Premier Industry 4.0 show returns

The New Year hopefully signals an end to the inertia of 2019 where businesses large and small faced constant uncertainty brought about by our political leaders’ inability to resolve Brexit.

One place where manufacturers can be certain of leadership and direction is at the upcoming Industry 4.0 Summit & Expo, an event that since 2017 has managed to attract a stellar line-up of industry leaders from government, academia & industry.

The 4th edition takes place once more at the iconic Manchester Central Convention Complex. A high-level conference with a large trade show alongside, the event connects manufacturers with technology to look at the best practice and solutions to improve manufacturing performance.

Since its launch the organisers have managed to consistently deliver a great speaker line-up that educates manufacturers on what is taking place now and what is on the horizon, so that they can take this knowledge and share it with colleagues.

The programme has just been announced and speakers include industry experts such as Wayne Jones OBE, Executive Board Director at MAN Energy Solutions; Dr. Reinhard Geissbauer, Partner Strategy& and Leader EMEA Industry 4.0 at PwC; Paul Turner, VP Industry 4.0 Applications & Analytics at Stanley, Black & Decker, plus speakers from manufacturers like Airbus, Nokia, H&T Presspart & MTU Aero Engines.

One-stop shop

The exhibition alongside is a one-stop shop for the latest smart technologies to give manufacturers that competitive edge. This includes robotics, 3D printing, automation, big data, VR/AR, predictive maintenance, sensors and other 4.0 technologies. Exhibitors returning include the likes of Bosch Rexroth, Werma, Forcam, IFM, Omron, & Total Control Pro whilst new companies include Olmec, Goodfellow, Lighthouse Systems, Hewlett Packard & Honeywell.

Event Director Gary Gilmour comments: “The event consistently attracts a very senior level of visitor from manufacturing, who I know do not got to many other industry events. We think this is due to the conference content being current and insightful and provides them with ideas to implement into their own organisation.”

The organisers feedback shows that over 15% of attendees have purchasing authority of over £500k, and this has resulted in many major contracts arising from encounters at the show. Gilmour adds: “The products on display tend to be big ticket purchases. We know from exhibitors that it is six months after the show that they start to see their ROI. We’ve had two robotics companies secure very sizeable contracts, and one large company has said they have received both a seven-figure order as a result of exhibiting and more solid sales leads than any other event."

The event has consistently attracted broad mixture of the manufacturing community ranging from division heads of engineering, chief intelligence officers, project directors to robotics & automation engineers from the likes of BAE Systems, Airbus, AstraZeneca, MBDA, JCB, Oscar Meyer & Unilever as well as number of SMEs keen to get a better understanding what 4.0 means for them.

For the next event there will be a new show running alongside called the World Advanced Materials Summit & Expo, WAMSE for short. This event has evolved out of the support industry 4.0 has received in Manchester, and it will be an event that showcases latest advanced material developments and their application and adoption into manufacturing.

It will cover areas such as composites, graphene, biomaterials & nanomaterials and will link research, government and industry and provide latest thinking on areas such as sustainable packaging & light-weighting.

Both events combined expect to deliver a minimum of 3,500 visitors across the advanced manufacturing & materials communities, and over 120 exhibitors and 80 speakers. Interested parties can get more information at www.industry40summit.com and www.wamse.com or call the organisers at 01642 438225.