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Coronavirus: which 3D printing events have been postponed?

Events around additive manufacturing – trade fairs, conferences, meetups, maker faires – are important events for the sector allowing many players and users to exchange and discover the latest market trends and technologies. With the worldwide spread of the coronaviru

coronavirus 3D printing events
3Dnatives

Events around additive manufacturing – trade fairs, conferences, meetups, maker faires – are important events for the sector allowing many players and users to exchange and discover the latest market trends and technologies. With the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19 virus to be more precise, 3D printing events have been deeply affected and many have had to be postponed or even cancelled all over the world. We were able to talk to some of the organisers of these world events to find out what the consequences of such a decision would be.

TCT Asia was one of the first 3D printing exhibitions to be postponed. It was originally scheduled to take place in Shanghai from February 19 to 21 and was expected to bring together more than 200 exhibitors and 10,000 visitors from 20 different countries. Another Chinese show that was postponed was Asiamold, which was scheduled to take place from February 26 to 28. New dates have been announced for TCT Asia, now scheduled to take place between 8-10 July 2020. As for Asiamold, new dates for the fairs will be announced in due course.

coronavirus 3D printing events

TCT Asia has been postponed

Empty booths at DMS

One event that shows the consequences of running an event despite the coronavirus is the Design Engineering & Manufacturing Solutions Expo, also known as DMS, which took place in Tokyo. The show is considered one of the largest additive manufacturing exhibitions in the world. We spoke to Peter Rogers, APAC Product Specialist for Additive Manufacturing at Autodesk, who told us the event was extremely disappointing: “This year’s DMS was an incredible flop. Large numbers of companies cancelled their exhibits, and for those that didn’t cancel, a majority were unmanned booths. It was quite disappointing to see considering it is usually quite a good event that brings in a number of strong leads. Tentative numbers from Reed Exhibitions Japan (the organizer) had attendee numbers hovering around 8,000-10,000 total over the 3 days, down from 88,000+ in 2018.”