Sheffield Manufacturing Festival puts Yorkshire on the map for IFB 2014

Sheffield City Region’s growing global reputation for advanced manufacturing will be an important theme of next year’s International Festival for Business.

The IFB 2014 involves more than 100 international events taking place primarily across the Liverpool City Region, with Sheffield’s Global Manufacturing Festival one of the main Yorkshire events during the Government backed initiative, which takes place throughout June and July 2014.

GMF2014 will run as part IFB and takes place between June 24-25 at the Advanced Manufacturing Park with a trade show and conference, keynote speakers, workshops and 150 exhibitors set to form proceedings.

The festival is being organised by Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, the University of Sheffield AMRC with Boeing and Marketing Sheffield.

Richard Wright, executive director of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said: “Linking the Global Manufacturing Festival with the IFB will give a world-wide accreditation to the importance of the event.

“Our vision is it to make the GMF the premier national high technology, high quality and high added value manufacturing festival that sells UK industry to the world, and we are delighted to team up with the IFB in 2014.”

Sheffield City Region is at the centre of UK manufacturing, housing many of the world’s most innovative engineering materials and processing organisations. It is the hub around which many of the country’s export led supply chains are built.

Richard added: “GMF2014 has been specifically designed to help SMEs understand the high performance materials supply chains for a broad range of high growth market sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, energy and oil and gas.

“It will help them access those markets and offer advice on where to focus investments to gain future business.

“Having greater knowledge of the structure of these complex supply chains will allow businesses across the UK to better identify who their customer is and what future requirements they have. #GMF2014 provides the perfect environment to achieve this.”

The Global Manufacturing Festival has been running since 2011 and has grown in popularity each year with some of the world’s biggest manufacturing and engineering companies attending.

“Sheffield and the city region is a vital player in the world of high value profitable manufacturing, and needs to remain in this position to ensure wealth continues to enter the country, and flow down the supply chains and into the service sectors,” says Richard.

“This festival is the place to come to understand market opportunities, leading issues and technology.”

More than 250,000 business professionals are set to attend events linked to IFB 2014, which aims to support £100m of direct investment into the UK and be the catalyst to double UK exports by 2020.

It will cover a number of different sectors throughout the programme including maritime, logistics, energy, education, research, manufacturing, science, technology, professional services, low carbon and creative and digital.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →