Ranulph Fiennes has been announced as a keynote speaker at Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division’s HxGN LOCAL Smart Manufacturing UK conference.

This two-day event, being held 1-2 October at The Belfry Hotel and Resort near Birmingham, invites manufacturing leaders and innovators to discuss manufacturing trends, including the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and the smart factory.

In his keynote speech, Sir Ranulph will share inspirational stories from his international expeditions as he reveals how he and his teams “disrupted the status quo in pursuit of adventure”.

Hexagon’s keynote ‘Smart is Hiding in Plain Sight’ will pick up these themes, encouraging manufacturers to discover the untapped smart potential in their processes.

Other speakers include best-selling author Paul McGee, plus Paul Andrews from the autonomous racing outfit Roborace. During the evening, visitors will have the chance to compete with ‘The Stig’ (Ben Collins) in a racing-car simulator challenge.

An exhibition zone will feature a range of Hexagon solutions for harnessing data to improve processes from design and engineering through to production and metrology.

David Brown, UK sales and marketing director for Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, said: “Manufacturers today face a huge number of challenges, from the political and economic climate to the need to improve sustainability.

Hexagon is working with them to better utilise technology to overcome these challenges, and I’m excited to invite UK manufacturing leaders to share their ideas at this brand-new conference.”

Tickets are available to purchase now. For further details, visit the Web site (www.hxgnlocal.com).