In July, a team from Research and Innovation Services spent a week exhibiting at the Farnborough International Airshow. Building on the success of the 2012 show, the team led by Aerospace Collaboration Manager Ben Jones, spent seven days raising the profile of University, making important industry contacts and attracting potential new students.
As one of the largest air shows in the world, Farnborough this year attracted 100,000 trade visitors and over 80,000 weekend visitors, the Prime Minister David Cameron opened the show and a tranche of cabinet officials and other government figures were also in attendance including Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Philip Dunne, Michael Fallon and Philip Hammond.
With a prime position in the Innovation Zone, the University of Southampton used the event to showcase 40 value propositions – opportunities for industry to invest in current research and future technologies which will benefit the aerospace market in years to come.
The show was a huge success for the team, with over 180 leads generated. Ben was also able to talk Nick Clegg through some of the emerging technologies from the University and Mr Clegg went on to mention what he’d learned in a BBC news interview.
Plans are already underway for the next show in 2016 with the team hoping to build on the success of the value propositions by having an interactive area on the stand allowing potential collaborators to get ‘hands on’ with research and technologies.