While the shale gas boom continues to play an important part in the economic well-being of the United States, it was the price of oil that was foremost in the minds of presenters and attendees alike at VMA’s 2016 Market Outlook event held in Chicago this month.

The 2015 VMA Manufacturers Workshop featured a two-day intensive workshop on Lean Leadership. All of the sessions at this year’s conference, held April 30-May 2 in Nashville, TN, were designed to help managers, supervisors and team members acquire a more functional understanding of the key leadership skills needed to facilitate and sustain a lean transformation. That is achieved when leaders have the skills essential to successfully implement the lean philosophy and they must work collaboratively with different personalities and styles to create a cohesive workforce that focuses on lean processes (striving to become more efficient and precise). The ultimate goal of lean leadership is a workforce fully committed to the approach and driven by principles focused on problem solving, effectively implementing change, defining and achieving goals, and being more accountable.

More than 750 million people currently lack access to clean water worldwide. That is a statistic that generally doesn’t affect too many people in North America, but the 10-year drought in Texas and the current situation in California are bringing attention to the fact that even the wealthiest of nations can have water-related shortages.

In the United States, 60% of well and surface water goes to industry and agriculture consumes 30% of water used. While conservation efforts may alleviate some of the supply problems, continually increasing demands on this resource are pressing the boundaries of technology to come up with new solutions.

When Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics asked attendees at VMA’s 2015 Leadership Forum what economic issues most concerned them, the plunge in the price of oil was high on the list. The impact of a high U.S. dollar, the possibility of interest rate hikes and the future of shale gas were also subjects of interest, and Beaulieu ensured that he would cover them all and much more in his presentation.