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Around 40 speakers from sectors such as motor vehicle manufacturing, aeronautics, retail, consumer goods, healthcare and industry used the IN(3D)USTRY arena, from Tuesday to Thursday, to explain the excellent moment that additive manufacturing is currently experiencing. Representatives from companies such as Renault, Adidas, Airbus, Sony and Siemens shared with leading manufacturers their experiences with the use of 3D printing and the challenges they will be facing in the future.

The director of IN(3D)USTRY, Miquel Serrano, made a point of highlighting the excellent response to the expert speakers in the Arena: ‘We’re delighted with how it worked, as it stimulated cross-cutting dialogue between all the players in the value chain.’ Serrano believes that ‘IN(3D)USTRY has set itself apart from other trade fairs in this sector and has positioned itself as a unique event within the 3D printing ecosystem.’

In this respect, the senior director of Design Operations at Adidas, Simone Cesano, who took part as a speaker, applauded the format of the event organised by Fira de Barcelona. ‘I was surprised by the number of contacts we made, and so quickly. We managed to talk to a lot of different people in a very short space of time.’ Cesano highlighted the innovative nature of Barcelona, which has ‘a high density of design schools with unconventional approaches, which excites me because this is exactly what we’re always looking for at Adidas.’

In a similar vein, the sales manager of HP in Spain and Portugal, Jaume Homs, believes that events such as IN(3D)USTRY are essential for the sector: ‘We need events like this because this is still quite a new market.’ For this reason, Homs maintains that ‘there is still a lot of work to be done to raise awareness of the huge potential of additive manufacturing, and events like these are the only way of showing them to the market.’

The fact that the show was held at the same time as Expoquimia, Eurosurfas, Equiplast and the IoT Solutions World Congress, as part of Barcelona Industry Week, helped to generate synergies between visitors and exhibitors, and also managed to exceed the 3,300 visitors of last year.

For the first time, the IN(3D)USTRY Arena hosted the third Reshape Awards for the best wearables designs. The first prize was won by a backbone equipped with artificial intelligence that corrects poor back posture. The second prize went to a 100% customisable nose clip for swimmers, while the third prize was won by a biometric keyboard inserted into the fingers of the hand.