I’m a big fan of the National Fluid Power Association’s series of regional meetings. The association has done a nice job in recent years holding these free luncheons in cities with a strong regional fluid power population—including Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Now, for the first time in quite a few years, the NFPA is having a regional meeting in my hometown of Cleveland.

The meeting, scheduled for the city’s venerable downtown City Club, will be held on Wednesday, November 16th, and much of the Fluid Power World staff will be in attendance. I’ve personally attended regional meetings here, in Detroit and in Milwaukee, and they’re always a great networking opportunity. Attendees include manufacturers, distributors and fluid power users. The NFPA often has a guest speaker, such as a local economist talking monetary policy; I always come away having learned something.

Given how intimate the fluid power community is, I’d encourage you to make it to one of these regional meetings. Most of the people I meet in this industry have worked for multiple fluid power companies. They’ve stayed in fluid power, and it was the connections they made over the years that often presented them with the next career opportunity.

So what if the NFPA doesn’t have anything scheduled in your area? I’d suggest dropping them a line and saying you’re interested. The proverbial squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if enough locals query the association, I bet they’d be happy to bring the regional meeting concept to your city.

If you’d like to register for the Cleveland event, click here.