Innovation Alley at the 2017 Smart Factory Expo has given UK and international startups the ability to show off their products and systems.
While many of the exhibitors at the Expo are large companies, The Manufacturer also is giving room for smaller companies to showcase themselves at Innovation Alley.
Running down the axis of the main exhibition hall, Innovation Alley is designed to allow smaller startups from the UK, as well as further afield to directly pitch their wares to interested attendees from the manufacturing industry.
Sponsored by Innovate UK, the Innovation Alley features 48 of the hottest manufacturing tech start-ups directly exhibiting in individual ‘micro-booths’.
By all accounts by the second day of the Expo, the experience of these companies has been overwhelmingly positive, with the exhibitors reporting extensive interest in their micro-booths, and their products.
One such company is Neuron Soundware, a Czechia-based startup marketing devices which listen to machines and check for potential defects.
“We create IoT devices which recognise issues in machinery by sound. […] So we are in our natural environment here because there is lots of manufacturing clients, people who use machines and high value assets. For us this has been quite successful, we have had lots of interest from all different kinds of companies,” says Jiri Cermak from Neuron Soundware.
Another company at the Expo, Liverpool-based BrainBoxes, designs and manufactures industrial IoT devices. They also have had a very positive experience with their micro-booth on Innovation Alley.
“From my point of view, the show has been really good, really busy, with highly relevant people coming here. Which is a nice surprise, because sometimes we attend shows locally, which don’t quite capture their target audience,” says Craig Johnson from Brainboxes.
“All the relevant people who we want to talk to are here, which is really fantastic.”
