If at all possible, take a trip to Chicagoland in March (21-23) to National Manufacturing Week. For factory junkies, there are great opportunities to see the latest in from factory floor automation to the latest in hand tools. Supply chain and logistics folks will also find all of the logistics and e-commerce suppliers all in one place.  

I was fortunate to go five years ago and participate in the show by having the dreaded "booth duty" for the company I was working with. We had 8000 registered visitors in our booth over a 4 day period. The days were long, but the nights were full of great Chicago food. As it was a dot com company with seemingly unlimited budgets, we ordered both the shrimp AND the cracked crab at dinner.

Sorry to see the show move out of the city to the 'burbs near the airport. Certainly more convenient, but the local flavor of the city and McCormick Place will be missed.