Ask most gear and bearing professionals where their best career relationships came from, and they will rarely point to a cold call or a LinkedIn message. They will point to a room. A dinner. A conversation that started over coffee and turned into something that mattered years later.
That kind of connection does not happen by accident. It happens when the right people are put together in the right environment with enough time and the right programming to let real relationships take hold. That is the premise behind the MPMA Strategic Networking and Leadership Forum. Ask folks that were part of this 15 years ago who are now leaning on each other as they lead this generation of gear shops. Make your own connections June 2-4 in Indianapolis, Indiana, this year.
The SNL Forum is built specifically for mid-level managers and rising executives in the gear and bearing industry. It is not a trade show. It is not a lecture series. It is a working forum where the people in the room are as valuable as anything on the agenda and where the agenda itself is designed to give those people more to talk about.
Knowledge That Travels Back to Work with You
The 2026 program is built around two of the most pressing realities in manufacturing right now: the challenge of building and keeping great teams and the rapid change happening on the shop floor and in the systems that run it. On the people side, attendees will hear from experts in hiring, interviewing, and leadership development, including a hands-on workshop on recruiting strategies designed specifically for manufacturing environments and a session that takes an honest look at why so many new hires walk out the door and what leadership culture has to do with it.
On the technology side, speakers will address how automation and robotics are creating new demands on gear and bearing components. We will look at this issue from three sides: how robots can enhance your shop floor, what is expected in precision bearing and gear sets from robot companies moving from prototyping to scale production, and how advanced manufacturing is converging with data systems to unlock traceability and long-term value across a product lifecycle.
The five speakers across the three days bring backgrounds that span precision gear manufacturing, robotics and automation, workforce development, technical recruiting, and startup-to-scale manufacturing consulting. What they share is direct experience with the problems the people in the room face every day. These are not keynote speakers brought in to fill a slot. They are practitioners with something specific and useful to say.
The Connections You Build Here Are the Ones That Last
MPMA has always understood the sessions are only part of the value. The 2026 forum is structured to give attendees genuine time with each other, starting with an icebreaker on the first afternoon where every participant introduces themselves, their company, and what they do. From there, the schedule weaves together programming and connection throughout the event, including a welcome happy hour, a networking lunch, and a Wednesday evening reception and dinner at The Hangar, one of Indianapolis’s top destinations for an evening out. There will be food, drinks, a golf simulator, and the kind of relaxed environment where professional relationships actually form.
The forum wraps on Thursday morning with a tour of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Museum Allison Branch, dedicated to preserving the history of Rolls-Royce and Allison Engine Company. It is a fitting close for a group of people who spend their careers building the components that power some of the world’s most demanding machines. Historic engines, design records, and decades of aerospace, defense, and energy engineering — all in one place.
Who Belongs at This Event
If you are a mid-level manager or a rising executive in the gear and bearing industry and you are looking for a peer group that understands the specific world you work in, this event was designed for you. Not for your company. For you. The SNL Forum is one of the few places in this industry where you can spend three days with people at exactly the same stage of their careers, working through the same challenges, and building the kind of network that opens doors for years to come.
The people you meet in Indianapolis in June could be the most valuable professional relationships you build this year. Register at agma.org.
Fundamentals of Parallel Axis Gearing
June 2-4 | Clearwater Beach, Florida
Gain a solid and fundamental understanding of gear geometry, types and arrangements, and basic design principles. Starting with the basic definitions of gears, conjugate motion, and the Laws of Gearing, learn the tools needed to understand the inter-relation and coordinated motion operating within gear pairs and multi-gear trains. Basic gear system design process, gear measurement and inspection techniques will also be explained.
In addition, the fundamentals of understanding the stepwise process of working through the iterative design process required to generate a gear pair will be reviewed. Learn the steps and issues involved in design refinement and some manufacturing considerations.
An explanation of basic gear measurement techniques, how measurement equipment and test machines implement these techniques, and how to interpret the results from these basic measurements will also be covered. Finally, a brief overview of in-service failure modes and causes.
