Orange County Calling....Rapid 2008

As I type this rolling news reports of the $4 gallon of gasoline and other bleak economic indicators on US television seem to lend credence to the suggestion that the US is facing a recession

It was against this gloomy backdrop that I arrived in Orlando to attend the annual SME RAPID event this week. I was intrigued to see if the economic slow down was going to have an impact on the event, and on the industry we operate in.

I'm pleased to report that it was a good success, plenty of visitors and the majority of exhibitors reported a good deal of enquiries. I'd venture to suggest that the sector we operate in might well be insulated against the worst vagaries of a recession. Companies are not going to stop developing products in competitive sectors such as Automotive and Consumer markets and people don't stop getting injured so Medical markets will need to continue to push forward - the result I believe and hope is that the technologies we cover and that you use and sell will enable us to emerge unscathed.

As for the event itself....all the big guns were present and correct, EOS, (Kralling, Germany) as event sponsor made a big splash as you will see from the picture. Stratasys (MN, USA) and 3D Systems (SC, USA) also had their full ranges (which really are vast these days) on show.

Some of the most interesting developments are emerging in the area of model enhancement, VacuCoat (MI, USA) presented a vacuum metalizing process for RP&M models, XLAform (NC, USA) have a new resin infusion process for Z-Corp models which is already gathering serious interest.

Amongst the plethora of presentations on offer, the opening keynote speaker, Retired US Army Brigadier General Nick Halley gave an entertaining take on leadership drawing on his years in service. On that basis his book "Leadership Under Fire" might well prove to be a useful read if you are one for that type of reading material.

RAPID 2009 takes place next year on May 12-14, located in Schaumburg, IL , worth putting on your Outlook calendar now I think.