Weidert Group Returns as Gold Sponsor of Manufacturing First 2026, Presents on Building a Revenue Engine That Survives the AI Search Shift

APPLETON, WI, August 26, 2026 – Weidert Group, an industrial marketing and sales growth partner, will return as a gold-level sponsor of the Manufacturing First Expo & Conference on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at the Resch Expo in Ashwaubenon. Frank Isca, Weidert Group's Director of Business Development, will lead a breakout session titled "The Growth Engine Framework: From Campaign Chaos to Revenue Engine."

The session addresses a problem Isca sees across manufacturing clients every year: Marketing and sales plans built from disconnected campaigns rather than a system that compounds – a trade show push here, a content sprint there, a scramble every quarter to fill the pipeline back up. Each effort works while it's running, then resets to zero the moment it stops.

"If your pipeline drops the minute you stop running campaigns, the problem isn’t your campaigns," Isca said, "it’s the lack of infrastructure underneath them."

The stakes have changed, too. Buyers now complete up to 90 percent of their research before a manufacturer ever knows they're looking — on AI search tools, peer forums, review sites, and LinkedIn, not necessarily on the company's own website. Isca's session walks through what he calls the Growth Engine Framework: a five-part foundation (goals, brand and ideal customer profile, a growth playbook, clean data and tech, and a website built to sort and route demand) that supports three ongoing tracks of activity: always-on core market presence, time-boxed activation sprints for trade shows and launches, and the operational work of keeping data clean and teams aligned.

"Campaigns don't compound," Isca said. "Systems do."

Attendees will leave with a way to evaluate their own marketing and sales operation: is it running or stalled, compounding or resetting, built to survive a change in personnel or dependent on one person holding it all together?

Manufacturing First is a one-day expo and conference produced by Insight Publications in partnership with the NEW Manufacturing Alliance, drawing manufacturing and industrial leaders from across northeast Wisconsin. Weidert Group's session is open to all registered attendees.

Registration is available at manufacturingfirst.com, with $20 off using code MFGFIRST20.

About Weidert Group

Weidert Group is an employee-owned marketing and sales growth partner that builds revenue infrastructure for B2B industrial and manufacturing companies. Based in Appleton, Wisconsin since 1980 and a HubSpot Partner since 2011, the agency holds Platinum Partner status with Onboarding and Platform Enablement accreditations. The agency deploys the Growth Engine℠, a proprietary diagnose-engineer-activate system that connects lead generation, marketing automation, sales enablement, CRM, and website development into one measurable program where results compound instead of resetting. Weidert experts regularly cover the latest in industrial marketing and sales on The ChangeOver Podcast.