The UK’s largest annual gathering of manufacturing, design, and test and production engineering professionals, Advanced Engineering 2021, will take place at the NEC, Birmingham on 3 and 4 November 2021. The UK’s engineering industry will be able to meet up face-to-face for the first time in almost two years to do business, make new connections and discover the latest innovations.

Over the last 12 years, the show has earned the support of some of the world’s key industry associations as well as leading industry media — Machinery Market is a media partner.

Advanced Engineering offers a great opportunity for the whole UK manufacturing supply chain to source innovation and technology spanning across multiple sectors, including but not limited to aerospace, automotive, rail, marine, space and satellite, medical, renewables, and more.

Already, the show’s exhibitor space is 90% sold out – a sign that the manufacturing industry is eager to come together again. In 2019, over 10,000 professionals from the manufacturing sector attended Advanced Engineering.

Daniel Martin, manager of BIW and enclosures at Aston Martin Lagonda, said: “This year’s show will be a great opportunity to catch up with contacts, both existing and new.

“I am particularly looking forward to the chance where myself and colleagues can enjoy the first big event of the year to source technologies and products that will be vital for the bounce-back and future resilience of the British automotive sector.”

Advanced Engineering is the go-to show for anyone wanting to meet leading engineering and manufacturing companies, plus the UK’s most innovative start-ups, thanks to the return of the exhibitions’s Enabling Innovation zone, supported by Innovate UK.

Here, ten chosen start-ups will have the opportunity to showcase their ground-breaking product or technology, before presenting it to a panel of industry judges to be crowned the Advanced Engineering innovator of 2021.

New Space and Satellite zone
This year, there will also be a new Space and Satellite zone, supported by the UK Space Agency, ADS, GTMA, Skyrora, Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd and Airbus Space and Defence, with a particularly special product feature due to be announced in the coming weeks.

As always, Advanced Engineering will host four open forums with speakers from Make UK, Volkswagen, Ford, IBM, BAE Systems, TFL, Toray Advanced Composites, the UK Space Agency, Vortex Engineering Group and Swiss CMT already confirmed. Forum topics include urban air mobility, 3-D printing of composites, electrification in the automotive industry, artificial intelligence and cyber security, cementing the exhibition’s position as the home of everything that anyone working across the engineering and manufacturing supply chains could need.

Alison Willis, director at Easyfairs, the organiser of Advanced Engineering, said: “This year, Advanced Engineering returns to the NEC for its 12th edition to continue supporting the manufacturing and engineering supply chain. At the show, visitors can access the latest innovation and technology from across various sectors all under one roof.

“Advanced Engineering is looking forward to welcoming back its OEM visitors including Airbus, Jaguar Land Rover, Dyson, Boeing, Tata, Rolls Royce. Again, this year’s VIP hosts will be the Silverstone Technology Cluster.

Ms Willis concluded: “As ever we are proud to be supported by our loyal industry and media associations, without which the show wouldn’t be possible. AE Connect will also be available to allow exhibitors to arrange meetings ahead of the two-day event.

“On top of this, there will be various networking sessions taking place allowing visitors to make new connections, which so many of us are looking forward to after the last 18 months.”

Make UK’s Roxanne Bennett said: “As we are the voice of manufacturing, Advanced Engineering is a perfect fit for us. One of the questions we get the most is how we can support manufacturers and this show gives us the opportunity to answer that for companies across different sectors.”

Now more than ever, it is important for the engineering and manufacturing industry to look to the future, whether in R&D, design, test and measurement, advanced materials, manufacturing, production or assembly.

Advanced Engineering provides the perfect place to do just this, enabling the entire manufacturing and engineering supply chain to forge new relationships and build on existing ones, while discovering all the very latest innovative technology.

Those interested in attending should visit the Advanced Engineering website to register their interest and be the first to receive updates.