Manufacturing & Engineering Week gets smart

The addition of 'smart' reflects the forward-looking nature of the event and focus on the new technologies, tools and solutions driving the sector forward, according organiser Nineteen Group.

Commenting on the change Verity Noon, marketing director at Nineteen Group said: “The week is all about cutting-edge innovations in hardware and software and solutions to the current challenges being faced around industry 4.0, sustainability and supply chain shortages to name a few. Manufacturers and engineers are constantly looking for ways to work smarter, to become more efficient, stay ahead of the competitive curve and explore new business models and practices and Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week will help them do just that."

With more than 10,000 manufacturers, designers, engineers and maintenance professionals attending in 2023 the event, which is held at the NEC Birmingham, will expand way beyond 450 exhibitors with the addition of Drives & Controls in Hall 5.

With technology businesses such as Weidmuller, Pilz, Sigmatek and Festo, confirmed for Drives & Controls, the event complements the other component exhibitions of Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week – Design & Engineering Expo, Smart Factory Expo and Maintec – perfectly. In addition, Air-Tech and Fluid Power & Systems will also be returning, taking place in Hall 5 of the NEC. 

A host of other live events will be taking place during Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2024. Senior manufacturing leaders will be able to attend the Manufacturing Digitalisation Summit and the Director’s Forum alongside the Industrial Data Summit and the Manufacturing Automation and Robotics Summit. The Manufacturer Top 100 Award ceremony, which celebrates the heroes of UK manufacturing and recognises their contribution to the sector, will also be held during the week. 

Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week has the support of many of the high-profile organisations, institutions and trade bodies representing the UK’s industrial and manufacturing sector such as the MTC, GAMBICA, Make UK and Engineering UK. Members of these organisations will join the advisory council to assist in curating the educational and thought leadership programme taking place across the seven Solution Theatres.

Sustainability

Sustainability is not only high on the agenda of those in the industrial sector but also of the event organisers themselves. The event will once again be carbon neutral in 2024 with more than 20,000 trees planted in the Nineteen Group Forest since 2022. The event’s charity partner is again Engineers Without Borders UK, who are ensuring that globally responsible engineering is embedded within the thinking of both engineers and the businesses they work for.

Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week will run from the 3rd to 7th June 2024 with Drives & Controls opening from 4th to 6th of June (3 days) in Hall 5 at the NEC in Birmingham and the other live events taking place on 5th and 6th June only (2 days) in Hall 4 just next door. Other exhibitions are also taking place at the NEC during the week run by other event organisers, and these include the UK Garage & Bodyshop event run by Messe Frankfurt; Med-Tech Innovation Expo and TCT 3Sixty from Rapid News Group and Subcon from the Mark Allen Group. A single visitor registration to Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week provides access to all the events.

Registration will open soon but in the meantime for more information visit:

www.mandeweek.co.uk