3D Printed OK
The doors closed on the 2017 edition of TCT Show last week. This action-packed 3D technology showcase, held annually at the NEC, Birmingham, offered the opportunity for thousands of eager visitors to experience multiple product launches and demonstrations from almost three-hundred exhibiting companies on the show floor. More than fifty engaging presentations took place and a wealth of exciting show features educated and entertained in equal measure.
With a record-breaking expansion of the show floor presenting more exhibitors than ever before, this high octane event connected approximately 10,000 attendees (audit pending) from over forty countries with an exciting and varied range of businesses that stood ready to help them solve their challenges.
Feedback from visitors to the show was extremely positive. Shashi Jain, innovation manager, Intel Corporation said: "One of the great things about coming to TCT is not just seeing the exhibitors, but also meeting the people that are their customers. I’ve found that I learned something new every time I spoke to an attendee, which is remarkable. If you’re serious about 3D printing and you want to meet the people who are making it happen, then you must come to a TCT Show."
Pat Warner, Digital Manufacturing manager, Renault Sport Racing F1 Team commented: "What a great show. Met some fantastic people, made contacts to help solve some problems, left with a huge shopping list!”
There was also a huge amount of positive feedback from exhibitors including Andy Middleton, president EMEA at Stratasys who said: “It’s clear TCT Show has moved up a level. I just spoke to a colleague and said ‘if I was a customer, I would be really confused. There are so many solutions which look and feel relevant for many many customers'. I think it’s one of the challenges for companies like ourselves – clarity in our messaging and explanation of what can be done, and what can’t be done, to help customers make an informed decision if they’re looking to invest in a solution.”
Dana McCallum, head of Production Partners at Carbon added: "The 2017 TCT Show was a great success, and continues to be the largest additive manufacturing show in the U.K. where companies are able to meet key evangelists in the industry. TCT fosters a community who want to lead the world to do production with additive manufacturing, and we saw this take place last week in several vertical markets including consumer, automotive, industrial and medical."
The final word can be left to Edward Feng, president of Raise3D who said: "I would recommend anyone to exhibit with TCT. You guys helped us happen."
Start-ups from the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the USA also seized the opportunity to unveil their innovations to the 3D Printing market in the Start Up Zone – including a pitch session where the new companies competed for the coveted 2017 Start Up Award. The winner was FabRX, a start-up company looking to exploit the power of 3D printing for fabricating pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Alvaro Goyanes, co-founder and director of FabRx was presented with a cheque for £3,000 alongside the winners trophy.
Jim Woodcock, head of Content for TCT Group, judged the Start-Up pitches and explained: "This application immediately appealed to my own journey from the pharmaceutical world to 3D printing. FabRx's potential application development could open up entirely new therapeutic areas while also addressing challenges such as dosing and compliance."
TCT Show is well-known for offering first-class conference and seminar tracks and this year was no exception. The comprehensive programme, grown and developed for this year’s show, took place across three dedicated stages split into key themes. Over 1000 attendees benefitted from ground-breaking product launches, exciting demonstrations and enthralling presentations from a world-class speaker line up throughout the three-day show.
For the first time, the Main Stage gave visitors the opportunity to earn valuable CPD points while learning about research developments and real-life examples of the ways 3D technologies are used within a range of industries from Intel, McLaren Racing, Johnson & Johnson, Sabotage Design, DuPont and more.
Duncan Wood, CEO at Rapid News Publications Ltd, organisers of the TCT Show commented: “An amazing event with so many highlights, new products, new companies, world-class presentations, stunning applications and a surge of energy that sustained everyone across three days of business and networking. Add in the successful inaugural TCT Awards and I think we can reflect on a job well done for the industry. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of 3D technologies and we can certainly look back on last week as mission accomplished, for now. Whilst as organisers we have had superb feedback we recognise we can't do it without industry support so we thank all our exhibitors, speakers, sponsors and partners for their efforts; they make the show."
"We're already planning for something even bigger and better for next year with an expanded show floor and more features and we look forward to welcoming the industry again in 2018."