While we are preparing for the Inside 3D Printing New York, I thought I’d write my views on what is to be expected. The show takes place 2-4 April at Javits Convention Center in New York City, and this year’s visitor numbers are estimated to be very high. This is definitely my 3D printing highlight show of the year.
Compared to last year, one of the new features for this year is The Maker Summit & Pavilion, which caters the DIY community. The Maker Pavilion is a special section of the trade show floor aimed for consumers, prosumers and makers. The Maker Summit is the conference part consisting of maker and new comer -aimed speaking sessions. As the home 3D printer market and DIY community are growing rapidly along the 3D printing industry, these two will surely be visitor magnets.
Another new add-on for this year’s edition is the workshop sessions that take place during the first day of the show. The workshops cover four topics this year:
- Desktop 3D Printers – From Start to Finish,
- From CAD to Scanning: Introduction to Design,
- Reshaping Manufacturing: Understanding the 3D Printing Process
- Tools of Creation and The Future of Retail
The workshops are a great way to gain more hands on experience about 3D printing, and I personally am the most interested to see how these will be received.
The speaker line up for the 2 days conference part is incredibly convincing. Some of my personal highlights are Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, Neri Oxman from MIT Media Lab, and Dr. Anthony Atala, who became famous for a fully functional 3D printed liver (synthetic). I have followed these three industry figures closely since entering the industry and they all have been a major influence.
Some other key speakers include Avi Reichental, CEO of 3D Systems and Terry Wohlers from Wohlers Associates, who both are top players in 3D printing industry, and delivered excellent speeches at the last year’s New York show and also in Inside 3D Printing Singapore last year.
Large global corporations are represented in the speaker list as well. Curtis Carson Head of Systems Integration for Centre of Competence Manufacturing Engineering at Airbus, will keynote in the afternoon of April 4 and Christine Furstoss, Global Technology Director of Manufacturing & Materials Technologies at GE, will keynote in the afternoon of April 3.
Sam Cervantes, CEO of Solidoodle, Maxim Lobovsky, Co-Founder of Formlabs and Hardi Meybaum, CEO of GrabCAD are all on my list to be watched. Also I am looking forward to meeting Gary Anderson from 3dprintingstocks.com, who has been contributing to 3dprintingindustry.com. See the full list of speakers at Inside 3D Printing New York website.
The exhibitor list is also very impressive, consisting of industry giants such as 3D Systems and Stratasys, and covering globally recognized 3D printer manufacturers such as Mcor Technologies, Afinia 3D and EnvisionTec. Entry level 3D printer manufacturers, Lulzbot, Solidoodle and a number of service providers and other industry players will also have their booths on the exhibition.
If you would like to attend, more information on pre-registrations can be found here.
3D Printing Industry (3DPI) will have a booth in the exhibition area, so if you have a chance to attend, please do stop by.
Video recap from last year’s show: