KTN at Photonics West
KTN supported networking at Photonics West in conjunction with the UK Department for International Trade. Read more about the event.
PhotonicsWest¬†is the world‚Äôs largest photonics technology event, ¬†consisting of three conferences and two exhibitions. At this year’s event in San Francisco, California, over 1300 companies from around the world exhibited, with over 23000 attendees.
The UK has had a regular presence at this event for many years with the Tradeshow Access Programme supporting some UK companies to attend. This years show saw 22 companies in the UK and Scottish pavilions, and around 30 more exhibiting elsewhere in the two halls, with several other UK companies attending the event to take advantage of the excellent networking opportunities it provides.
Traditionally the UK has always held a pavilion reception, attracting a large number of attendees, and for 2018 KTN and the UK Department for International Trade worked together to build on this by running a structured networking activity at the show to support UK companies in making connections.  Companies registered profiles giving details of skills/services offered and skills/services needed to enable networking. Companies could also arrange meetings at one of three meeting points on the UK and Scottish Pavilions.
Over 50 organisations registered to share profiles and arrange meetings over the three days of the exhibition. ¬†One company remarked, “it‚Äôs such a large show that having the ability to book meetings at fixed venues is very valuable”. The UK pavilion reception also served to attract a wider audience, with representatives from the USA, Finland, Germany and several other countries in attendance. UK Consul General to San Francisco Andrew Whittaker attended the reception and tweeted that it was fascinating to meet the UK photonics companies exhibiting and to hear about the exciting work they‚Äôre doing.
Closer to home, KTN will be running a number of photonics-related events in 2018, details of which will appear soon on our events pages, or sign up to our newsletters to receive details straight to your inbox.  We will also be supporting UK companies at the Photon 2018 and Photonex Europe Live conferences and exhibitions.