I3DP NY ’14 Was The Second Iteration Of This Pioneering 3DP Conference & Expo & It Improved On The Premier Effort Of April 2013 With More Keynotes, Speakers, Sessions, Exhibitors, Attendance—AND An Added & Integrated “Maker Summit & Pavilion…”
Avi Reichental, President & CEO of 3D Systems Corp., presenting the first Keynote at “Inside 3D Printing” at the Javits Center, NYC, on 3 April 2014.
Ah, the Trade Show! THE commercial gathering-in for always-gregarious humans. The place where Homo Sapiens (“wise man”) transforms to Homo Negotium (“business man”). Latin “negotium” is also the root of English “negotiate.” And, you can only do that with another human.
The trade show is also the richest marketing environment on the planet. And, our New York City “puts on a [business] show” of note some 800 times a year. (Pace Mickey Rooney—”Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show…”—who died yesterday at 93.) In our City, you’re just a subway ride away from some kind of trade-show ecstasy—and business-success knowledge—on almost any day of the year.
Now, 3D Printing is “putting on a show”…to match its new and burgeoning presence in the consciousness of business people—and humans of every other stripe.
Well, you could hardly expect anything less from this (30-year-old) “overnight sensation.” Our 3D Printing is now touted by media, manufacturers and Masters of the (Old & New) Universe as transformative of…wait for it…almost everything.
Hod Lipson, Associate Professor, Cornell University, co-author of FABRICATED and the overall Master of Ceremonies at “Inside 3D Printing” at the Javits Center, NYC, on 3 April 2014.
New York online-media impresario and trade-show producer Mediabistro recognized what a commercial bonanza could be garnered from the seemingly inexhaustible interest in 3DP. (My neologism for Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication.)
After staging I3DP NY ’13, Mediabistro has bolted around the world founding “Inside 3D Printing…”-branded events in at least 10 additional venues. From Santa Clara to Seoul, Melbourne to Milan, Shanghai to Sao Paulo—and nearly every compass-point city in-between. On the business-strategy theory that first with the most usually furthers…?
We’re still at the stage of public notoriety in which eyes invariably light-up and smiles of expectation greet the statement that you might be an insider at the wondrous 3DP Funhouse. (Because—like that carney institution—many people have now seen or heard of our 3DP-tech phenom, but few have actually gained access to the lightning-stroke excitement and the slightly sulfurous scent {melted ABS?} of magic behind the garishly painted facade.)
With business vision, budget and bodacious-ness, Mediabistro grabbed 3DP headliners and honchos to participate at I3DP NY ’14 at the Javits Center on 2, 3 and 4 April. That’s 56 speakers, 43 sessions, 37 exhibitors (three-times last year’s), attendees from 45 countries and 43 U.S. States—totaling a 4,000-plus gate.
I myself managed to take in 13 of the sessions, enjoyed most of the exhibits and exchanged business cards—and ideas—individually with forty + players and fellow attendees in two full days. (On the show floor, I concentrated on 3D Systems, the largest exhibitor-presence by far—and the banner/Platinum sponsor—as the company was last year. Hey, they had the most gee-whiz goodies to “show & tell.”)
Christine Furstoss, Technical Director of Manufacturing & Materials Technologies, GE Global Research, presenting her Keynote at “Inside 3D Printing” at the Javits Center, NYC, on 3 April 2014.
Granted this show’s stats can’t (yet!) compete with the mega-trade events that fill the entire Javits (e.g., National Retailer Federation’s “Big Show” or the NYC “Boat Show”). I3DP NY ’14 had a downstairs venue and a relatively small footprint. But, this industry is (3DP) fabricating Seven-League Boots… (The estimate for our 3DP sector is a market value of $2.5 billion in 2013 AND $16.2 billion in 2018: that’s 45.7 percent growth in just five years.)
I think the best way to sample I3DP NY ’14—and gain some high-level insights with grassroots’ impact—is via the show’s keynotes. Keeping up with the trend to “keynote” excessively, there were five in all over two days. Three—appropriately—were by industry heavy-weights known to most in the “insider” audience. These marquee players were:
- Avi Reichental, President and CEO of 3D Systems;
- Christine Furstoss, Technical Director of Manufacturing & Materials Technologies of GE Global Research; and
- Carl Bass, President and CEO of Autodesk.
