This January 18-20, Women in 3D Printing (Wi3DP) is back for the second time in a row with its TIPE 3D Printing Conference and Virtual Career Fair. Like its inaugural held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s event will be hosted virtually, meaning anyone and everyone can attend the industry’s only all-women agenda of additive manufacturing (AM) speakers.
The event generated unprecedented excitement and participation for a first show last year, meaning that the 2022 edition will likely be even more substantial. Wi3DP suggests that more than 170 AM experts will be presenting at the event, catering to each of the four eponymous tracks of TIPE: the technology, industry, people, and economics of 3D printing. A brief list of organizations represented at show include Peloton, Rivian, Lockheed Martin, Stanley Black & Decker, Decathlon, Ford, NASA JPL, Hitachi, Pratt & Whitney, HP, Stratasys, NAVAL Surface Warfare, Materialise, Desktop Metal, Carbon, and Henkel.
Of the event, the new president of Wi3DP, Kristin Mulherin, noted, “We are proud to welcome SME, TRUMPF, MatterHackers, GE Additive, and Stratasys as the five Platinum sponsors to our second annual Women in 3D Printing conference, TIPE 3D Printing. We thank our Platinum sponsors for supporting our mission of promoting and encouraging women in additive manufacturing.”
The keynote speakers for the event have also been announced: Anouk Wipprecht, who is famous for her use of 3D printing to create elaborate, conceptual fashion pieces, will be presenting, as will Julia Koerner, founder of JK Design and Assistant Adjunct Professor and Director of Summer Programs for UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. Reshma Saujani, CEO of Marshall Plan for Moms and founder of Girls Who Code, will also be a keynote speaker.
While TIPE 3D Printing 2022 promises to be eventful for the information and experiences shared, as well as the networking opportunities, the two Virtual Career Fairs taking place on the third day are a particularly exciting feature of the show. Attendees will be able to explore job opportunities with North American and European companies such as 3YOURMIND, DMG MORI, Fast Radius, H.C Starck, AON3D, EOS, GE, Mantle, MatterHackers, Würth, Nexa3D, and Link3D. Wi3DP’s first Virtual Career Fair for AM last year saw over 15 firms and more than 300 job seekers participate.
Given the state of the economy, contrasted by the rocket trajectory of the AM industry, job seekers are likely craving the ability to find work at growing companies in an innovative field. Moreover, with the underrepresentation of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups in STEM fields, this is a perfect venue for getting more individuals from those communities into the 3D printing industry. In turn, as AM comes to represent the future of manufacturing, that future will be populated by a more heterogenous collection of workers.
TIPE will take place January 18th – 20th, 2022. Attendees can register for free at the TIPE website. 3DPrint.com will be there covering the event. If there’s anything in particular you’d like us to track, feel free to let me know: michael (at) 3Dprint.com.