Ahead of the 2025 Photonics100 list being announced on Monday October 28, plans are underway for the first alumni meetup.
On October 30, a number of previous honourees – and names from this year’s list – will join Electro Optics at the prestigious Midland Hotel in Manchester, UK, alongside SPIE’s Photonex, taking place on October 30 and 31.
Alumni have been invited to a series of roundtable discussions on AI in photonics, emerging technologies, and industry applications. The discussions will be used to create a set of unique features that may run in a future edition of the magazine and will appear online.
Europa Science CEO, Warren Clark, will also lead a panel discussion on the global challenges and opportunities facing the industry. This will be filmed for broadcast as an on-demand webcast later in November.
“With so many great minds all in one room, it seemed ridiculous to not create a bit of thoughtful debate in-between the networking,” said Mark Elliott, Chief Operating Officer for Europa Science, publisher of Electro Optics.
The meetup has been supported by Chroma Technology and is an invitation-only event. Scheduling it alongside the SPIE show adds extra value to attendees, and the meetup venue is right opposite the Manchester Central Convention Complex, where the two-day show is taking place.
“We have had a lot of interest in more physical opportunities for this inspiring set of people to network and debate the biggest issues of the day,” said Elliott. “We are looking at other ideas for 2025, and Photonics West is another obvious possibility. That said, we think it’s important to launch the idea in the UK and will obviously have a think about Laser World of Photonics, which takes place again in June 2025.
“We have been really pleased by the response to this first project and, in the third year of the Photonics100, it seemed the right time to scale our ambition to support these amazing people who drive the impact of our industry.”