Each January the A3 Business Forum is a great opportunity for the automation industry to come together to learn about the latest innovations and prepare for the year (and years) ahead. It’s also the best event out there when it comes to catching up with old friends and networking with ones within this space.
A team from TECH B2B Marketing attended again this year, talking to industry experts on the Manufacturing Matters podcast, making new connections, and learning about everything from the global economy to generative AI and human-robot interaction in a series of interesting conference sessions.
An A3 First to All Things AI
In the annual global economic update, Alan Beaulieu shared a positive update for the industrial economy over the next five years and a warning to prepare for a 2030s economic depression in order to keep your business alive and your people employed. Beaulieu’s presentations are always a favorite, and while we were sad to learn this would be his last year speaking at the Business Forum, we want to congratulate him on his induction to A3’s speaker hall of fame.
AI was of course a hot topic with fascinating discussions about getting the most out of ever-improving generative AI tools like ChatGPT and how embodied AI will impact the relationship between humans and robots, but there was also a call to be realistic about the effectiveness and time to market of every new innovation being promoted (Yes, including humanoid robots … ).
Of course, some of the best parts of the A3 Business Forum are the networking events. It was great to meet friends new and old at the golf scramble and wellness run/walk (despite the chilly Florida weather!), at the sports night party, and at the women’s empowerment lunch, which brought together an inspiring group of women working in sales, marketing, business development, and more, including industry legends like Roberta Nelson Shea.
Stay tuned to the podcast to watch the panel discussion we had with robotics experts from GrayMatter Robotics, Reshape Automation, the ARM Institute, and Mujin, as well as interviews with Shape Technologies Group, Lynxeo, and more. Topics included ongoing labor shortage woes, AI applicability in robotics, a rise in application-specific robot systems, global robot trends and figures, AMRs and cobots working in tandem, humanoid robots, robot adoption in small-to-medium enterprises, and much more.
We also held a machine vision panel discussion with folks from The Imaging Source, Motion AI, and Teledyne. Topics here included the intersection of robotics and machine vision, the real value of AI on the factory floor, recent image sensor developments, the latest in 3D, line scan, SWIR, and hyperspectral imaging, and more. Check it out below!
If you’d like to join us for an episode, contact us here.
Like every other year at our favorite networking event, we enjoyed our time at the A3 Business Forum and hope to see you there next year! Until then, contact us to learn how we can help your company grow awareness and drive engagement with content development, event promotion, and creative digital marketing. In addition, learn more about how we can help you at Automate 2025.
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The next time you attend an event, TECH B2B Marketing can help you get the most out of your trade show marketing program with targeted pre-show marketing, post-event publicity placement, and everything in between. Contact us today to plan for your next trade show.
