Delighted to have been invited to attend the 'Invest Somerset -Aerospace

Delighted to have been invited to attend the 'Invest Somerset -Aerospace, Future Flight and High-Value Manufacturing Showcase', bringing together industry leaders, innovators and educators to explore opportunities, share expertise, and shape the future of advanced manufacturing and aviation technology in Somerset.

Hosted at the iAero Centre in Yeovil, Cllr Mike Rigby outlined Somerset's Vision and Goals and their five key economic prosperity priorities, which will be interesting to see how their new Growth Board will deliver against this strategy over the coming months.

Very interesting panel discussion, facilitated by COLIN TURNER, CEO of the WEAF Team, focused on understanding the short, medium and long term challenges of the Advanced Manufacturing sector. Thanks to Mark Jackson from Leonardo, Jane Beith from Numatic International, Dillon Harmon from Needles and Pins Aerospace Ltd and Mark Bolton from Yeovil College for the very honest personal experience of the challenges the industry faces.

Keynote from David Evans, Policing Director for Underwater Systems at Thales added, "groups like this will drive the Somerset Prosperity Strategy, we need to be bold and ask."

Awesome showcase of capability from Alan Rallings at Cyclopic, Chris Daley and his colleagues at Festo (amazing use of animal behaviour to influence innovation on components lifting, moving and gripping ), Yeovil College and your hydrogen drone and equipment and Lynn Marie Smith from Mark3D Benelux.

Drone Tech Panel - hosted by Andrew Chadwick, with Corinne Matthews CRAeS FFIZ Lead at Somerset Council, Chris Gee from BSI, Dr Anthony Lawrenson from Volant Autonomy, Adrian Wilkinson Land & Minerals Consulting Ltd (t/a QuarryDesign and DroneSurv) and Chris Brown from In View Assets.

Key Copper Turtle takeaways for Chris Wardman and I:

None of these challenges are new, it's time for action!

It's not all cider and cheese! (45k working in defence, 2nd largest Aerospace Cluster in Europe).

Financing of raw materials and machinery is difficult for SMEs and support hasn't been there, even at a regional level.

The costs in labour and the struggle to resource personnel is real. Industry is paying out of their own pocket to keep skills and capability here in the UK.

The Department of Trade and Industry has identified the need for support in Advanced Manufacturing sector, in my view, we know the 'why', but who will do what, how, by when and with whom?

Only the answer to all of those points, drives and delivers true outcomes and change!