Manufacturing and engineering week becomes ‘smart’ in preparation for a bigger and better 2024

Manufacturing & Engineering Week continues to evolve after a successful event in 2023, becoming Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week in 2024. The minor change reflects the event’s forward-thinking nature and emphasis on the new technologies, tools, and solutions propelling the sector forward.

Observations on the Change “The week is all about cutting-edge innovations in hardware and software and solutions to the current challenges being faced around industry 4.0, sustainability, and supply chain shortages, to name a few,” said Verity Noon, Marketing Director at Nineteen Group. Manufacturers and engineers are constantly looking for ways to work smarter, become more efficient, stay ahead of the competition, and experiment with new business models and practises, and Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week will assist them in doing so.

With more than 10,000 manufacturers, designers, engineers and maintenance professionals attending in 2023 the event will expand way beyond 450 exhibitors with the addition of Drives & Controls in Hall 5. Laura Parris, Event Director for Drives & Controls at Nineteen Group said of the addition: “Drives & Controls is one of the great brand names in the UK industrial exhibitions sector. It has such a long history from the days when it overflowed from its original home in Telford to now where it finds its natural place as part of Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week.”

With technology businesses such as Weidmuller, Pilz, Sigmatek and Festo, confirmed for Drives & Controls the event complements the other exhibitions, Design & Engineering Expo, Smart Factory Expo and Maintec perfectly. In addition, Air-Tech and Fluid Power & Systems will also be returning, taking place in Hall 5 of the NEC.

Drives & Controls, with technology companies such as Weidmuller, Pilz, Sigmatek, and Festo confirmed, perfectly complements the other exhibitions, Design & Engineering Expo, Smart Factory Expo, and Maintec. In addition, Air-Tech and Fluid Power & Systems will be back, both in Hall 5 of the NEC.

During Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2024, a slew of other live events will take place. Along with the Industrial Data Summit and the Manufacturing Automation and Robotics Summit, senior manufacturing leaders will be able to attend the Manufacturing Digitalisation Summit and the Director’s Forum. During the week, the Manufacturer Top 100 Award ceremony will honour the heroes of UK manufacturing and recognise their contributions to the industry.

Many high-profile organisations, institutions, and trade bodies representing the UK’s industrial and manufacturing sectors, including the MTC, GAMBICA, Make UK, and Engineering UK, have endorsed Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week. Members of these organisations will serve on the advisory council to help curate the educational and thought leadership programme that will take place across the seven Solution Theatres.

Sustainability is a priority not only for those in the industrial sector, but also for event organisers. With over 20,000 trees planted in the Nineteen Group Forest since 2022, the event will be carbon neutral in 2024. Engineers Without Borders UK is once again the event’s charity partner, ensuring that globally responsible engineering is embedded in the minds of both engineers and the businesses for which they work.

Peter Jones, CEO of Nineteen Group commented on the launch of Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2024, commenting: “In 2023 we gave our team licence to put on an event which was different to how industrial exhibitions and conferences had been staged in the past. The festival feeling which they created will be built on in 2024 and the addition of Drives & Controls in Hall 5 means we must think even bigger as there are just simply more people to engage and entertain.”

Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week will take place from the 3rd to the 7th of June 2024, with Drives & Controls taking place from the 4th to the 6th of June (3 days) in Hall 5 at the NEC in Birmingham and the other live events taking place on the 5th and 6th of June only (2 days) in Hall 4 right next door. Other exhibitions taking place at the NEC this week include the UK Garage & Bodyshop event run by Messe Frankfurt, the Med-Tech Innovation Expo and TCT 3Sixty from Rapid News Group, and Subcon from the Mark Allen Group. A single Smart Manufacturing & Engineering Week visitor registration grants access to all events.