I Make America Gains 3,000 Supporters at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011

Industry campaign to drive U.S. job creation through infrastructure investment gains momentum in Las Vegas

MILWAUKEE, April 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011, the largest construction industry gathering in the western hemisphere, momentum for I Make America permeated the show floor where 3,000 attendees joined the campaign to tell Congress that investment in transportation and other critical infrastructure puts more Americans back to work.

I Make America created excitement across Las Vegas as show attendees passed through a dynamic booth in the Grand Lobby featuring a grassroots lounge complete with a prize wheel featuring American-made giveaways and a visit by Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs. For weeks before the show opened, the I Make America campaign was featured in industry and show publications and, even before stepping onto the show site, attendees were greeted with I Make America messages at hotels and on transportation routes all over the city.

"The I Make America campaign is dedicated to the future of our industry," said Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the trade group that founded I Make America. "At CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 we expanded our growing list of influential manufacturing and construction industry representatives from across the country who are focused on the urgent need to pass a highway bill and invest in comprehensive, national infrastructure improvements to grow American jobs and to keep our country competitive globally."

The many exhibiting companies who have already joined the I Make America campaign displayed signs in their booths, show leaders highlighted the campaign at the opening ceremonies, and partner trade associations holding meetings at CONEXPO-CON/AGG urged their members to get involved.

The show also welcomed U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood who heard the I Make America message in discussions with several AEM member companies before calling for a six-year highway transportation bill to be passed in 2011.  

"Here in the spiritual home of the U.S. equipment manufacturing sector, its presence is permeating every aspect of the show and the displays it comprises… I Make America is putting the manufacturers of demolition and construction equipment at the very heart of the country's post-recession recovery," noted one journalist from Demolition News.

AEM founded  I Make America, a national grassroots effort to dramatically strengthen American manufacturing jobs right here in the U.S. to improve our economy and our country's global competiveness.

About the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) - www.aem.org

AEM is the North American-based international trade group providing innovative business development resources to advance the off-road equipment manufacturing industry in the global marketplace. AEM membership comprises more than 800 companies and 200-plus product lines in the agriculture, construction, forestry, mining and utility sectors worldwide. AEM is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with offices in the capitals of Washington, D.C., Ottawa, Beijing and a European presence in Brussels.

SOURCE Association of Equipment Manufacturers