The American Welding Society will hold the Welding Automation Exposition & Conference (WAEC) 2026 on June 2-4 at The Royal Sonesta Minneapolis Downtown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event is aimed at automation leaders, welding engineers, fabricators, and equipment manufacturers seeking practical ways to use robotics, sensors, cobots, Industry 4.0 tools, and smart manufacturing systems to improve welding productivity and quality.

AWS says the program will run over two and a half days and include 18 technical sessions, one keynote, exhibits, demonstrations, two lunches, and two networking receptions. Participants can earn 13 Professional Development Hours, with an additional three PDHs available through optional plant tours. The conference is positioned around a persistent industry challenge: using automation to reduce reliance on hard-to-fill welding positions while increasing consistency and throughput.

The event chair is Jeff Noruk of Servo-Robot Corp., a laser-vision and weld-inspection automation specialist, with Doug Rhoda of Vectis Automation serving as co-chair. Keynote speakers include Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, and Carey Chen, CEO of the American Welding Society. Burnstein is expected to provide a broader automation industry perspective on robotics, artificial intelligence, machine vision, and motion control, while Chen brings leadership experience from fabrication, manufacturing, and cutting-equipment businesses including Hypertherm.

WAEC's technical focus includes collaborative robots, robotic welding, automation, renewable manufacturing, and real-world welding applications. AWS also plans plant tours at Ballantine Inc. in Anoka, Minnesota, and BTD Manufacturing in Lakeville, Minnesota, giving attendees a look at production environments and advanced metal fabrication operations. The AWS page warns attendees to book hotel rooms only through the official AWS reservation link because of conference housing phishing scams.

For fabricators and welding businesses, the conference is one of the clearest 2026 venues for evaluating automation options beyond product brochures: sessions, demonstrations, exhibitors, and plant visits are all designed around implementation issues such as labor shortages, programming, sensing, process control, quality assurance, and return on investment.