The Manufacturer Smart Factory Expo and co-located Leaders Conference 2017 has kicked off with a bang this morning in Liverpool.
Held for the first time in the Northern England city of Liverpool, the conference will feature the latest in manufacturing innovation.
All up thousands of people will be attending, most representing a wide range of manufacturing businesses from around the UK and the wider world.
There they will be met with a hall of more than 150 exhibitors drawn from some of the leading manufacturing companies from throughout the globe, including Siemens, Rockwell Automation, IBM, Salesforce, Oracle/Netsuite and Cisco.
Smart Factory Expo aims to showcase the future of manufacturing, focusing especially on the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (also known as Industry 4.0 or 4IR), involving the use of internet connected smart factories and pervasive automation.
“Industry 4.0 is a term which is much spoken of but comparatively misunderstood. The whole focus of the conference is to focus on the constituent elements […] to provide British manufacturers with the tools to operationalise Industry 4.0 for their factories,” said Jonny Williamson, Editor of TheManufacturer.com
Beyond the industry exhibitors, the Expo will also feature four Solution Theaters, focusing on a respective issue relevant to Industry 4.0. These will be Digital Transformation, Industrial Automation, Industrial Internet, and Smart Factory.
Each theatre will hold a number of talks on their particular issue, covering a broad range of topics, and educate manufacturers in the best ways to prepare themselves for the future.
Liverpool was chosen as the venue of the conference to reflect the distributed nature of the UK’s manufacturing sector, much of which is located in the north of England.
With help from the Liverpool City Council and its ‘Invest Liverpool’ fund, The Manufacturer hopes to showcase local and international industries at the city’s amazing seaside exhibition centre.
“Manufacturing has always been at the heart of our economy. In the 19th Century, we lead the world in the production of everything from soap to ships. And, we built on that very proud tradition by forging a new identity at the forefront of innovation and digitalisation,” said Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
Smart Factory Expo and Leaders Conference will run between 15-16 November and culminate with the The Manufacturer MX Awards black tie gala dinner and ceremony on the evening of 16 November. .