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At the IME West event in Anaheim, CA, earlier this year, exhibitors welcomed a group of attendees that they are not accustomed to meeting at a business-to-business trade show. They were young students from underserved communities, invited by The Diversity Org to experience and learn about industries and, in the process, discover career opportunities that many of them barely knew existed. Informa Markets – Engineering, which organizes the event and numerous other trade shows around the world, has partnered with The Diversity Org to repeat this experience at the forthcoming IME East show in New York on June 13 to 15.

“Moving forward, Informa Markets and The Diversity Org recognize that to make generational change, it’s not just a one and done,” said Joshua Pierce, CEO and founder of The Diversity Org. “Together we are committed to providing thousands of underserved students with ongoing opportunities to see, feel, and elevate their participation in panels and tour expo floors, where students can learn and build connections with exhibitors within various different industries. Together we are building practical systems to increase diversity across multiple companies and industries,” said Pierce.

At IME East, which includes the co-located Plastec East and MD&M East events, Informa Markets – Engineering and The Diversity Org will host 70 students from a Bronx high school. It’s bound to be a win-win. The students will discover that advanced manufacturing looks nothing like the Dickensian clichés that oddly seem to persist and, in fact, offers well-paying, rewarding careers that often don’t require taking on crushing student loan debt. Meanwhile, exhibitors can engage with a potential future workforce that can help to shrink the skilled labor shortage that is a perennial struggle.

IME East, which also includes EastPack, automation-focused ATX East, Design & Manufacturing East, and Quality Expo East, comes to the Jacob Javits Center in New York on June 13 to 15, 2023. For more information about the event, including numerous sessions devoted to advanced manufacturing, medtech trends, advances in packaging materials and design, and much more, go to the IME East website.