At the same time, the additive manufacturing industry has clearly demonstrated the potential of flexible, diversified and decentralized production during the crisis. There is no doubt that AM will be one of the leading technologies leading the way out of the recession. It will play a major role in the development of new products, the design of resilient supply chains and the development of sustainable business models. An exchange between AM providers and AM users is therefore essential, and so is Formnext.

How did the idea of Formnext Connect come about and what are its main focuses?

The idea of supplementing Formnext virtually is not new. However, as in many areas, the pandemic has accelerated its development and implementation. With Formnext Connect, our virtual platform, we want to make participation as convenient and efficient as possible. At a physical event, it makes perfect sense to stroll through the aisles and be inspired by the solutions on display. In the digital space, however, this approach is not necessarily desirable. Here, participants want to find the best possible solution quickly and in a targeted manner thanks to good filter options and a clearly structured user interface. Performance problems and buffer times for CPU-consuming graphic elements are not acceptable and would spoil the experience.

Additionally, events like Formnext are made by the chance, inspiring encounters that we try to translate into the digital world and foster through the AI-based matchmaking algorithm. Last but not least, the content: presentations, expert talks, roundtables, special shows and additional formats such as Formnext.TV, which cover all aspects of additive manufacturing processes and the industries that use them, are an integral part of Formnext and are of course integrated through live and on-demand streams.

By focusing on these three key elements, we believe that our attendees and exhibitors will have a successful Formnext Connect and be able to generate real value from their participation.

To what extent do you think this event will be able to compensate for the loss of the Formnext presence?

I am a child of the trade fair world and believe that face-to-face meetings can never be completely replaced by a purely virtual solution. However, our task as a market platform is to adapt event concepts flexibly and in line with demand so that the negative effects are kept to a minimum.