Welcome to the UK Automation Forum
Join us and share your thoughts at a range of events and round table forums throughout the year. Use our Event Finder below to filter your results by category and date. Then simply click on the links to find out more and book your places.
Upcoming events
Learn more about our forthcoming events, held regularly throughout the year.
How can manufacturers work more effectively with finance providers?
17/06/2025
The MTC Conference, Antsy Park, Coventry
UK manufacturers see automation costs as a barrier, while lenders say funding is available but underutilized. The UK Automation Forum is surveying industry groups to address this disconnect.
Learn how to adopt automation successfully...from those who have!
07/05/2025
Automation UK exhibition, Coventry Building Society Arena
This Forum event is more than a panel discussion, it’s a unique way of gaining invaluable information from fellow manufacturers who have adopted automation successfully.
Past events
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How can engineers ride the new advanced technology wave to benefit their manufacturing sites?
20/03/2025With technology advancing at such a breath-taking pace, the 2025 programme at A4E this year focused on how engineers can make the best use of emerging technologies and better understand the challenges and benefits, cutting through the hype to find out more about the realities of technology adoption. The technology panel discussion saw industry experts discussing the technologies that food engineers should be looking at to help them.
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How can Smart Industry Readiness Index deliver smart benefits for UK manufacturers?
06/03/2025The Smart Industry Readiness Index – or SIRI – was introduced by the World Economic Forum and establishes the readiness of industries to adopt and implement smart manufacturing practices. Such readiness is measured against the four key dimensions of technology, organisation, people, and ecosystem. It has been described as a powerful resource to help companies separate the substance from the noise and synthesise the essence of Industry 4.0 into an easy-to-understand universal framework to start things off on the right foot. The Forum gathered a host of experts to explain this further.
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Learnings from last year and how 2025 will play out.
03/02/2025This first event of 2025 will review the host of topics covered by the UK Automation Forum in its inaugural year asking has the environment for automation adoption in the UK changed. And with current economic pressures mounting on manufacturers, will this impact the rate of automation adoption across the UK this year
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How can you attract young people into UK manufacturing?
13/11/2024The panel put together for the FANUC Open Days in November was the seventh event run in this, the first year of the UK Automation Forum. This final event for 2024 was completed with a discussion based around: How industry can attract more young people into UK manufacturing?
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What would make UK food businesses adopt more robots?
25/09/2024On stage at the PPMA Show 2024, representatives from across the food industry joined the panel to discuss the positive impact that adopting automation can have on the sector, while also sharing top tips and learnings that help to ensure successful outcomes. Real life projects were discussed as well as ways to overcome the reluctance that UK manufacturers seem to have to adopting robots and automation.
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How do you open doors to investment in manufacturing?
16/09/2024The UK Automation Forum’s fifth event was live streamed and featured a panel of industry experts from Automate UK, the MTC, Make UK, BAMUK, FANUC and NatWest. The panel discussed how manufacturers could access finance more easily to allow a higher adoption of robotics and automation. As well as setting the scene as to the current state of UK manufacturing, the discussion included findings from a report from Make UK called Finance: Opening Doors to Investment in Manufacturing that was published in partnership with NatWest and Lombard earlier this year.