The International Fastener & Assembly Summit (IFAS)
Where Strategic Leadership Meets Technical Validation:
The International Fastener & Assembly Summit is a one-day, high-impact program created for leaders who are actively shaping the future of manufacturing and fastener performance. Join a highly curated audience of senior decision-makers and technical leaders from aerospace, automotive, electronics, medical devices, and industrial manufacturing—where fastening and assembly stand at the core of mission-critical operations.
A curated, closed-door forum for OEM and Tier 1 leaders to align design, production, and procurement. Validate your engineering choices, reduce supply chain risk, and accelerate your time-to-market.
On October 7, 2026, at the Phoenix Convention Center, the inaugural International Fastener & Assembly Summit (IFAS) will deliver a unique dual-layer experience, designed for how complex decisions in manufacturing and fastener performance are both shaped and implemented.
Education Built for Actionable Outcomes
The summit is structured with two integrated tracks that mirror real-world decision-making, each intentionally designed to help you advance a decision, solve a challenge, or achieve a tangible outcome:
TRACK 1:
Strategic Program
(Main Stage | Curated by International Fastener Expo):
Senior leaders from world-class companies—including General Motors, Toyota, Ford, HyWatts Energy, Yaskawa Motoman, Timken, McCarthy Building Companies, Zimmer Biomet, the US Air Force Research Lab, and much more—will share how they’re navigating AI-driven manufacturing at scale, strengthening supply chain resilience, mitigating risk, leading on zero-defect quality, and transforming production with automation, data, and emerging technologies. Sessions are built to give you a clear playbook on how to future-proof your strategy and drive alignment from the boardroom to the shop floor.
TRACK 2:
Technical Program
(Breakouts | Led by Fastener Training Institute):
Running concurrently, technical breakout sessions go deep on the pivotal engineering challenges shaping high-spec industries. Led by certified experts from the Fastener Training Institute, these sessions target real-world cases—joint design and preload control, failure analysis (including hydrogen embrittlement and corrosion), materials and compliance (ISO, IATF, AS9100), quality systems, and advanced risk management. All content is grounded in actionable case studies, giving you the frameworks to turn insight into immediate results.
This dual-layered approach ensures every attendee, whether you’re setting strategy or validating designs, can walk away with both the context and the technical confidence to make, defend, and implement better decisions. IFAS is the only event where strategic leadership and technical validation go hand-in-hand, helping you make smarter decisions, reduce risk, and accelerate impactful outcomes across your organization.
Instead of traditional presentations, our program features active learning tracks designed to strengthen your decision-making capabilities where it matters most. Every session moves beyond theory to deliver practical tools you can use immediately.
You will walk away equipped to execute on three critical decision tracks:
- Design Validation: Validate fastener and assembly decisions before production begins. You will learn to mitigate joint failure, address hydrogen embrittlement, and eliminate risks early in the design cycle.
- Production Scalability: Integrate robotics, advanced data, and AI-driven automation into complex assemblies. You will acquire frameworks to achieve zero-defect quality in high-spec environments.
- Supplier Risk & Compliance: Align engineering and procurement around shared specifications. You will discover how to navigate global compliance frameworks, reduce procurement timelines, and strengthen your supplier ecosystem.
Learn From Authorities Who Build and Scale
Hear directly from industry pioneers and visionaries who have built, scaled, and revolutionized manufacturing at the world’s leading organizations. These industry leaders are behind real operational breakthroughs: driving manufacturing technology initiatives and teaching supply chain resilience at the U.S. Air Force, to delivering complex power and energy systems for data centers and distributed energy networks at HyWatts, and spearheading global advancements in robotics and physical AI at McKinsey & Company.
Their expertise isn’t theoretical. Each speaker has executed bold transformations and led teams through complex, high-stakes environments.
Who Should Attend
IFAS is a carefully curated, limited-capacity gathering tailored for leaders who drive critical assembly and fastener decisions at scale.
You will share the room with C-level executives, VPs of Manufacturing, Directors of Engineering, and Chief Procurement Officers across the automotive, aerospace, defense, construction, electronics, MedTech, and semiconductor sectors.
