The First Annual Conference on Additive Manufacturing of Metal Materials (AM3 2026), organized by the Additive Manufacturing Branch of the Chinese Society for Metals, opened on October 22 at the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen (registration on the 22nd, plenary sessions on the 23rd–24th, and a visit to the Steel Research National Innovation Hetao Laboratory on the 25th). It is the first annual conference since the branch was established in 2025. Co-organizers are China Iron & Steel Research Institute Group (CISRI) and the Steel Research International New Materials Innovation Center (Shenzhen), with Beihang University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and GRINM Additive Manufacturing among the supporting organizers. The plenary program is headlined by Academician Lu Bingheng ("Additive Manufacturing Driving Innovation in Manufacturing Equipment") and Academician Lu Jian ("New Developments in Metal Materials Based on Artificial Intelligence and Additive Manufacturing"), with 21 experts speaking across four tracks covering "AI + additive manufacturing," new materials and new processes, and other frontier directions. The arrival of a national-level society annual conference in Shenzhen signals that academic and industrial resources in metal additive manufacturing are converging in the Greater Bay Area at an accelerating pace. For powder buyers, the conference is a meeting point for academic and industrial resources in domestically produced metal powders—powder production, printing equipment, and end-use applications are all represented on the same stage, and the new material directions announced there (AI + additive manufacturing, new alloy systems) often foreshadow demand for powder grades over the next 2–3 years. The list of participating powder companies and the collaboration moves of academician-led teams can serve as a reference checklist for supplier due diligence and for positioning on new powder grades.