FORGE Manufacturing and Innovation Showcase 2020: Event Recap
On October 22, FORGE hosted its second annual Manufacturing and Innovation Showcase, held virtually this year. The event included main stage keynote speakers, startup pitches, a virtual manufacturer expo, and the opportunity to network across the innovation ecosystem. Hundreds of registrants came from over 15 different countries.
Innovators and supply chain experts connected with high energy conversations about design,engineering and testing, at the Expo booths hosted by our supply chain sponsors Samtec, Peko Precision Products, Inc., Fourstar, Cambridge Polymer Group, Exor, Intertek, Axis New England, Hypertherm Ventures, Kalow Technologies LLC, AMI, ICSN, Product Resources, Empire Group, and MassMEP.
Over 100 startups registered and four finalist startups had the opportunity to pitch their product development challenges to win the FORGE Product Development Grant and Audience Choice award – a combined over $12,000 in non-dilutive funding. These four finalists were David Dellal of Floe, LLC, Katherine Clayton of OmniVis, Jonathan Lord of Flux Marine Ltd., and Aaron Baskerville-Bridges of AeroShield Materials. This year’s Product Development Grant went to AeroShield Materials, thanks to a technical application review by a panel of expert judges, and the Audience Choice Award, sponsored by M&T Bank, was awarded to Floe, LLC. . Please check out some of this year’s startup attendees in the event LookBook.
Massachusetts House Majority Leader Wagner Joseph Wagner gave opening remarks detailing FORGE’s role in state economic recovery. We also heard updates from last year’s event winners, RISE Robotics and Biobot Analytics, and learned how they used last year’s grants to help further product development.If you weren’t able to attend or missed some main stage programming, you can watch a full recap video of the Main Stage programming.
To stay informed about future FORGE events, register for our newsletter here. If you would like to showcase at next year’s Expo, contact Adam Rodrigues at adam@forgemass.org.
