOUR SHOP
Skylight B
This session will unpack change management, helping you navigate the human side of digital transformation. Learn how to drive teamwide enthusiasm, overcome resistance, and turn ERP implementation into momentum for lasting business growth.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Learn powerful business marketing strategies that set your business apart and ensures your hard work translates into real results. Drawing from his career as a senior executive with marketing leading companies, such as Kellogg’s, Dial, Gallo, and Cobra, John has now spent the second half of his career helping B2B companies thrive.
TABLE DISCUSSIONS
2:00 PM
Southeast Atrium
Try to kick a field goal on the Detroit Lions football field
Exhibit hall
Networking
Appetizers
Locker Room Tours
3:00 - 6:00 PM
FIELD ACTIVITIES
Southwest Atrium
JOB SHOP SUMMIT
DAY 2
7:30 AM
CHECK-IN, NETWORKING
Exhibitor Hall
8:30 AM
STEELHEAD’S JOURNEY & PURPOSE: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
Southwest Atrium
9:00 AM
STEELHEAD PRODUCT ROADMAP | PANEL DISCUSSION
Southwest Atrium
9:45 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
IMPROVING SALES FOR YOUR SHOP
Southwest Atrium
This session will show users how to leverage Steelhead to dramatically improve Quoting, and learn how Sales teams can better understand their own costs and margins. Teams will also learn other techniques to improve their sales performance, (and ultimately win more business!)
TAKE YOUR QUALITY TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Skylight B
This session will show users how to fully leverage their QMS feature, to improve quality and customer satisfaction in your shop. Attendees will learn how to effectively put parts 'on hold', how to Rework parts, how to authorize the appropriate person to release parts from Hold, how to generate NCRs and CARs to properly capture issues, how to easily document part defects, and more.
BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL PRODUCTION FLOOR
South Club
This session is for those that have not purchased Steelhead, but would like to see a demonstration on how it improves your profitability, quality, customer satisfaction, and sales, while reducing labor costs and mistakes. Our team will demonstrate any feature you would like to see and answer questions throughout the session.
WHAT METRICS ARE YOU RUNNING YOUR SHOP WITH?
Suite A
This session will show you helpful metrics to use in improving your business, and will show how to utilize Insights to get the metrics in a format that are most useful to you.
10:20 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
SCHEDULING FOR MAXIMUM ASSET UTILIZATION
Southwest Atrium
Learn practical scheduling strategies to get the most out of your plant assets. This session will cover methods for setting and communicating job priorities, from simple plant-wide approaches to asset-specific scheduling techniques. Attendees will walk away with actionable ways to improve throughput and keep work flowing smoothly.
IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DIGITAL SHOP MANAGEMENT
South Club
Learn the fundamentals of digital tools and systems that streamline scheduling, tracking, and communication, improving efficiency and visibility across the shop floor. Whether you’re just starting out or exploring ways to upgrade your processes, this session will give you practical insights to set your business up for long-term success.
CREATING AND USING SPECS
South Club
As specifications can be so important to improving higher quality work, this session will ensure attendees understand the proper way to use and apply Steelhead’s specs so you -can deliver those high quality jobs while maintaining high margins, without all that added labor normally associated with delivering parts with complex specifications.
11:00 AM
LUNCH
Skylight A
This session will show you how to take full advantage of your Customer Portal (so customers are not calling for part status, etc), your RFQ process, and your shipping notification process. The goal is to (easily) exceed all customer service expectations, while saving both of you a lot of time!
12:30 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
QUOTING FOR SUCCESS
Southwest Atrium
This session will show you how to quote using simple or formulaic techniques, and show how to use real-time job costing to quote a certain Part Number. Attendees will see a demonstration of the full quoting creation and approval process, so they are comfortable executing a max-profit approach to quoting.
WORKSHOP: GET YOUR IDEAS BAKED INTO STEELHEAD’S NEW FEATURE
Skylight A
This session will show you more about the new AI Analyst tool, to give your team immediate answers from everything from "What parts are the most profitable" to "How should I improve quality in my plant". Come be a part of this discussion!
STEELHEAD ACCOUNTING
Skylight B
ELIMINATE DOWNTIME WITH MAINTENANCE
Suite A
This session will cover how to effectively configure Steelhead maintenance. Reduce downtime by digitizing preventative tasks, real-time monitoring, and streamlined scheduling to keep equipment running smoothly and minimize production disruptions.
Here you will see Steelhead's all-in-one accounting package, which completes the journey from inbound RFQ to Deposit.
1:10 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
WORKSHOP: UX EXPERIENCE
Southwest Atrium
Experience a live User Experience research session modeled after the methods used by top tech teams, where your feedback to Steelhead becomes part of the process.
WINNING WITH JOB COSTING
HOW EASY IS IT TO DEPLOY STEELHEAD AT YOUR COMPANY?
Skylight B
Skylight A
This session will show you how Steelhead’s unique deployment process enables a complete launch of your account in a fraction of the time you’d expect, while ensuring all personnel are properly trained and able to operate this amazing tool effectively.
This important session will show you how to fully leverage your built-in job costing tools, in your quoting process, to ensure you are winning the “good jobs” and not filling your shop with low margin work. Job Timer usage and monitoring will be a key part of this demonstration.
EFFECTIVE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
Suite A
This session will demonstrate how our inventory module enables real-time tracking and management through item categorization, QR code batch scanning, and notifications to reorder inventory if items fall below their alert threshold.
USING DIGITAL MANUFACTURING TO COMPETE & WIN | PANEL DISCUSSION
2:00 PM
Southwest Atrium
Job Shop Speakers
2:45 PM
CLOSING COMMENTS
Southwest Atrium
3:00 -
4:00 PM
NETWORKING AND EVENT WRAP UP
STEELHEAD USER CONFERENCE
11:45 AM
ACTIVITY