Britain’s biggest business event for more than 50 years opened in Liverpool last week, and is taking place at the British Business Embassy as part of a Government attempt to showcase UK business and innovation and to boost exports and attract inward investment. Ion Core, the UK based 3D printer manufacturer of the Zinter and Zinter PRO, was in attendance at the opening where the company’s CEO, James Marchant, gave a speech regarding ‘Game Changing Technologies’ in the UK. The focus of his speech, unsurprisingly, was on 3D printing and James subsequently took questions from the international delegation of business leaders around the impact of 3D printing on British Business and the opportunities it presents.
Mr Marchant reportedly entertained the audience with an analogy that likened 3D printing to a superhero, one with the ability to create products on demand and support domestic manufacture, British start-ups and a new digital distribution network of downloadable products. Applied correctly, it is hard to deny that 3D printing has this potential. But this was not just blue sky thinking, as the concept was further discussed by the panel of speakers, which included BT Global Services CEO Luis Alvarez, who said BT was committed to supporting the infrastructure required to make this a reality.
It is anticipated that the event will be attended by more than 250,000 people from 125 different counties over the 50 day period that it is set to run. And according to the UK PM, Davide Cameron, who also presented to the delegates at the opening: “This is the biggest showcase of British business since 1951. It is a shop window for enterprise, for innovation, for creativity.”
