2026 FIA Fall Meeting & Marketing Conference

The program includes keynotes, panels, breakouts, and interactive roundtables on steel-industry conditions; fabrication businesses, leadership, and industry outlook; AI and digitization in manufacturing; shop-floor equipment use cases and return on investment; and manufacturing’s economic and financial outlook. Sessions also address profitability, capital investment, business growth, tariffs, steel, leadership development, recruitment, small- and midsize-manufacturer growth, and potential changes to tax policy, OSHA and EPA regulations, and tariffs. Roundtable topics include culture, marketing, AI, and operations.

The morning program includes an overview of Weber Metals, updates on FIA and FIERF initiatives, and presentations on Boeing’s current market outlook and forging supply-chain insights. Attendees will discuss developments affecting the forging industry and its customers. After lunch, tours of Weber Metals and Aluminum Precision Products will cover their manufacturing operations and capabilities.

Exclusive to FIA members. Featured keynotes, economic updates, and panel discussions will offer perspectives to help members navigate change and plan for the future. A dedicated Next Gen workshop for attendees under age 35 focuses on professional development and building a successful career in forging.

The program combines technical and management sessions, exhibits, and presentations for foundry professionals, suppliers, casting designers, buyers, and OEM representatives. Topics include additive manufacturing, casting design and purchasing, engineering, environmental health and safety, ferrous and nonferrous alloys, Industry 4.0, marketing and sales, melting, molding, pouring, quality control, workforce development, and casting case studies, reshoring, material selection, and casting quality. The program also includes the Hoyt Memorial Lecture on integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and artificial intelligence for sustainable metalcasting. Its themes include alloy design, process innovation, digital manufacturing, workforce development, and using physics-based ICME with AI and machine learning to improve casting development, manufacturing processes, and prediction of microstructure, defects, and mechanical properties.

The conference objective is to enhance the value of participation in AIST activities and provide resources to help attendees grow as leaders in the association and the steel industry. Program topics include a North American steel update, economic perspectives, AIST strategic plan and program updates, and a rapid-fire discussion for questions, comments, and concerns. Leadership sessions address leading through uncertainty using neuroscience, psychology, and practical leadership strategies. A session on applying AI across a steel business addresses finance, supply chain, HR, and sales; data privacy and protecting proprietary know-how; AI adoption examples; identifying which data is safe to use with which tools; and preparing an implementation plan for IT. The event is invitation-only and open to Member Chapter officers, Technology Committee officers, Board of Director members, Board standing committee officers, and AIST Foundation Board of Trustees.

The technology conference covers ironmaking, steelmaking, finishing processes, and engineering and equipment technologies. Program topics include safety and health; environmental technology; cokemaking; ironmaking and direct reduced iron; electric and oxygen steelmaking; specialty alloys and foundry operations; secondary refining and continuous casting; hot and cold rolling, galvanizing, tinplate, plate and long products; pipe and tube; metallurgy; energy and utilities; electrical and digitalization applications; project and construction management; maintenance and reliability; refractory systems; material handling; cranes; and transportation and logistics. Technical topics include hydrogen-based ironmaking, scrap optimization, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas reduction, carbon capture and storage, water treatment and reuse, AI and digitalization, predictive maintenance, industrial control-system cybersecurity, steel product quality, and process reliability. The schedule lists technical sessions, the Howe Memorial Lecture, an undergraduate student project presentation contest, a graduate student poster contest display, a Steel to Students roundtable, Technology Committee meetings, and a Town Hall Forum. The event also includes an iron and steel exposition.

The annual conference addresses marketplace, government, industry, and business trends affecting die casting. Agenda sessions cover a Washington, D.C. update; U.S. manufacturing; the U.S. economy; die-casting strategies; tooling strategies framed as winning over China; an NADCA R&D update; and a roundtable discussion.

The executive forum addresses new capital investment opportunities and green technology, along with China’s peak production, rising low-cost imports, and changing U.S. tariff schedules. It brings together leaders across the global steel value chain, including raw-material suppliers, steelmakers, processors, fabricators, buyers, traders, technology and equipment providers, and investors. Its program connects strategic market economics with steel production technology.

The symposium focuses on advances in the physical, mechanical, and product metallurgy of bars, tubes, and forgings. Topics include microstructural design and alloying strategies; thermomechanical processing and heat treatment; steel cleanliness and machinability; materials and process modeling; and plant and process technologies. The program also covers AI/ML for process optimization and defect detection, hydrogen embrittlement, fatigue, high-strength and high-toughness steels, decarbonization, and electrification. Presentation topics include bar, rod, and wire products; surface hardening; closed- and open-die forgings; seamless mechanical tubular products; and induction heating for reheating applications. Manuscripts are encouraged but not required.