Gear Failure Analysis
June 9-11 | Detroit, Michigan
Explore gear failure analysis in this hands-on seminar where students not only see slides of failed gears but can hold and examine more than 130 specimens with the same failure modes covered in the seminar. Approximately half of the course time consists of students in groups identifying failure modes on failed gears and working on a case study. Microscopes are available to examine failed specimens.
Analytical Gear Chart Interpretation
June 23 | Online
An introduction to the methodology of analytical gear inspection and the evaluation and interpretation of the resulting data. The application of this information to identify and correct manufacturing errors will be explored. Additionally, it reviews chart interpretation and applies inspection data to understand the causes and cures of manufacturing errors. Many chart examples will be used to understand cause and effect.
Design Basics of Spur and Helical Gears
July 13 | Online
Learn how to develop and understand customer gear drive application specifications and target performance expectations. Review, calculate, and select basic gear terminology variables and design parameters that define tooth bending and contact rating safety factors on two real-life examples. Learn how to optimize gear fatigue safety factors for a given target design life and fit new gear designs and ratios into existing center distance using profile shift. Use commercially available software to develop gear geometry factors and calculate and optimize gear set power density and performance. Review common gear failure modes if the design or final accuracy does not meet application requirements.
Involute Spline Design and Rating
July 14-15 | Online
This course will address both geometry and rating of involute splines of various types. The types of spline joints and their applications will be discussed. Spline configuration variations, including half depth, full depth, and special function designs, will be addressed. Both fixed and flexible spline configurations will be examined in terms of usage and design. Lubrication methods, including grease, oil bath, and flowing oil, as well as coatings appropriate for various spline applications, are examined. Shear and compressive stress rating methods are discussed with analyses methodology presented in both equation and graphical methodology via various rating charts.
Basic Loaded Tooth Contact Analysis Theory
July 16 | Online
Evaluation of loaded tooth contact and development of tooth modifications using commercially available software to improve and apply a realistic load distribution factor Km in gear rating calculations. Two real life gearing examples will be presented in the course: One will have a cantilever mounted pinion; the other will have a shaft pinion straddled non-symmetrically by bearings. Both examples demonstrate component deflections under load, which significantly reduce tooth mesh contact that is then corrected with developed helix and profile modifications. Other gear performance optimization tools will also be presented: material and heat-treatment selection, profile shift, isotropic finishing, shot peening, and accuracy.
Operator Gear Grinding
July 21-22, 2026 | Online
Explore precision gear grinding processes, machine input variables, kinematics and gear geometry in Part A, grinding simulator, machine alignment, setup errors, pitfalls, common gear fatigue failures, and expectations related to finish ground gearing in Part B. Learn definitions of gearing component features, application loads, and process steps from blanking through heat treatment to finished part ready to ship. Study aspects of quality assurance, inspection documentation, and corrective actions for measured non-conformances. Understand pre-heat treat, heat-treatment distortion, and post-heat-treatment operations including the hows and whys to produce finished gears that conform and perform to end user expectations. Calculate gear form grinding cycle times for real life examples for various accuracy levels on commercially available software.
Fundamentals of Worm and Crossed Axial Helical Gearing
August 4-6, 2026 | Charlotte, North Carolina
This course is intended to be both an overview of worm and wheel gearing, as well as an introduction to the application, design considerations, practical development techniques for manufacturing, and finally how best to apply worm and wheel technology. It will cover some design development, lubrication considerations, and failure modes and causes.
Essential Concepts of Bearing Technology
August 4-6, 2026 | Charlotte, North Carolina
This course is specially designed for engineers and others with technical backgrounds who have had limited exposure to rolling element bearings and need to adapt their technical training to bearings or seek an upgrade to their technical knowledge. The essentials course focuses on understanding basic internal geometry, tribology, bearing attributes, and applications and explores the basic concepts around manufacturing methods, loads, internal load contacts, lubrication, and failure.
Gearbox System Design
August 18-27, 2026 | Online
This course focuses on the supporting elements of a gearbox that allow gears and bearings to do their jobs most efficiently. Learn about seals, lubrication, lubricants, housings, breathers, and other details that go into designing gearbox systems.
