A year of championship for the UK as both the London Olympics and Southern Electronics Exhibition 2012 take shape, the UK exhibition for electronics solutions for production, sourcing and subcontracting
Alongside the run-up to the London Olympics for 2012, the year kicks off with the launch of the electronics industry exhibition season, starting with Southern Electronics at FIVE, Farnborough, on February 15th and 16th.
The event will see the shows exhibition halls populated with industry talent presenting a compendium of electronic component solutions, services and technology equipment.
A larger exhibition area and a new Electronics Production, Automation & Machinery zone add a further dimension to the proceedings.
The show harbours a history spanning back some eleven years and is co-located alongside the Southern Manufacturing Show. The event relocation to Farnborough in 2008 has been a catalyst for success, with its influence now spreading across continental Europe and beyond.
In 2011, a growing band of European exhibitors was broadened by the participation of the first Chinese company, and 2012 will welcome an inaugural US exhibiter to the show.
As the countries of participation become wider the show still however retains a focus primarily on SMEs. The organiser’s policy of keeping prices within the reach of smaller firms means that the event attracts a huge variety of exhibitors.
The big names like Anglia and RS Components will take their places too, but will do so alongside the smaller, specialist companies that are an increasingly important factor of the UK’s electronics eco-system.
The network of large and small companies individualises the show, creating a unique marketplace in which to source a diversified range of components and services.
Attracting the crowds
The 2011 show set new records for attendance; 2012 will be bigger again. The exhibition space booked passed the 2011 total in October last year, with the organisers forecasting a further 900m2 of space will be occupied before the show opens in February.
Electronics now accounts for over 50 percent of the overall show area. Hall two – the new area added last year next to the existing Electronics section- will extend the range of products on show with the addition of a new Electronics Production, Automation & Machinery area helping to home an influx of new exhibitors, together accounting for 20 percent of the total number of companies taking part.
Some new names this year include Fairview Electronics, AWS Electronics Group, local firm Gemini Tec, Essex X-ray & Medical Equipment and aerospace component supplier Pulse Electronics now confirmed.
The show’s invaluable free technical seminar programme returns for 2012 and as customary there will be one theatre dedicated solely to Electronics topics. The 2012 programme features arguably the strongest line-up of influential speakers and experts ever seen at Southern, from The Smart Group (Surface Mount & Related Technologies), BAE Systems, EDF Energy, NAMRC, Farnborough Aerospace Consortium, University of Sheffield and The Composite Systems Innovation Centre, amongst others.
Popular sessions on How to Succeed at Product Development, Successful Innovation and the principles of Manufacturing Best Practice, will feature again. New topics approached this year include How to Sell to the Energy Sector.
A key session delivered by Karen Booth of the University of Sheffield Health Gateway will examine in detail the growing opportunities in the UK’s burgeoning Medical Devices and Healthcare technology business.
Other topics covered include practical sessions on marketing, Learn, CE marking and many more. A full list of seminars is available at www.indus trysouth.co.uk, and pre-registration is highly recommended.
Entry to the event is free to business visitors, and the venue offers plentiful free car parking and convenient access by road and public transport.
To register online for tickets visit www.industrysouth.co.uk or call 01784 880 890.
Visitors can follow all the latest news from the show at www.linkedin.com, or on its blog page at http://blog.industrysouth.co.uk
Southern Electronics Exhibition
