Welcome back

The familiar chair, contours formed by a thousand hours of use, welcomes me back to the office like an old friend. The mug that has sat cold and dry for 17 days is brought back to life with the first coffee of 2011. Pen poised, iMac humming, it's time to begin... Back to the world of additive manufacturing after a brain-dulling break then — and there's plenty to talk about from the end of 2010 and start of 2011.

Firstly a couple of pieces I noticed from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/9318390.stm — a decent roundup of the 3D printing arena from BBC America

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12069495 — a festive slant on the world of 3D printing with some interesting food applications.

I highlight these specifically because of the involvement of one of the world's largest media organisations. When a story about a sub-genre of additive manufacturing gets onto the front page of the New York Times, or CNBC or BBC etc it exposes potentially millions more people to the technologies. I doubt whether anyone's likely to rush out and buy a £250,000 additive production system on the back of a mainstream media article, but they might head for a MakerBot or similar. And it all helps the cause of promoting additive technologies, right?

3D printing continues to forge ahead in the mainstream, making it into JWT's 100 things to watch in 2011, which can be found here — http://www.jwtintelligence.com

Having been on the periphery of mainstream intelligence for so long now, it will be interesting to see if the increased competition and falling prices witnessed over the last 12 months really do push additive, though specifically 3D printing, forward throughout the year. Or are we still missing an essential piece of the puzzle that will open up these technologies to the man on the street?

Either way, it's going to be another interesting year! Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011 for us all.