The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), which owns and organises the MACH exhibition, has been working to ensure that even in these unprecedented times, the needs of the advanced manufacturing and engineering community continue to be promoted and discussions on the important issues facing the industry can still take place — albeit virtually.

In this vein, and to ‘kick off ’preparations for MACH 2022 (being held at the NEC 4-8 April 2022), at the end of January the MTA organised a series of online seminars featuring top speakers from some of the manufacturing sector’s leading companies and organisations. These speakers provided high-level exclusive content solely for MACH 2022 preview week.

James Selka, the MTA’s CEO, said: “Having a strong digital platform in support of MACH, it made sense to utilise this to best effect. The virtual MACH 2022 preview was organised to offer valuable insight into some of the important work being carried out by manufacturers, many of which have been the unsung heroes of this pandemic, helping carry out invaluable work through initiatives like the Ventilator Challenge.

“One of the MTA’s aim was to provide the UK’s manufacturing community with the latest insight into productivity improvements. The MTA is constantly communicating with the top tiers of the UK manufacturing community and this will prove beneficial as we continue to build towards MACH 2022.

“The great content we were able to secure was testament to the ability of the speakers to engage and inspire their audience, albeit remotely. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who spoke at the event, as well as all those who registered to take part in the preview week. Your support was greatly appreciated.”

Speakers at the series of seminars included: David Holmes (director of operations and technology for air at BAE Systems); Rhys Herbert (a senior economist in the research department of Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking); Juergen Maier (former chief executive of Siemens UK); Rab Scott and James Lindsay (both of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre — AMRC); and Mike Wilson (he leads the Manufacturing Technology Centre’s drive to increase the adoption of automation throughout UK manufacturing).