National Online Meet-up with Fletcher Moorland, Transicon Ltd & West Yorkshire Police

Join our Industry Meet-up!

Join us for a captivating virtual event where industry experts, thought leaders, and professionals gather to share knowledge, insights, and best practices. Our mission is to foster collaboration, inspire innovation, and drive growth within the manufacturing community.

Our industry Meet-up event series features engaging talks from renowned speakers, focusing on key themes that shape the future of manufacturing. This online event covers a wide range of headline topics, including: Future Factories, Sustainable Manufacturing, Growth Strategies, and People & Skills.

Join us for this powerful and inspiring 75-minute event that will ignite your passion and creativity!

January's lineup of speakers and Roundtable Session subtopics includes:

• Matt Fletcher – Managing Director, Fletcher Moorland  

Building the Workforce Britain Needs Through Belief and Early Investment ( People & Skills )

The competitiveness of UK manufacturing depends on people – and that pipeline of skilled engineers begins with belief. For Matt Fletcher, Managing Director of Fletcher Moorland, investing early in people has become both a strategy and a culture. What started with gifting a 16-year-old his first toolkit has grown into #GetTooledUp, a nationwide initiative equipping young engineers with tools and confidence to build their futures.

In this talk, Matt explores how early investment, trust, and authentic leadership can transform workforce engagement and retention. He’ll share practical ways to make skills a board-level priority – from developing engineers from within to shifting the language of leadership to inspire belonging and belief.

• Laura Hayton – Head of Business Development, Transicon

Obsolescence and Compliance: Practical Steps to Build Operational Resilience (Growth Strategies)

Manufacturers are facing increasing pressure to keep ageing equipment safe, compliant and reliable. Obsolescence now includes far more than unavailable parts. It covers outdated safety circuits, cyber requirements that legacy systems cannot meet, documentation gaps and the difficulty of supporting older PLCs with limited internal resource. These pressures often lead to reactive fixes, rising downtime risk and growing strain on engineering teams.

In this session, Laura will share the practical steps that help manufacturers move from firefighting to planned resilience. Through real world examples, she will show how small, targeted actions such as focused audits or single high risk component upgrades can significantly reduce operational risk. Attendees will leave with clear guidance on spotting early warning signs, prioritising corrective actions and building a phased roadmap that strengthens resilience without requiring major shutdowns or large capital investment.

•  Emma Davies - West Yorkshire Police

Cyber-Resilience for Future Factories: How Police CyberAlarm Protects UK Manufacturers (Future Factories)

As factories become more connected, automated and reliant on digital systems, manufacturing has become one of the most frequently targeted sectors for cybercrime. In this short best-practice session, Emma will outline why cyber security now demands board-level attention, share recent statistics that highlight the scale of the threat, and explain how Police CyberAlarm and NEBRC support SMEs in practice. She will also provide anonymised real-world examples from the region and finish with five practical steps every manufacturer can implement immediately to strengthen their cyber-resilience.

Agenda

9:00 AM – Members join the virtual meeting
9:02 AM – Official welcome and event start
9:02–9:10 AM – Community updates and announcements
9:10–9:38 AM – Best Practice Talks from Made Community speakers (1, 2 & 3)
Topics include people & skills, growth strategies, smart factories, and sustainable manufacturing
(Each talk: 5–8 minutes)
9:40 AM – Member Virtual Roundtable Sessions
Members join their chosen session via the Made Platform events page
10:10 AM – Return to the main room for final remarks and goodbyes