3D Food Printing Conference Joins Ag Event

A conference on the 3D printing of food is now part of a larger event.

Events focusing on food printing have been held in the past and now it seems that this particular conference is bundled in together with the Agri-Food Innovation Event, being held in the Netherlands in June.

This conference includes a number of agriculture-related conferences, all in one place. Topics include healthy nutrition, vertical farming, smart farming, and, now, 3D food printing.

I think this is the right approach. While food printing is somehow one of the most interesting aspects of 3D printing in the eye of the public, it simply hasn’t taken off yet. This is due to a number of reasons, including insufficient technologies, inadequate software, and a general lack of compelling use cases in a business sense.

Thus it’s a relatively small market, in spite of the enthusiasm of those involved.

Getting the word out on this technology is therefore challenging, as producing a well-attended conference on the topic would be difficult given the above reasons.

Bundling a conference into a larger event that already has a large number of attendees seems to be a very smart approach to me. Attendees in related disciplines would be present and would naturally stumble into the 3D printing area to see exhibits and learn about the topic.

These attendees more than likely will not have considered attending a conference dedicated to food printing. But in this case they would see the material just as if they had attended one.

This strategy will surely generate more interest in the topic of food printing than otherwise. And if this is successful, then future events will grow. Eventually interest could be of sufficient levels to permit a standalone conference solely dedicated to the topic of food printing.

In the meantime, however, the food printing component of this conference will necessarily be small. Hopefully we will see a number of innovations in technology, software, and especially use cases, that will drive this type of 3D printing forward.

Via 3D Digital Cooks

Originally published in Fabbaloo