Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
With just over seven weeks to go until MACH 2016 we know that people are starting to plan their visits. With that in mind we’re excited to announce that MACH 2016 has extended opening hours and will now be open from 9am for the five days of the exhibition to give you even more time to enjoy the tech on show.
Join us in welcoming Laura Pickering to the MTA team – Laura has taken up the position of Learning & Development Co-ordinator. You can contact Laura via email on lpickering@mta.org.uk.
The next MTA Members’ Forum and new Spring Economic Update, event will be held on Wednesday 4th May at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Coventry. See the story below to book your place and have your say on how your trade association is run.
Also to be held at the MTC, in this case on the 15th March, we have news of a workshop looking at developing strategies for supply chain growth. This is a really good opportunity for companies in the Midlands (especially Warwickshire, Coventry, Notts and Derbyshire) to contribute to developing ways to help UK supply chain companies get their fair share of the manufacturing pie. It’s also a great opportunity to network with some of the region’s leading OEMs. You can find out more below or by contacting Paul O’Donnell at the MTA on podonnell@mta.org.uk
The Intellectual Property Office is running a series of events next week entitled the China IP roadshow. China Attaché, Tom Duke, will be running a UK-wide intellectual property roadshow from 24 to 26 February 2016. The intellectual property (IP) landscape is moving and improving fast in China and Tom Duke has been the UK’s IP Attaché to China since 2011. Events will be held in London, Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh, more details on how to attend are below.
Scottish based members may be interested to know that Jayne Baxter MSP and the Manufacturing Commission would like to invite MTA members to an event to promote the Manufacturing Commission’s report: “Industrial Evolution – Making British Manufacturing Sustainable”. This will be held at Holyrood on 17th Match between 5:30pm – 7:30pm. If you’d like more details about the work of the Manufacturing Commission contact Paul O’Donnell at podonnell@mta.org.uk
The initial release of data for the European economy showed slow but steady growth in the final quarter of 2015 and for the year as a whole and while the detailed industrial output data for December was rather disappointing, the year as a whole did see some growth in activity. Meanwhile the CBI’s latest forecast for the UK economy shows a slight downgrading of prospects for 2016 and 2017, but there is still growth and their investment forecast also remains positive despite some headwinds for the economy.
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news, until then have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.