Programme - Technical / company visits

Wednesday 6 July - 09.00-13.00

The company visits will take place on the morning of the Wednesday 6 July. Participants will visit Xaar (max 15 delegates), located in Huntingdon, a short drive from Cambridge (see details below) and the Hauser Forum in Cambridge (max 20).

Xaar, established in 1990, is a leading independent supplier of industrial inkjet printheads. They have a wide product range to deliver industrial strength inkjet performance, which in turn provides their customers with the flexibility and choice required to address the diversity of applications.

The visit and presentation will look at their European Operations (including Technology, Production and Supply Chain) Management and innovation in developing their new production facilities in the UK to meet fast growing demand for industrial inkjet print heads. The technology is now supplying new end user markets revolutionising industrial customer supply chains. An excellent example of high value manufacturing in Europe!

The Hauser Forum is a new state-of-the-art focal point for entrepreneurship in the East of England designed to stimulate innovative collaboration between clusters of academics, start-up businesses and established industries. The visit will include a presentation on the work of Cambridge Enterprise which exists to help University of Cambridge inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs make their ideas and concepts more commercially successful for the benefit of society, the UK economy, the inventors and the University and also ideaspace, a four year programme to support the generation of new firms and jobs.

The Cambridge Enterprise team regularly meets and works alongside inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs from the University to identify the best method and route to take when commercialising new technology. The work cover three overlapping areas - Technology Transfer Services; Consultancy and seed funds.

The ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator identifies high-potential research- and innovation-led opportunities for early-stage business growth; supports the accelerated development growth of new ventures, leading to financial and jobs growth; increases the knowledge and skills of people engaging in key roles across the enterprise lifecycle and provides facilities, community support and networking opportunities for the region’s innovators and ventures.