ISTMA's European Tooling Forum Comes to Milan in September

2009-6-27 14:14:24

Organized by the European branch of the International Special Tooling & Machining Association—ISTMA Europe—in close cooperation with the European ManuFuture Platform, the second European Tooling Forum will take place on September 25 in Milan, Italy. The presidency of the European federation is now held by the Italian association.

Recently, ISTMA Europe has actively been drawing attention to the sector, increasing its visibility and emphasizing its importance, particularly with respect to official bodies at the national and international levels. The regional association has especially focused on developing contacts with the European Commission. Its fundamental objective is maintaining the European sector’s competitiveness and sustainable development in the face of challenges posed by an increasingly global and aggressive market.

ISTMA has been pivotal in organizing key initiatives that involve the industry’s stakeholders, promoting strategic projects and research, development, and demonstration activities. The successful first edition of the European Tooling Forum, held in Lisbon in 2007, provides an example. Similarly, the Milan forum will embody, integrate, and leverage the industry’s priorities as consistently fostered by ISTMA Europe’s through multiple activities over the years.

The second European Tooling Forum will again convene stakeholders and experts to discuss and highlight the moulding and special tooling industry’s importance to, and strategic positioning for ensuring, the sustainable development of European industry and employment. Specifically, the forum will emphasize the sector’s centrality in supporting innovation and the development of new products, technologies, know-how, and skills; in undergirding the European Union’s industrial infrastructure; and in creating strategic cooperation networks of mostly small and medium-sized enterprises along the European value chain.

The final event programme and a registration are to be available at the ISTMA Europe website soon.