New partnerships announced for flagship manufacturing events

Leading exhibition organisers Messe Frankfurt UK, Nineteen Group and Rapid News Group have announced a dynamic new 3-year partnership that sees a number of the UK’s most respected events in the engineering and manufacturing sector collocated. As a result of the collaboration, Automechanika Birmingham, Design Engineering Expo, Engineering Expo, Manufacturing Expo, Med-Tech Innovation Expo, and TCT 3Sixty all come together at the NEC Birmingham for the first time on 8th and 9th June 2022. 

Within this 3-year period of partnership, all 6 events will take place alongside each other at the NEC in Birmingham, creating what a spokeswoman called a “phenomenal offering for the manufacturing and engineering community from all vertical sectors”. The partnership is stated to bring significant added value for both attendees and exhibitors: a visitor registering for one event also gains seamless access across all the other shows in what the new partnership says is a “united approach to encourage market innovation and trade”.

Simon Albert, Managing Director at Messe Frankfurt UK (which organises Automechanika, the UK's leading trade exhibition for the automotive aftermarket and supply chain sector) comments “We have an exciting new proposition for the UK automotive supply chain and this partnership in June 2023 strengthens this opportunity further. These events naturally complement each other and by working together we can deliver the strongest platform for our customers to do business. Collocating gives the market the best possible reason to take time out of their busy schedules to visit for the duration of the shows.”

Ed Tranter, Event Director at Nineteen Group and a key motivator behind the launch of the Manufacturing Expo, Engineering Expo and Design Engineering Expo explains: “Collaboration and continuous improvement is at the heart of manufacturing & engineering and the Nineteen Group. We are thrilled to be working closely with other organisations at the forefront of the sector. 

As companies begin their recovery from a year of disruption, there has never been a more important time for our industry to pull together to help promote and encourage innovation and see our sectors grow. The shows provide the perfect platform for connections between suppliers and buyers with conference programmes to give a clear roadmap for a successful future. Collocating these 6 shows is an exciting opportunity and ultimately provides more value to the communities we serve. We are stronger together.”

Further comment comes from Duncan Wood, Chief Executive at Rapid News Group. The company organises TCT 3Sixty, the event for 3D printing and additive intelligence and Med-Tech innovation Expo, said to be the UK's leading medical device design and manufacturing technology event. He adds: 

“The synergy between our group of shows delivers two clear benefits to the market and underpins the rationale for aligning our dates and access protocols.  For the visitor the breadth of solutions under one roof at one time is unprecedented, time is precious, and these co-locations enable a prospective attendee to optimise their time out of the office. Equally the free flow of visitors across all the shows means that the return on investment for exhibitors is hugely enhanced versus each of us operating alone on different datelines. We are hugely excited to be working with a group of organisations who view the visitor experience and exhibitor ROI as importantly as we do, and we look forward to next June in anticipation.”