Photonex Post Show Report
The Photonex09 event, which was held last October at Stoneleigh Park, was a great success from all accounts. Photonex, widely regarded as the UK’s premier event, has continued to evolve each year of its long history (2010 will be the 19th year) and this year was no exception with more associated activities taking place than ever before.
The Exhibition was made up of manufacturers and suppliers of photonics products from the UK and Europe coupled with an exhibition of universities in the Innovation Area. The technology on show extended across the disciplines; from components to spectroscopy, thin film coating systems to metrology instrumentation and into cameras and imaging systems.
Lasers as always were exhibited in large numbers as visitors were interested in a broad range of applications from medium power up to the latest high power devices.
An organisation leading the push in raising power levels is the European HiPER Project which is dedicated to demonstrating the feasibility of laser driven fusion as a future energy source. This organisation exhibited at Photonex and also provided a Keynote Speaker within the High Power Diode Lasers conference. A comment made on the Photonex at-show video stated: “Photonex is the place to be where everyone who is anyone in lasers is to be found”.
Laurence Devereux of show organisers Xmark Media commented at the end of the show that “Against the backdrop of the worst recession in living memory we have had an excellent turn out, better than many shows this year and I hear that a very large proportion of the visitors have had serious interest in photonics technologies and in-depth discussions on exhibitors stands”.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
The conference administration was by Enlighten Meetings, the meetings division of Xmark Media the event organisers, and over the two days of the event there were over 115 talks in 12 different subject strands. In addition to contribution from key sponsor the Photonics & Plastic Electronics KTN, Photonex hosted four meetings from the Institute of Physics Optical Group; a two-day industrial and scientific imaging meeting from the UKIVA and a meeting from the Sensors & Instrumentation KTN. The High Power Diode Lasers & Systems meeting was arranged by the Scottish Chapter of the Photonics Society and co-sponsored by EPIC, Brighter and the IET.
This latter meeting supports Photonex in its continuing quest to attract more attendees to the show from Europe and overseas, it is a now recognized as a European showcase meeting for laser technology and attracted a high level audience from all over Europe. Chairman of the organising committee, Professor John Marsh of the University of Glasgow commented, “The highlight for me was seeing that there is steady progress being made in high power single lasers and coherently coupled arrays operating in a single mode. This has been a challenge for laser scientists for a long time and is a necessary step before direct diode can challenge solid state and fibre lasers”. The attendees and speakers felt the meeting was of a world class event and particularly useful as there was no High Power Laser meeting in the US in 2009.
Preparations are taking place for a launch of the Photonex10 event in the New Year and companies interested in receiving an information pack should register by clicking this link – REQUEST PACK>
TESTIMONIAL
"We have exhibited at Photonex for years and it never ceases to surprise me the quality of interest at this show. Excellent enquiries again this year, even a strong positive interest 5 minutes before the end of the exhibition for a large hyperbolic mirror for an aerospace application". Robin Addison, Sales & Marketing Manager at Precision Solutions.
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