Defence still offers an option for UK electronics
05 September 2011
When it comes to UK exhibitions and conferences, those of us in the electronics industry are not exactly spoiled for choice. The number of shows has dwindled recently, and those that remain seem to get smaller every year.
One exception to this trend is National Electronics Week (NEW) in Birmingham, a relatively new show that has seen steady growth in the few years it has been running.
Now the people behind NEW are working with Clarion Events to launch a pavilion at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) specifically for the electronics industry.
DSEi is held from 13 – 16 September in London’s ExCel, and is the world’s largest land, sea and air biennial defence and security exhibition.
The new area, the International Electronics Pavilion, will cover a total of 200m2 of the exhibition floor. It will open up the exhibition to a wider audience, both from a supplier perspective – offering a platform to promote designs and technologies that are currently key or potentially of value to the defence industry – and also from a visitor perspective by attracting those involved in electronics product specification, engineering and design.
The electronics companies that supply to this sector – often innovative SMEs – are in the enviable position where the components element now drives the design and cost of major items of defence equipment.
Despite the recently announced cuts in the UK defence sector by the government, electronics equipment will continue to form an important part of defence spending, perhaps even more so with the pressure to use COTS equipment to keep costs down. There is also expected to be representatives from another 40 countries, opening up export opportunities. .
DSEi sounds a good opportunity to put your company in front of potential buyers, or even just to get up there to do some market research for future research and products.
Like any commercial venture, exhibitions will only continue as long as they have support from the industry. Personally I would love to see more, and larger, exhibitions in the UK. What are your personal feelings on UK exhibitions? If you go, how often? Do you seem to go to more foreign shows than UK-based ones? Let me know: alistair.winning@imlgroup.co.uk or @EPDNewsdesk.
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