2026 SOCMA Summit & Annual Meeting

The conference addresses legal and regulatory challenges for manufacturers, with sessions on tariffs, trade policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforcement, supply chains, labor and employment policy, and generative AI intellectual property issues including training data, copyright, ownership and licensing. Other sessions examine Suncor Energy v. Boulder and Supreme Court decisions affecting manufacturers; coordination of litigation defense with regulatory compliance and enforcement; professional responsibility, ethics and AI governance across legal and manufacturing functions; PFAS regulations and litigation; local-government lawsuits targeting manufacturers and products; and emergency-response practices covering evidence preservation, site control, internal investigations, liability management, stakeholder communications and reputational protection. The program offers CLE-accredited educational content. Registration is reserved for in-house manufacturing counsel.

Described as one of the largest petrochemical events in the world, the conference draws participants from companies across the globe to hear from industry leaders on political, economic and environmental issues facing the petrochemical sector. Sessions include Reflections from the C-Suite with the CEO of BASF Corporation, a TotalEnergies refining and petrochemicals SVP, and Dow's Chief Operating Officer; The Evolving Global Policy Landscape and its Impacts on the Petrochemical Industry; and Supply Chains Under Stress, examining how leaders are responding to global supply disruptions with executives from LyondellBasell, Brenntag North America, and the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region. A workforce-focused session, Shaping Tomorrow: The Petrochemical Workforce and Next-Gen Leaders, addresses talent pipeline challenges. Market analysis sessions include S&P Global's "Petrochemicals: The Phoenix Amid the Flames" and Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS's "Chemical Crossroads: Mapping the Route to 2060." A Women in Industry panel addresses mid-career leadership in the chemical industry, and the International Petrochemical Luncheon features a conversation with former President George W. Bush.

Under the theme “Chemical Engineering Reimagined,” the meeting covers chemical-engineering research, technologies, and emerging growth areas. Program guides highlight AI and machine learning, climate change, industrial careers, and early-career faculty. The AI and machine-learning program includes sessions on process development; polymer simulation, informatics, and data analytics; data-driven pharmaceutical process controls; AI-enabled process design, scale-up, and workforce readiness; nuclear chemical engineering; manufacturing-system modeling; computational catalysis; digital twins in energy systems; biomass utilization; and data-driven medicine. Featured discussions consider digital transformation, evolving industrial ecosystems, sustainability pressures, and changing workforce expectations, as well as ways to incorporate data science into chemical-engineering curricula, degree programs, certificates, and teaching of statistics and programming. Featured lectures address chemical engineers’ roles amid advances in AI, sustainable energy, and an interconnected global economy, and the use of catalysis to convert biomass, CO2, and end-of-life polymers into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Other lecture themes include carbon circularity, process intensification, renewable hydrogen, and pathways toward net-negative carbon manufacturing.

The meeting brings together executives, decision-makers, and technical experts from refining businesses, technology providers, contracting and consulting firms, and equipment manufacturers. Sessions address policies, regulations, geopolitics, and disruptions affecting downstream businesses. The agenda includes general sessions, concurrent breakout sessions, and a Government Relations Breakfast.

The program spans chemical engineering, process industries, and process safety. Spring Meeting topics include process intensification; automation, data analytics, and machine learning in Industry 4.0; ethylene production; gas processing, conversion, and utilization; refinery operations; distillation; petrochemical processing; and energy-transition technologies, policies, and industry strategies. The AI and Energy Nexus and Chemical Engineering & the Law are also listed as program areas. Process-safety programming includes the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) International Conference, the Process Plant Safety Symposium (PPSS), the Annual Loss Prevention Symposium (LPS), the Process Safety Management Mentoring (PSM2) Symposium, and a Process Safety Topical Conference. Listed subjects include process-safety management practices, plant-level methods and tools, explosion prevention, fire protection, lessons from incident investigations, hydrogen production, storage and use, and process-safety issues affecting regions around the world.

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 conference serves semiconductor-industry executives, engineering and fab managers, academics, startup founders, financial analysts, market researchers, consulting firms, and consortia. Its stated focus is materials innovation, management, and business success; the 2027 agenda is not yet published.

Sessions cover manufacturing profitability; securing operational technology on the plant floor; legal issues facing Georgia manufacturers; leadership, culture, and continuous improvement in high-performance plants; and AI, marketing, and relationship strategies for business growth. The program also features a Georgia Manufacturing Workforce Forum focused on building the workforce manufacturers need.

The program focuses on weapon-system maintenance and sustainment, readiness, and defense industrial base revitalization. Plenary and breakout sessions examine acquisition authorities and faster capability delivery; domestic manufacturing, industrial-base investment, and workforce capacity; contested logistics and forward maintenance; munitions lifecycle management; resilient supply chains; and the application of AI, advanced manufacturing, software, and digital engineering to sustainment. Specific discussions include the Portfolio Acquisition Executive authorities under the Warfighting Acquisition System; the Major Weapon Systems and Critical Munitions Readiness Campaign Plan; EO 14415 supply-chain mapping and illumination; and public-private co-production, technical data and right to repair, intellectual property, and capital requirements for industrial-base expansion. The Weapon Systems Software Summit covers applied AI and autonomous systems, DevSecOps and software factories, cybersecurity and Zero Trust, digital engineering, data and cloud architecture, acquisition policy, and workforce and talent management. Associated forums address corrosion prevention, provisioning and cataloging, defense working-capital funds, depot capabilities, allied co-sustainment, and supply-chain risk management. The program also includes a Maintenance Innovation Challenge and a co-located Maintenance and Logistics Exhibition with a Maintenance Yard.