Last week, I attended the Stratasys Asia Pacific Forum 2015 in Seoul, South Korea. This forum was held by Stratasys to expand their knowledge of, and influence in, the Asian markets while at the same time establishing some new strategic partnerships with new and time-honored companies there.
The forum opened at 09:00 in the beautiful COEX Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Seoul. Daniel Thompsen, General Manager for Stratasys Korea, Ltd., gave the opening remarks and welcome to the assembled guests. Omar Krieger, the new General Manager of Stratasys Asia Pacific and Japan, likewise provided a very interesting presentation on the history of Stratasys and current industrial trends in additive manufacturing.
The forum had a series of live, real-time, interpreters to translate what the speakers were saying into Korean, and almost all the speakers seemed to have a good understanding that they needed to speak in a slow and measured manner, allowing the interpreters time to keep up with them…well, almost all of them.
Jonathan Jaglom, the new CEO of MakerBot took to the stage to help build interest in his company’s brand. As the public face of MakerBot, Mr. Jaglom made several unfortunate social missteps which probably did not reflect well on his company, alienated many of the more senior members of the audience, and may well have set MakerBot’s progress here in Korea back a bit. While not being critical of his management skills, which I am certain are first rate, his presentation skills were…well…judging by the crowd’s tepid reaction…less than inspirational. It will be interesting to see what MakerBot’s order and sales figures for Korea will look like over the coming months.
Thankfully, the next speaker, Dr. Hod Lipson, pulled the audience back in and restored the air of excitement that had pervaded the room. For those who don’t know, Dr. Lipson is a professor of engineering at Cornell University, and one of the leading figures in the 3D printing movement. He is probably best known for his book Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing published in 2013.
Dr. Lipson spoke about what manufacturing may look like over the next 25 years. The thrust of his message was to make the audience think about, and appreciate, just how fast things are likely to change. He started by outlining the history of the things that had to evolve and be developed for us to see today’s 3D printing explosion, then went on to explain how it will expand.
“The 3D process will ‘worm’ its way into many different areas, not just engineering,” Dr. Lipson told the crowd. He explained why he believes that 3D printing is exempt from the so called ‘hype curve’ in that it is not a stand-alone process, but rather a technology platform which will allow other processes to be built upon it. As a historical reference, he compared its potential to that of the steam engine, computers, and communications technology, all of which ushered in new technologies and processes unimagined by the societies of the time.
Fred Fischer, Director of Stratasys Business Development, took the stage next and talked about how businesses are changing their manufacturing processes. He noted that currently prototyping is still the dominant use of the technology. He reiterated the benefits that companies are currently seeing by using AM for prototyping: Checking a prototype’s ‘look and feel’; making sure all the parts match up well; and testing the prototype in the environment before going into full production.
Richard Garrity, VP and General Manager of Stratasys Vertical Solutions rounded up the presenters, but had the unenviable ‘last slot before lunch’ time. He did the best he could to reinforce the advantages of AM over traditional manufacturing, talked about the new vertical solutions division that Stratasys started last year and how it will focus on building and improving the industrial, healthcare and educational sectors.
Lunch was then served to the attendees, but many opted to go out for lunch to take advantage of the wide selection of restaurants in the immediate vicinity. After lunch, the crowd split off into one of three separate discussion workshop areas held in different conference rooms. The separate forums specialized in either automotive and heavy equipment manufacturing, consumer electronics design and fabrication, or educational related uses.
In addition to all of the speakers and forums, guests were also able to see several of the latest Stratasys machines (and the products made by them) in the lobby outside the conference rooms. The lobby area also served as an impromptu socializing room where coffee was served, and guests could meet and greet each other while taking a break for the forum. All in all, it was a great day for Stratasys, Korean business, and 3D printing.
