Retired CoB Professor, Mike Reilly to give keynote at MMEC conference in October
Retired Montana State University Professor Mike Reilly will head the lineup of speakers at this fall’s “Compete Smart” Manufacturing Conference to be held Oct. 11 and 12 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula.
Hosted by the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center and Northwestern Energy, the event will also feature several speakers giving national manufacturing perspective and insights from a variety of innovative Montana company leaders.
Reilly will give the keynote address at noon Thursday, Oct. 11. His talk, an entertaining
presentation titled “Advances in Payload Delivery Technology: the Cruise Missile Outperforms
Saturation Marketing,” will explain how to combine enduring principles of marketing
with targeted information age tools to reach “Homo Digitus” — the Digital Man.
Reilly, who has been with the MSU College of Business since 1984, has spent more than 30 years as a professor and consultant to small- and medium-sized businesses and government agencies, specializing in business-to-business marketing analysis and planning, strategic marketing, and market analysis for new technology and products. He has received many awards for both his teaching and research. Colleagues describe him as “a rare academic who is more firmly grounded in the real business world than many practicing business people.”
Ehlert, who is also the director of the Family Business Program, is also a speaker
at the conference. He will present “Winning Montana Family Business” at 4:10-5:40
p.m. on Thursday, October 11. Ehlert will examine and discuss the characteristics
that have skyrocketed manufacturing success for Family Business Program award winners
across the state and how these businesses stack up to national excellence standards,
as well as discuss how these characteristics compare to national excellence standards.
Participants will learn about helpful resources for their businesses.
The conference also includes manufacturing plant tours, 26 breakout sessions, exhibitors, and a 100-foot wall of products manufactured in Montana. Sponsors include the Montana Department of Agriculture, Montana Department of Commerce, the Made In Montana program, Innovate Montana, S&K Electronics, First Interstate Bank, UPS and other organizations.
The Montana Manufacturing Extension Center is a statewide manufacturing outreach and assistance center, staffed by full-time professionals with degrees in engineering and extensive experience in manufacturing and business in a variety of industries.
