Industry 4.0 Summit
National Industry 4 0 Summit, Mullingar - Martin Shanahan
Mullingar Chamber of Commerce was delighted to host the National Industry 4.0 Summit at the Mullingar Park Hotel on Thursday 28th April 2016. To learn more about the event see www.industry4summit.com
Martin Shanahan CEO of IDA Ireland gave the keynote speech for the event. Followed by Brian Quinn of Intel Labs Ireland. There was full exhibition hall with 40 exhibits by companies selling services related to automation and software for Industry 4.0. There were presentations by experts from Ericsson, Siemens, Microsoft, IBM, Hanley Automation and Rockwell Automation. Mullingar has become a venue for such exhibitions and shows relating to manufacturing with its successful Industrial Expo event.
Industry 4.0
At European level, manufacturing leaders have grouped under one broad heading the most significant developments in IT and communications technology which hold clear benefits for production – that heading has come to be known as Industry 4.0. Put simply, this concept refers to the fact that developments have been so world-changing from a manufacturing perspective that it amounts to a whole revolution in manufacturing techniques; effectively the 4th recognisable Industrial Revolution. Developments in technologies such as Additive manufacturing (3D printing), augmented reality, automated data systems, virtual reality, cobotics, big data analytics and so on.
The event would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship and support of Westmeath County Council, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Mason Hays Curran and Cisco Meraki.
Three hundred and fifty people were in attendance for the Summit which certainly had the quality of speaker that would be expected from a National Summit event. A consistent buzz was evident for the full day of the event which was Mullingar's answer to the Web Summit. Many references were made also the the new Additive Manufacturing Research Lab which is being located in Mullingar in Lough Sheever Business Park.