November 12, 2018

Forest City Gear has been working with NASA for decades and knows the organization pretty well – but the company will have a chance to deepen those relationships at the end of November.

“There are 10 NASA centers around the U.S.,” Forest City Gear CEO Wendy Young said. “And the heads of all 10 will be at SpaceCom 2018.”

SpaceCom is a relatively new show. This is just the fourth one and it is scheduled for November 27-28 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The show brings together professionals and leaders from NASA, aerospace and industry for a two-day show that includes an interactive exhibit hall, NASA presentations and an Entrepreneur Summit to show off the very latest innovations.

This will be Forest City Gear’s first time at the show, either as an attendee or exhibitor.

“We got asked to be in the show last year, but it was in December,” Forest City Gear CEO Wendy Young said. “I told them, ‘you know what else is in December? Christmas. Nobody goes to shows in December.’”

This year, SpaceCom was moved to November and it was enough to convince FCG to take part.

“We always do the Gear Expo, which is held every other year. The next one is in Detroit in 2019,” FCG Board Chairman Fred Young said. “We always go to IMTS in Chicago, that’s where we buy a lot of our equipment. When it comes to other shows, we like to pick shows in areas where we haven’t been. We’ve been to shows in California. Last year, we went to one in Minneapolis.”

“This one being in Houston, which is where NASA is headquartered, will have a lot of the companies we’re targeting. We thought this would be a very good opportunity.”

FCG plans to send at least five employees, all with engineering backgrounds. The company will be the only gear company at the show and reserved a booth right next to the NASA exhibit.

“We want to make a statement at this show,” Wendy said. “They expect 2,200 people at this show – all decision makers – we’re hoping not only to talk to some NASA people we don’t know, but a lot of new companies as well.”