Who IFAS is created for:
- Engineering Directors, Managers, Leads, and Principal/Staff Engineers
- Manufacturing, Operations, and Production Leaders
- Quality, Reliability, and Regulatory Leaders
- Supplier Quality, Procurement, and Supply Chain Leaders
- Automation, Robotics, and Digital Manufacturing Leaders
- R&D, NPI, and Product Development Program Managers
- OEM Leaders overseeing high-spec, complex assembly operators
- Advanced materials, Sustainability, and Circularity Specialists
By gathering leaders with shared challenges and shared accountability, IFAS creates a closed-door forum for genuine peer-to-peer problem solving. After the summit, attendees will leave equipped with actionable decision frameworks, technical insights, and a network of trusted peers and solution providers. These connections and takeaways will continue to deliver value through ongoing collaboration, shared problem solving, and opportunities to engage with the community beyond the event.
Accelerate Outcomes Through Intentional Matchmaking
Your time is valuable, so we architected the IFAS experience to be entirely purposeful and measurable. Through our structured 1-to-1 meeting program, we match you with the exact solution providers and peers necessary to solve your specific bottlenecks.
You will not wander a crowded hall hoping for a good conversation. Instead, you participate in intentional matchmaking designed to yield measurable success. Expect to leave the summit with two to three validated production decisions and entirely new supplier pathways.
Preliminary Schedule
| 7:30 AM – 8:10 AM | Registration & Networking |
| 8:10 AM – 8:40 AM | Education (Panel, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 8:40 AM – 9:10 AM | Education (Panel, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 9:10 AM – 9:40 AM | Education (Keynote, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 9:40 AM – 11:30 AM | Networking & Pre-Arranged 1-to-1 Meetings |
| 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM | Education (Panel, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM | Education (Session, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 12:35 PM – 1:45 PM | Lunch & Learn Roundtables |
| 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM | Education (Keynote, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 2:15 PM – 2:50 PM | Education (Panel, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 2:50 PM – 4:20 PM | Networking & Pre-Arranged 1-to-1 Meetings |
| 4:20 PM – 4:50 PM | Education (Session, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 4:50 PM – 5:30 PM | Education (Panel, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Education (Keynote, Breakout 1, Breakout 2) |
| 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Networking |
Pricing
Navigating complex global supply chains requires precise alignment between your engineering, production, and procurement teams. IFAS is the only event engineered to deliver that alignment in a single day.
Because we prioritize intentional matchmaking and peer-to-peer value, capacity for this inaugural summit is limited. We cap attendance to ensure the quality and exclusivity of the room remains uncompromised.
| Online (3/15 – 6/12) | Advanced (6/13 – 7/20) | Saver (7/21 – 9/4) | Preshow (9/5 – 10/6) | Onsite (10/6 – 10/9) |
| $170 | $205 | $240 | $275 | $305 |
Do not miss the opportunity to shape, validate, and accelerate your most critical manufacturing decisions alongside the best minds in the industry.
Strategic Sponsorship: Problem-Solving, Not Just Visibility
For solution providers, IFAS delivers outcome-driven marketing. We do not just sell exposure; we provide structured access to qualified buyers at the exact moment they need to solve procurement and assembly bottlenecks.
As a sponsor, you gain guaranteed 1-to-1 meetings and thought-leadership placements that connect you directly with mid-management specifiers and top-level decision-makers. You will sit across the table from the professionals who dictate high-value procurement.
Based on the historic delegate profile of International Fastener Expo (IFE) and the executive nature of the Summit program, we anticipate attracting an audience of senior-level professionals across mission-critical manufacturing and engineering functions. These delegates represent OEMs and Tier 1/2 suppliers operating in Aerospace, Automotive, Industrial, Construction, Electronics, Medical Devices, and Semiconductors.
While our core summit sessions are designed for executive-level leaders, our breakout rooms draw senior technical professionals who are deeply involved in evaluating and specifying fastener and assembly systems. These include engineering managers, operations leaders, QA/QC heads, advanced manufacturing teams, and subject-matter experts.
As a result, sponsors will be able to reach both top-level decision makers and mid-management specifiers — the individuals who ultimately decide and influence procurement. Based on comparable events and historic attendee data from IFE, we anticipate representation from:
