The Global Manufacturing Festival, a business networking event and technology showcase, has secured more than 300 visitor bookings and over 40 exhibitors with one month to go.
One of the UK’s most important manufacturing connection events, the Global Manufacturing Festival, has received 326 delegate bookings and booked 44 exhibitors, with 29 days remaining until the event opens on April 17.
Forty-one companies have booked exhibition stands, excluding the sponsors, and four multinational companies have committed to attend the exhibition day to answer questions about accessing their supply chains. The message from Sheffield is to book now or avoid missing out on good engineering business opportunities.
On Tuesday, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult expressed its interest in taking an exhibition stand and it is understood that representatives from both the Catapult and its parent, the Technology Strategy Board, will be available to field questions from SMEs eager to tap the Catapult’s engineering capabilities and the TSB’s funding competitions.
While Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Siemens and Tata Steel have already pledged that purchasing managers from their companies will attend the exhibition day on April 18, the organisers are trying to secure a large medical equipment company to represent the Medical stream of the event that covers four sectors: aerospace, nuclear, medical and renewable energy.
Last year the Festival, or GMF, was under scrutiny for having a very local composition. Companies who have booked on to the three-day event this year have come from across the country.
“We are delighted that bookings have gone past 300 delegates a month before the actual date of the event but even more pleased with the quality of the delegates,” said head of the organising committee, Richard Wright of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.
“These are predominantly from SMEs and they are geographically spread from across the UK. Our aim is the give smaller organisations real business value, especially around where to commit resources to underpin a successful future, and not to waste their valuable time at a ‘talking shop’ type event.”
The GMF’s purpose is to showcase the strengths of South Yorkshire advanced engineering and manufacturing but also to function as a real business networking event. ‘Connect’ booths will be set up to introduce visiting companies to purchasing managers of large OEMs, to acquire clear information about their tendering and procurement processes.
On April 19, a series of factory tours will take place at manufacturers around the Sheffield City Region including award-winning engineering companies AESSEAL, Firth Rixson and Sheffield Forgemasters.
The GMF organisers say BOOK NOW to avoid missing out on great business networking opportunities.
For more information about booking an exhibition stand, from only £600, contact Kate Stephenson at [email protected] and tel. 0114 201 8899.
