I went along to the Nottingham Manufacturing Network meeting today.  It is a network of manufacturing company managers.  It is run by the local chamber of commerce.  There is a briefing on economic sentiment and activity from both the local chamber and at a national level from Make UK.      I got a much better sense of the impact of tax changes,  tariffs, exchange rate movements and shifting market access.   Cautious optimism in the face an uncertain world. 

The east midlands manufacturing networks are facilitated by Qinesis, a company with whom I have been affiliated.  Qinesis provides all sorts of business services to companies in the STEM sector in the local area.   I got to meet old colleagues: Mark Goldby and Steve Walker. 

The meeting was held in the Engineering building on the Clifton Campus at NTU.  It feels like yesterday that I was teaching on this campus, and yet the entire building is New.  

It is interesting to see that NTU Engineering Department is a key partner in the Automated Distribution and Manufacturing Center that is being set up in Sutton in Ashfield.  I will be very interested to see if they are covering MRP and Supply Chain technologies that I am familiar with.  

NTU Engineering is also developing masters degree programs in digital transformation which is something that I will try and stay connected to.