In this post, I’d like to spotlight the keynote of 3D Systems’ Avi Reichental. It has—I believe—the hands-on passion of a guy battling it out in the trenches of the 3DP business day-to-day. While, at the same time, garnering a view of the marketplace battlefield—and the larger commercial war—over the parapet of the action.
Avi’s 3D Systems—for the second year—more or less “owned” the show as THE Platinum Sponsor and dominant exhibitor. (Stratasys was a “sponsor” of the event but was otherwise nearly invisible and its sub Brooklyn-based MakerBot had no presence at all—last year both at least had booths.) So—mirabile dictu—Avi presented the first keynote.
Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot and the “poster boy” of desktop 3DP, may currently be the smartest marketer in our new industrial sector. BUT, I think Avi Reichental is the smartest business man in 3DP. And, thus gets his full-length, oil-painting portrait—in the ornate gilt-on-gesso frame—high on the wall of the 3DP Hall of Fame.
Carl Bass, President & CEO of Autodesk, presenting his Keynote at “Inside 3D Printing” at the Javits Center, NYC, on 4 April 2014.
In his keynote, Avi started by waxing philosophical—appropriate for a man who has been in this new/old business for a long time.
He talked about the “meaning” of 3DP and the “passion for making.” He sees a kind of “pre-industrial cast” to 3D printing which is creating a “localized digital-craftsmanship renaissance.” 3DP is empowering people to exercise their “craftsmanship muscles” again. He emphatically states that 3DP is “meaningful, transformative and impactful.”
Mr. Reichental used the metaphor of a “connected digital thread,” that stretches from—and weaves together—”designing to making” and “the factory of the future, the engine of the future and the home of the future.”
In parallel with his take on meaning and making, Avi believes that 3DP is now about the “democratization” of manufacturing—with its inherent “advancing and democratizing” effects on commerce.
As a result, Avi Reichental sees 3DP as “a $30 billion opportunity over the next few years.” [Pretty bold forecast as 3DP industry value---depending on who you believe---is now around $2.5 to $3 billion! "Yowza"---as we say in Brooklyn...]
As opposed to the 3DP’s early years of rapid prototyping and reverse engineering usage, Avi foresees the technology morphing into a “mass manufacturing” engine, with “smart and multi-materials,” hitting the “sweet spot” of “making millions of identical parts with a flexibility that could NOT be done in any other way.”
3D Systems’ President and CEO Reichental projects that 3DP will thus “turn ‘economies of scale’ on its head.” The tech will deliver products at the “same price for one or millions” yet with “unlimited complexity.” AND, these same disrupting “capability is available to GE AND startups.”
Avi Reichental, President & CEO of 3D Systems, demo’ing rock-star 3DP-produced sunglasses, at his Keynote at “Inside 3D Printing” at the Javits Center, NYC, on 3 April 2014.
Avi played on his 3D Systems’ branding campaign of “all powered by 3DPRINTING 2.0″ by stating that his company’s production printers are now capable of “fab-grade [to semi-conductor standards] manufacturing.” Leading this charge is DDD’s capability in “direct-metal printing.” As he is wont to do via M&A (45+ acquisitions in the last two and a half years), Avi & Co. bought direct-metal leader, France-based Phenix Systems in July 2013.
Mr. Reichental also continued touching on 3DP-tech democratization effects—and what he called “re-localization” of production. He foresaw small-scale production bolstered by “continuous manufacturing systems [with output] in the tens of thousands.” He stated that pro-makers will be able to up-scale their businesses via the “success of high-speed, flexible manufacturing systems.” Makers will be able to think: “If I can design it, I can make it.”
Avi posited that the key was “how to distribute this re-localization.” What will be needed—according to Seer Reichental— is the “hybridization of [3DP] workflows with traditional workflows.”
To underline the granularity of relocalization—and what I’ve been calling the “eCottage Industry Revolution”—Avi asked “in what room in your house will your 3D printer reside?!” In other words, how many different uses will you have for the machine that can print almost anything?
Mr. Reichental has a reply for skeptics who will doubt his predictions. “Don’t be gripped by denial.” 3DP is “undeniably exponential.” Everyone “thinks you’re crazy until change catches up!”
And, Avi Reichental obviously thinks change is racing to confirm his projected 3DP future…
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