'Better prepared? Photonics faces the future with confidence' will be the focus of this year’s Photonex Executive Panel Discussion featuring top industry figures and chaired again by its sponsor Europa Science’s chairman and editor-in-chief Dr Tom Wilkie.
Being held on Wednesday 19 October the panel discussion, organised by Europa Science, takes place at a time when the clouds of recession are lowering over the global economy. The photonics industry faces this situation with an industrial landscape of few large companies and small to medium-sized enterprises all trying to recover from the harsh start three years ago of the ongoing economic malaise.
Just as Photonex has moved this year to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry the issue of geography is foremost for the industry. Will those with strong domestic markets such as the USA and Germany fare better or will Asia lead the way with China?
While 2010 and now 2011, so far, has seen positive market trends, the executive panel’s speakers from Ocean Optics, Teradiode, Qioptiq, Pro-Lite Technology and Dilas will be commenting on a wide range of topics pertinent to the gloomy forecasts. From the USA and Europe, the panel members are: Dr Nick Barnett, business development manager for Ocean Optics; Dr Robin Huang, a co-founder of TeraDiode; Robert Yeo, a founding partner in Pro-Lite Technology; Fiona Evans, business development manager at Qioptiq; and Dr Jörg Neukum, who is responsible for the marketing and worldwide sales at Dilas Diodenlaser.
The topics they will be tackling will include: whether the last recession can teach the industry anything about what can be expected; what sectors will be more resilient than others - medicine, defence, photovoltaics; and whether government austerity is going to shrink public photonics
Photonex, the UK’s photonics conference and exhibition, will be taking place from the 18-19 October at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. As well as the executive panel discussion Photonex’s conference programme includes high power diode lasers and systems on the Tuesday and Wednesday, nanostructured metal oxide thin films and integrated devices, optical metrology and novel sources all on Wednesday. The event will also feature tutorials on a wide range of subjects including LED and luminaire photometric testing; laser based terahertz generation; supercontinuum light sources; software tools for 3D machine vision; hyperspectral imaging and structured lasers as an aid to machine vision.
