Engineering and manufacturing companies have been urged to join in with the inaugural Sheffield Manufacturing Week.
The inaugural Sheffield Manufacturing Week has been launched and South Yorkshire’s engineering and manufacturing companies have been urged to join in with this “Festival of Manufacturing”.
Over sixty guests attended the launch event which was held at the AMP Technology Centre in Rotherham, to hear contributions from speakers, including the Rt. Hon Richard Caborn, who spoke about the key role of manufacturing in the area;
“Manufacturing is as important to the future of the Sheffield region as it has been to its past. Sheffield Manufacturing Week is not only a great opportunity to celebrate all that is great about manufacturing in Sheffield, and to show local people that manufacturing is still relevant to our economy, but also a tremendous occasion to showcase our manufacturing expertise to the world.”
Sheffield Manufacturing Week will take place from Monday 14th March 2011, and promises to be a “Festival of Manufacturing”, designed to celebrate, promote and improve manufacturing in the Sheffield City Region.
Key themes will include; education, involving schools, colleges and universities; celebration, showcasing achievements and capabilities with company “Open house” days; innovation, highlighting leading edge technologies; and business growth, with opportunities in meet with key manufacturing organisations from both the UK and beyond.
The Master Cutler, James Newman, was the event’s Master of Ceremonies and other speakers were; Adrian Allen of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing; Richard Wright from the Manufacturing Forum; Kevin Parkin of Davy Markham; Jon Stewart from Siemens VAI and Alison Bettac of Firth Rixson.
The speakers emphasised the importance of manufacturing, regionally and nationally as a wealth creator, and highlighted how the Sheffield region has the unique combination of experience, expertise and enthusiasm required to enable it to succeed in a global marketplace.
Richard Wright outlined plans to utilise the region’s key strengths in engineering materials technology as a basis for the bid to locate the UK’s National Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Growth Hub at the AMP, and to help springboard the region to become one of Europe’s top high value manufacturing areas within the next ten years.
The event also stressed the need to engage with the region’s young people, and show how engineering and manufacturing careers are exciting and viable job options, highlighting the apprenticeship and schools engagement activities undertaken by Davy Markham and Firth Rixson.
Partners from across the Sheffield City Region have already started to unite to create a series of focused events, practical workshops, exhibitions and conferences which will take place during the week.
Sheffield Manufacturing Week is being led by Square 5 Ltd, a Sheffield based business development and communications specialist, and Creative Sheffield. Following the launch event, Mark O’Reilly, Director of Square 5 said;
“We would like to thank our speakers and our Master of Ceremonies, the Master Cutler, for giving their time to attend the launch. We had a fantastic turnout with so much support already being offered, and I urge everyone to contact us and get involved in showcasing everything that manufacturing has to offer, and making this first Sheffield Manufacturing Week a great event.”
