Riley Surface World has just completed its first participation in the Advanced Engineering exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, UK. This is an annual event covering the sectors of Aero, Automotive and Composites Engineering, all of which are industries where the UK currently excels.
Both exhibitor and visitor attendance numbers were impressive and there was a general buzz of activity and air of optimism around the hall. The organisers can take great credit for working closely with government agencies and trade associations to create networking events. During these forums, component suppliers and sub-contractors were able to network with and understand the requirements of large manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover and UTC Aerospace.
This year, the exhibition made a special effort to attract companies from the surface engineering sector and this certainly paid off, with market leaders such as Wheelabrator, Guyson, Carbolite and Turbex all in attendance, as well as many of the chemical producers and suppliers. Britain’s reputation of engineering excellence depends on many specialist skills and processes, with surface finishing being a prominent contributor to making us a world-class manufacturing nation.
From the point of view of Riley Surface World, we felt privileged to be in such exalted company. It also opened up our eyes to a world outside what can sometimes be the rather narrow perspective of our highly specialised industry. Our experience since the turn of the new century is that surface preparation and coating processes have become much more diverse and dispersed across a much wider spectrum of manufacturing industry.
This makes it all the more necessary to engage with events such as Advanced Engineering, reaping the benefits of broader horizons and gaining valuable contacts from companies and organisations that we would not normally meet.
To those that are sceptical about events of this kind, I would simply urge them to give it a try. It is only a 2 day exhibition, so it does not eat into resources as much as 3 or 4 day shows. Modern communications may be very sophisticated, with lots of ways to contact people using social media and the like. However, there is still no substitute for meeting the customer, looking them in the eye and shaking hands on a transaction that is beneficial for both parties.
The exhibition also re-acquainted us with our local Black Country Chamber of Commerce, which is a valuable source of support, both in financial terms and in the level of expertise that they can offer to SMEs.
We have enjoyed great success over the last 10 years by transforming our business from a traditional machinery merchant into a virtual business that is driven by network solutions, and has become further internationalised. None of that would have been possible without the support that our local government agencies, working in conjunction with UKTI, have given us.
Advanced Engineering was a hugely successful event, and as our economy re-balances away from services and the public sector towards manufacturing and exports, it can only go from strength to strength in the future.
