STC Innovation & Growth Conference 2023

Date: 21st November 2023

Event Round Up

Thank you to everybody who attended the STC Innovation & Growth Conference 2023. The feedback has been really positive and the event continues to be a firm favourite on the advanced engineering community’s events calendar.

For the second year running, the conference was hosted at The Stables in Milton Keynes, and the auditorium offered the perfect backdrop for speakers and audience alike.

STC Innovation and Growth Conference 2023

Members and guests from across the region came together to hear about the latest developments and initiatives from within the cluster and beyond, and our speakers did not disappoint, delivering some engaging and thought-provoking presentations, from sustainability in Aerospace, to creating inclusive cultures in STEM, to making hydrogen viable.

Our inspirational speakers

We are so grateful to our speakers for giving up their time to join us either in-person or virtually, to share their insights and expertise with us.

Here’s a recap:

Steve Henson of founding member Barclays, joined us in his capacity as STC Board Member, to reflect on the last 6 years of the STC.

Stephane Bazire of Silverstone Circuit wasn’t able to be there in person, but recorded a video especially for our audience, about Silverstone Circuit’s drive to net zero.

Richard Postins of Prova PR presented on the importance of communications in driving commercial growth, new market entry and horizontal innovation.

Garry Myatt of PP Control & Automation talked about the reasons they joined the STC and the benefits it brought. We also heard about their excellent PP Plus initiative – an easy access support network, helping startups partner with industry experts.

Our CEO, Pim van Baarsen, announced the launch of the STC’s brand new Skills initiative to aid member companies with retention and recruitment as well as promoting engineering careers. We’ll be bringing you more on this soon! Lots of exciting plans in the pipeline.

For our final presentation of the morning session, we welcomed keynote speaker Mike Jones of LBI Consulting. Mike’s presentation delved into the complexities of the modern business landscape, sharing insights and approaches that can help leaders navigate challenges effectively.

Our afternoon session kicked off with a video of Dr Jehan Kanga of Rux Energy taking us behind the scenes at the lab where his team are working towards a hydrogen-powered future. Jehan couldn’t be with us on the day, as he is based in Australia, but he is planning to visit #Silverstone next year… and we can’t wait. Watch this space.

Placi Espejo of the Oxford-Cambridge Partnership joined us to share some exciting news about the Partnership and how it could benefit the Silverstone cluster businesses.

Aly King-Smith of Clearworks Coaching delivered a fascinating presentation on creating inclusive cultures in the workforce. Really thought-provoking stuff.

Our final guest of the day, Dr. Maria Nelson of the Aerospace Technology Institute, explored the opportunities and the challenges faced on the road to net zero in aerospace.

We wrapped up the day with our panel discussion, featuring Dr. Maria Nelson, Placi Espejo and Aly King-Smith. Lots of thought-provoking questions from the audience and some fascinating insights from our panellists.

STC Innovation and Growth Conference 2023 - Placi Espejo, Dr Maria Nelson, Aly King-Smith

All the presentation slides and videos from the day are available for members to download at the bottom of this page. All delegates should have already received an email with a link to this content.

Networking at its best

The event was also a fantastic opportunity for our members to network with some global organisations in advanced engineering, manufacturing, electronics and software development – likewise, for visitors to also discover the incredible skills and capabilities that our members have to offer industry. The breakout room was a hive of activity during the intervals.

STC Innovation and Growth Conference 2023

Thanks to everyone involved in making the day such a success.

We would love your feedback

As always, we work consistently to improve our membership offering year on year, and we can only do that with your help!

So please do take 2 minutes to complete the feedback survey for us if you haven’t already. Details below.

Presentation slides and videos

All of the presentations and videos have been emailed to delegates. Plus STC members have exclusive access to all of our event recordings, all of the time, via the STC Forum, YouTube and the website.

The content is available to download below for logged in members (if you can’t see the links below, you need to log in).