Manufacturing Conference In Raleigh Looks To The Future

North Carolina has a long history in manufacturing.  Thousands of jobs have been lost to competition elsewhere.  But a conference today at the Raleigh Convention Center sets out to show the future is again bright for manufacturing.  Anita Brown-Graham is the Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues.  She says this week’s conference is called “Manufacturing Works.”

"There are many people who now hold very out-dated perceptions of the factory.  They see it as the factory of their grandfather’s generation.  And so we are intentionally looking at new clusters of manufacturing.  We’ll be talking about manufacturing living organs for people and animals,” said Brown-Graham.

North Carolina is the fourth largest manufacturing state in the country.  U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan are expected to address the two-day conference, along with national and local business leaders.