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The panel processing industry converged on the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado in October for another successful Material Technology & Design Symposium. Held at the beautiful Grand Hyatt located downtown, the event was highlighted by a powerhouse panel featuring some of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world discussing what they are seeing in the industry in the coming years. The stage was set for panelists Kevin Sauder president of Sauder Woodworking; Michael Pitman, senior VP of sales at Ashley Furniture; Mike Evans, president & CEO of Bush Industries; and Arash Fasihi, founder of Cymax and CEO of Growthpipe Ventures, who discussed education on the future.

When your title is “chief disruptor,” you aren’t intimidated by technologies that are permanently changing the way we conceive, design, manufacture and sell products. Instead, you embrace those technologies and see opportunities where others see threats.

Tom Wujec is chief disruptor at Autodesk—the Oscar-winning industry leader in 3D computer animation technology and one of the world’s largest software companies—and he revels in sharing today’s exciting opportunities during his celebrated talks on innovation.

Dean Mattson’s program at North Salem High School is not the only successful woodworking program in schools today, but with its model of operating like a business, and the excellent work Mattson has done raising the funds and awareness necessary to outfit the shop, it is the embodiment of what an effective, modern technical education program looks like.