It seems like another innovative and jam-packed year for the Inside Conference & Expo, which is known as the largest professional 3D printing event around. Throughout the year, Rising Media’s Inside takes place across the globe, in nine different cities including New York City, Sydney, Paris, Seoul, and Düsseldorf, where the most recent conference was held.
According to Inside , over 1,400 visitors from over 52 countries came to Düsseldorf from February 24-25. The conference hosted approximately 60 sessions featuring experts from across the industry, starting with a keynote by Jeff DeGrange, the COO of Impossible Objects, the pioneer of the composite-based additive manufacturing method (CBAM). This method allows for printing with fabrics composed from carbon fiber, kevlar, and fiberglass.
A number of examples were presented to the audience that showcased the value of 3D printing in fields such as electronics, robotics, medical, and architecture. After DeGrange’s keynote speech, Inside presented the International Additive Manufacturing Award (IAMA) award to the Oberfranken-based company Concept Laser, who beat out 15 other competitors to win $20,000 cash and an International Marketing Package with a value of $80,000. Concept Laser was selected for their innovative laserCUSING metal laser melting process.
“The IAMA is welcome recognition for our hard work, but also evidence that we’re on the right track,” said Frank Herzog, the founder of Concept Laser. “So the international 3D award makes us extremely proud, and provides ample motivation to continue enthusing the global market with new innovations.”
The expertise wasn’t just limited to 3D printing companies either; the audience featured various representatives from BMW, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Xerox, and many other players small and large. The CEO of Rising Media, Matthew Finlay, seemed to notice that high positioned reps were out in full force at the Düsseldorf convention. “Noticeable this year was that both top managers, who are responsible for the strategic decisions at large companies, as well as product managers, who were interested in the diverse product lines were in attendance in large numbers at the Inside ,” Finlay said. “This shows just how strong the interest in additive manufacturing methods continues to rise in the entire producing industry.”
The conference was co-located with the METAV trade fair for metal processing technologies, which hosted 35,000 professional visitors of their own. In the coming month of April, Inside will travel to São Paulo (April 4-5) and New York City (April 10-12). No matter what industry or interest you have, chances are 3D printing technology can be applied in one way or another, and Inside offers a chance to explore this vast emerging technology.
“The Inside covers a wide range. Manufacturers and users not only displayed fantastic application examples for additive manufacturing with metal, plastic, carbon fiber and ceramics,” said Dr. Eric Klemp, the Commercial Director of the Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC) at the University Paderborn and the conference’s program coordinator. “Above all, the biggest takeaway was: The world is full of new business models thanks to 3D printing.”
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