[Updating] Women in 3D Printing cancels March events, Ceramics Expo postponed and more
Stay up to date on AM event changes due to COVID-19
Amid the growing global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools, cultural spaces and businesses shuttering to slow the virus’ spread, the additive manufacturing industry is also finding ways to play its part. While some recently passed events, like AMForum in Berlin, went ahead, several upcoming industry events have been postponed or outright cancelled.
Late last week, Women in 3D Printing, an organization that plans global meet-ups and events for the women working in additive manufacturing, announced that most of its global events would be cancelled for the rest of the month. It issued the following statement to its members:
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our global events are canceled this month… As we are still uncertain of the situation for the next 30 days, we won’t announce any event for April here. You can always check, at any time, our event page for more information about scheduled events. Please note that some of our already scheduled April events might need rescheduling though.”
Other big industry events like AMUG, which was supposed to take place March 22-26, have postponed until March 2021. JEC World has postponed its global event until May—though it is seeming more and more unlikely things will have deescalated by then.
At time of publishing, rapid+tct had not made any changes to its upcoming event in Anaheim, California, which is scheduled for April 20-23, 2020. [UPDATE March 16] rapid+tct announced this afternoon that it will be postponing its 2020 edition until April 2021.
“While SME takes great pride in producing the RAPID + TCT event, we are also very aware that it belongs to the additive manufacturing community,” said Steve Prahalis, COO of SME and Vice President of Events. “The health and safety of our community is paramount, of course. But since RAPID + TCT is an event that represents the community as a whole, in the past week we have actively consulted our community partners, our exhibitors, and advisors. The commitment to RAPID + TCT was overwhelming; most of our partners and exhibitors enthusiastically reiterated their intention to join us in Anaheim and reminded us of their commitment to the event if we were able to find an alternative date. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a workable and safe option.”
ASME’s AM Medical exhibition, scheduled for end of May, is still planning to take place. The Ceramics Expo, originally scheduled for early May, has announced it is postponing until September 2020. [Update April 17, 2020] ASME has announced it is rescheduling and adjusting its AM Medical event. The group has secured dates for the LIVE event in fall 2020 and will host a virtual AM Medical all-day event on May 27. ASME will also be launching a series of biweekly webinars.
‘Whilst we’re disappointed the event isn’t taking place in May, as we had originally planned, our new dates in September have given us the opportunity to fully focus on delivering a successful 2020 edition,” said Danny Scott, Event Director of Ceramics Expo 2020. “We appreciate the support we have received from our key partners—around the decision to postpone—and we’re anticipating a hugely successful event, featuring the same amazing speakers and the same unique mix of exhibitors, when it takes place in September.”
Other event changes:
ADDIT3D, supposed to take place from May 25-29, 2020 in Spain has postponed until the 23-27 of November, 2020. And Salone del Mobile in Milan, originally scheduled for end of April, announced in February it was postponing its week-long event until June 16-21, 2020.
German event Rapid.Tech, which was to be held in May, just announced its event will be postponed until 2021. Consequently, the 3D Pioneers Challenge is adjusting its schedule, extending its deadline for submissions to May 15, 2020 and moving its finale to September 2020.
Inkjet printing company Mimaki, for its part, announced that it will host an interactive online event, the Mimaki Virtual Print Festival, to make up for postponed FESPA 2020. The company says the virtual event will include a series of group webinars and individual virtual meetings starting beginning March 24, 2020.
As has become very clear, it is hard to predict what the next month or even few months will look like. Considering this, we anticipate that there will likely be more changes to the additive manufacturing calendar in 2020. Watch this space for updates as they come in.
[Update March 18, 2020]
Software company Link3D has extended its Digital Additive Manufacturing Conference next week. The online event is now taking place over two days, March 24 and 25, 2020, and will consist of keynotes, chats and panels led by industry players like Honeywell, EOS, Dyemansion, Carpenter, Castheon, GKN / Forecast 3D, SLM, Dyemansion, ExOne, Velo3D, nTopology, The Barnes Advisory Group, Formlabs, UL, TÜV SÜD and others.
The Materialise World Summit 2020, original scheduled for May 2020 in Brussels, is postponed until November 5 and 6. And the Additive World Summit in Eindhoven is going ahead as scheduled, but is transitioning its events to the digital space. The event is taking place April 1 and 2 and will now be free to participate in.
[Update March 23, 2020]
Ceramics 3D printing company Lithoz has announced it is postponing the opening of its new Innovation Lab in Vienna, Austria. The event was originally supposed to be held on May 14, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the postponement date is not yet known.
[Update June 9, 2020]
The International Manufacturing Technology Show, IMTS, has announced it is cancelling its 2020 edition, which was scheduled for September 13-18 in Chicago, IL. IMTS will instead offer two digital programs, IMTS Network and IMTS Spark, over the next several months to assist exhibitors and the manufacturing community.
Formnext 2020, to be hosted in Frankfurt, Germany, is as of now going ahead in November.
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