Gear up for the 2026 MPMA Annual Meeting, April 23-25, 2026, at the stunning Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida. This gathering, hosted by the Motion + Power Manufacturers Alliance (MPMA), brings together top executives, thought leaders, innovators, and decision-makers from across the power transmission manufacturing sector for three days of networking, expert insights, and forward-thinking strategy.
Situated against the breathtaking backdrop of Florida’s Gulf Coast, the Sunseeker Resort offers the perfect blend of business and beachside leisure. Attendees will experience a curated program designed not only to educate but also to inspire and connect the MPMA community. From in-depth general sessions to dynamic networking events, new opportunities abound.
An agenda built for growth
The 2026 Annual Meeting is built around three core pillars: education, connection, and innovation. Each of these will be delivered through a powerful lineup of sessions and speakers that will arm attendees with fresh ideas and competitive insights.
Cutting-Edge Keynotes & Sessions
The agenda features thought leaders covering the most transformative topics shaping the industry today:
- Generational Workforce and Market Trends: Learn how shifting employee expectations and intergenerational dynamics are influencing hiring, retention, and sales strategies — delivered by workplace trends expert Cam Marston.
- Strategic Foresight for Business Leaders: Explore how strategic foresight can help guide organizational decision-making in rapidly changing markets, with insights from Kristine Metter.
- Adapting to a Changing Manufacturing Landscape: Laurie Harbour will dive into the latest manufacturing trends, including supply chain realities, operational improvements, and how to stay agile in a volatile economy.
- Trade and Tariff Dynamics: With national trade policy in flux, Nate Bolin will deliver a comprehensive overview on tariffs, trade remedies, and risk mitigation strategies that manufacturers must understand to remain competitive.
- Economic Forecast & Market Outlook: Jim Meil, a veteran industry economist, will provide a realistic look at what 2026 holds for the broader economy and key manufacturing sectors — helping attendees position their businesses for what’s next.
- Innovation & Curiosity in Manufacturing: In a captivating session by Nash Fung, attendees will see how curiosity-driven can unlock breakthroughs in technology, processes, and thinking.
Each session is designed to equip professionals across the gear and power transmission industry with practical tools, strategic insights, and a deeper understanding of global and domestic challenges.
Why Attend?
Whether you’re a seasoned executive, emerging leader, or key decision-maker in the manufacturing sector, the 2026 MPMA Annual Meeting offers unmatched value. Attendees will gain:
- Actionable insights from industry experts.
- Strategic foresight on economic and market forces.
- Opportunities to network with peers and industry partners.
- Inspiration to drive innovation and long-term growth.
This will be the first time that attendees will be meeting under the Motion + Power Manufacturers Alliance (MPMA) and MPMA Foundation banner. Everyone in the room will have united goals through their newly united trade association. Whether this is your first time at this event or you are a seasoned attendee, this year will have that extra bit of joint commitment.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of this vibrant forum where strategy meets action, ideas turn into opportunity, and lasting relationships are forged. Registration is open now.
Upcoming Courses
Bevel Gear Systems Design
March 2-6 | Live Online
Learn how to design and apply bevel gears systems from the initial concept through manufacturing and quality control and on to assembly, installation and maintenance. Engage in a practical hands-on guide to the bevel gear design, manufacture, quality control, assembly, installation rating, lubrication and, most especially, application.
High Profile Contact Ratio Gearing
March 24 | Live Online
High Profile Contact Ratio (HCR) gears, both spur and helical, have been shown to provide significant reductions in gear mesh frequency noise and vibration levels and, depending on the specific configuration, improved load capacity as well. The design of HCR gears is, however, far from a simple task and must be carefully accomplished. In addition, HCR gears are not appropriate for every circumstance.
In this seminar, you will learn what HCR gears are and under what circumstances they can be used to advantage. Similarly, you will learn when HCR gears are not appropriate and why. You will cover the detailed tooth geometry changes that are required to effectively achieve optimum performance and benefit. You will learn how the load distribution along the involute profile changes when the contact ratio increases above two.
Because of the longer, more slender teeth on a HCR gear, the heat treatment and profile modifications that are required for good performance are distinctly different from those for a standard contact ratio gear. The load capacity rating of HCR gears requires the application of modified AGMA analyses as the AGMA Standards specifically do NOT address gears with profile contact ratios greater than 2.0 thus we will also cover the changes required to successfully rate HCR gears.
Taming Tooth Deflection
March 26 | Live Online
Tooth deflections under load can cause involute interference, which leads to very high tooth surface loads in regions of high sliding and low tooth curvature radius. These condition loads can produce scoring, spalling, and wear failures. Proper profile modifications applied to both members of the mesh eliminate the deleterious effects of the deflection induced involute interference and allow the gear set to yield its maximum inherent load carrying capacity. Proper profile modifications also allow a gear set to operate with lower noise and vibration levels.
Basic Training for Gear Manufacturing
April 13-17 | Chicago, Illinois
Learn the fundamentals of gear manufacturing in this hands-on course. Gain an understanding of gearing and nomenclature, principles of inspection, gear manufacturing methods, and hobbing and shaping. Using manual machines, develop a deeper breadth of perspective and understanding of the process and physics of making a gear as well as the ability to apply this knowledge in working with CNC equipment commonly in use.
A Practical Approach to Managing Gear Noise
May 12-13 | Online
This course combines theory with practical testing and simulation techniques used to manage gear noise. Topics focus on insights into the mechanisms for both whine and rattle, the two most common categories of gear “noise.” The course presents clear explanations relating subjective evaluations of audible noise to objective actions, including troubleshooting and countermeasures. Concepts are supported with a number of sound and movie files. Technical papers supporting certain concepts are cited for the students’ further study.
Advanced Concepts of Bearing Technology
May 18-21 | Schamburg, Illinois
This course builds on the foundations of the Essential Course and challenges the experienced engineer in areas such as internal loading and Hertzian stresses, failure initiation criteria, friction and wear, and fatigue life calculation methods. This is an exceptional course for engineers with 2-3 years work experience in rolling element bearings or past attendees of the Essential Concepts of Bearing Technology. A general knowledge of the basic bearing types and terminology is required.
EV Automotive Transmission System Design
May 19-21 | Schamburg, Illinois
This course will cover all aspects of gearbox concept, development, design, and through the initial stages of analysis as related to product requirements. We will review all the most common EV transaxle architectures, power flow and layout and the “whys” of packaging as such. Independent of the architecture and/or layout, there are many similarities in the functional and operational requirements of an EV transaxle gearbox. We will work through all of those and develop a workable set of requirements that will then be used as the design basis.
From a high-level point of view the “big” difference between transaxles for EVs (electric vehicles) and transmissions designed for more traditional manual transmissions (MTs) and/or automatic transmissions (ATs) is the lack of the “noisy” internal combustion engine or ICE motor. An internal combustion engine driving into a typical gearbox provides a great deal of NVH masking. Thus, we obviously need to design quieter gearboxes to reduce the potential of observed gearbox NVH, now potentially unmasked by the lack of the ICE signature and magnitude.
However, and moreover, the signature from an ICE is much different than from the electric motor. The new input signature, frequency, and magnitude, cause a shift to higher frequencies and generally lower magnitudes of vibrational energies. That in turn becomes a more significant consideration in terms of gear design and application. We will discuss this and more throughout the course.
