Hurco Kids bridge the skills gap
We're doing our part to close the skills gap. Below is just a sampling of "Hurco kids" getting an early education about machining (and HURCO SWAG 😆😁)! Just wait 20 years, they might just be the stars of the NEXT "A Control for Every Generation Campaign!"
Thanks for checking out this INSIDE HURCO blog post with behind the scenes scoop and highlights of our "CONTROL for EVERY Generation" campaign. To watch each episode in its entirety, go to Hurco.com/MyGeneration
A Control for Every Generation Campaign
I certainly hope you've noticed our CONTROL for EVERY GENERATION ads in Modern Machine Shop, Manufacturing News, MoldMaking Technology, SMART Manufacturing, CNC West, and Canadian Metalworking. Bob and Charley are the Hurco employees that "volunteered" in a very Hurco way to represent two important generations (the Baby Boomers and the Millennials). Sorry Gen X...you weren't in the Tech Center the day the talent "volunteered" as in "Hey you guys, we need a quick picture in front of a machine." Little did Bob and Charley know that quick photo would lead to a multi-year commitment to have their faces plastered on flyers, catalogs, and even a billboard! And let's not forget...the video series!
A Control for Every Generation and IMTS
But back to me. It was the eve of yet another IMTS year. Yes, 2019, the good ole days! First, I need to explain what I mean by yet another IMTS year. Until I came to Hurco, I thought I knew the ins and outs of trade shows. I had attended plenty. I had helped marketing people plan for events that I thought were pretty big shows in the consumer electronics and pharmaceutical industries.
My co-workers at Hurco told me IMTS was different. I was skeptical. You decide on a theme, figure out signage, what SWAG or giveaways you'll have, get the booth staffed...schedule media coverage. Boom! That's it. Right?
Wrong!
Well, here's the Inside Hurco scoop about IMTS...the planning process is AT LEAST a year. A trade show is a completely different deal when you have millions of dollars worth of iron to ship, rig, and set up. After about 6 IMTS events, I finally learned my lesson and started the planning process early. I vowed to avoid my infamous "IMTS Twitch" that has become my signature and typically takes full effect in July of each IMTS year.
Sidebar: I felt a little embarrassed (and wimpy) when Bob talked about his first IMTS (1988) when it was 10 days long! Watch Episode 3 of "A Control for Every Generation"
Ahead of Schedule. WINNING!
YES...me and the marketing dream team were ahead of the game. We had our theme (A Control for Every Generation), we had already done the video storyboards, and managed to shoot some videos. No IMTS Twitch for me! And then 2020 arrived. IMTS, which dates back to 1927, was cancelled per the press release I received below.
“The show has been held uninterrupted for 73 years, but now the global coronavirus health crisis requires the cancellation of what would have been the 34th edition of IMTS for the health and safety of our exhibitors, audiences and local business community,” says Peter R. Eelman, Vice President & CXO at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, which owns and produces IMTS.
I might be superstitious, but I'm not going to start early for IMTS 2022 (I'll live with my IMTS twitch and be happy to get back to normal).
how did we decide our imts theme?
The genesis for this campaign came from a Hurco distributor. He noticed that many of the "millennials" came up using CAD/CAM, which meant they didn't understand the value of conversational programming, especially the unique value of Hurco conversational programming (after all, our founder invented conversational programming). For the baby boomer generation, Hurco's Conversational Programming helped many machinists transition from manual machining to CNC. The entire structure of Hurco Conversational Programming was designed as a conversation between a machinist and software with the machinist answering questions about the part he wanted to cut.
Watch Bob talk about his first experience with Hurco Conversational Programming when he was a machinist from Episode 2.
But the Hurco control never stops improving and adapting. Conversational Programming is just one option. The Hurco control is equally powerful for NC (G-Code) or CAD/CAM. Our reason for being is to make CNC machines that are equipped with control technology that helps job shops be more productive and more profitable by providing ways to reduce setup time so your machine can make more chips. When you have a high-mix of parts and you're doing smaller lot sizes, Hurco can help.
Watch Bob and Charley Discuss the blog post entitled "Is Conversational Dead?" in Episode 2 of the video series.
customers speak. we listen.
I tell Bob and Charley that they can blame our customers for giving me the idea to have them star in this video series...for 10 years, our customers are asked in our annual survey, "What do you like best about Hurco?" Each year the results are the same. The majority answer "the control" but "the people" are always a close second. Give the people what they want!
Bob has been with Hurco for decades (we call him a boomerang employee because he keeps trying to leave us and always comes back). Charley wins for the most unusual path to Hurco: he left a letter in the mailbox of Hurco's President and Chief Operating Officer. He wanted his school to let him use the Hurco machines to actually cut something.
But Charley tells the story better than me. Watch here.
While Charley always knew he wanted to be in the machine tool industry, Bob had no idea what a machine shop was.
Watch Bob talk about how he got started in the industry.
Watch Charley talk about his childhood dream of being a machinist.
THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT THIS INSIDE HURCO BLOG POST about our campaign called "A Control for EVERY Generation" Go to Hurco.com/MyGeneration to watch each episode in its entirety.
