Visitor registration is now open for Advanced Engineering, the UK’s largest annual gathering of engineering and manufacturing professionals. Now in its 14th year, this year’s show comes with a future-focused rebrand, removing previous show zones from the exhibition floor and introducing a new main stage for forums.

Advanced Engineering, takes place on November 1 and 2 at the NEC, Birmingham. Previously divided into several industry zones, to meet the future demands of the engineering and manufacturing sectors, the show has been re-engineered to encourage even more cross-industry collaboration.

The long-established composite zone will remain, but the automotive, aerospace, and connected manufacturing zones will be removed. However, these sectors will still have a strong presence at the event, with the industry-specific forums remaining. There will also be a main, central stage where discussions about key challenges in the industry will be discussed.

“Making these changes wasn’t an easy or a quick decision,” explained Alison Willis, director of Easyfairs, organisers of the event. “We spoke to over 200 exhibitors, visitors and speakers to make sure any changes were future-proofed and reflective of all stakeholders. We realised that many of the issues that our exhibitors and visitors are facing align, no matter what sector they are from. Take sustainability as an example — we wanted to make sure that our floor plan gave attendees the best opportunity of sharing ideas and solutions to challenges like this.

“Advanced Engineering has expanded greatly over the years, starting as a specific aerospace event 14 years ago. 2023 felt like the right time to break down the walls that separated our exhibitors to fully encourage collaboration across industries and to prepare the show for a new era of manufacturing and engineering,” concluded Ms Willis.

To ensure that visitors and exhibitors can still easily find relevant contacts, exhibitors will now be categorised by the services, products and solutions offered. They will have the opportunity to highlight all of the sectors they work in, removing any limitations created by the specific show zones. Advanced Engineering also hopes to attracted visitors from other sectors, like marine, security, rail, energy, sports and leisure, and medical.

The event will feature a full speaker programme with representatives from some of the leading companies in UK manufacturing. Last year, attendees were treated to talks from organisations including: Siemens, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Make UK, Rolls-Royce and Airbus, totalling around 50 hours of free CPD accredited learning.

www.advancedengineeringuk.com