On Wednesday October 20th, World Business Chicago along with our partners the Calumet Area Industrial Commission hosted a Manufacturing Town Hall with 40 Chicago manufacturers to discuss the challenges and opportunities in strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem of Chicago. With nearly 12,000 manufacturing firms in the region, Chicago has one of the largest manufacturing bases in the United States.

The purpose of this town hall was to provide a platform for World Business Chicago to hear directly from manufacturers and ensure that this important sector – identified in the Recovery Task Force Report – is supported. Throughout this 60 minute town hall World Business Chicago discussed numerous topics from permitting and regulation, workforce, and how to better engage this key industry. World Business Chicago is currently working on the follow ups from this session and will look to collaborate with additional partners to support manufacturing investment in Chicago.