Back in 3D: AMUG Conference Welcomes Members in the Flesh

Orlando truly felt like the happiest place on earth, and it had nothing to do with Disney.

I touched down in the warmth of Florida after taking off from yet another Colorado spring snow. But even if I’d landed in a hurricane, I would’ve been excited. The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) annual conference was my first industry meeting since the pandemic struck last year.

This was my first visit to AMUG; I spoke about the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in regulating medical devices produced via additive manufacturing. Coming on the heels of a year that was full of challenges, it was quite encouraging to find myself in such an upbeat, connected group to kick off my return to work travel.

Robin Van Bragt, president of Eagle Design & Technology Inc., has been in additive manufacturing since 1995. During the pandemic, her product development company found itself crafting masks and ventilator splitters—a whole new way to learn while doing. AMUG is her favorite industry event. She shared my appreciation for both the conference’s tone and the chance to finally shake hands with strangers (all with proper COVID-19 precautions in place).

“Going to AMUG after a pandemic was probably the best thing for everybody,” she said. “It was kind of like stimulation overload…My goal for going this year was to see equipment advancements and what’s available to me if I decide to add on—what’s the latest and greatest and what’s getting the best feedback. It’s really great to listen to the stories of successes and the failures because we learn just as much from our failures as our successes.”

The event was originally slated for Chicago before the pandemic shuttered events. Organizers moved it from the Windy City to the Sunshine State so it could welcome members for panel talks, networking events, and just be in the same room. That community building is critical for a nascent industry, said Shannon Van Deren, president of Layered Manufacturing and Consulting. She was part of the volunteer team that organizes the annual event.

“The technology is constantly evolving. It really is an exciting space,” she said. “Being a user community, we already have a common thread together. We all genuinely want to be there—regrouping, networking, sharing, learning, creating community.”

Although the U.S. at that point had come a long way toward easing travel restrictions and COVID-19 mandates, the virus was still a factor for planning and those who managed to attend. Van Deren said they worked with consultants to safeguard participants’ health, including an onsite medical response team and strict adherence to local and facility health requirements. Despite lower attendance due to the pandemic, the group was grateful to be back together, she said.

“Even with reduced numbers, the group was grateful to be back together, and our network and learning was not at all compromised,” she said. “We were missing some significant contributors at the conference. Those who were there were excited at the opportunity to share time and learn together. I think everybody who was there was genuinely hungry for togetherness and community.”

Eric Parlow, R&D engineer for Additive Manufacturing at Kyocera International, was also happy to drive from his home in North Carolina with family for the conference. It was his first trip farther than 50 miles from his home. His work focuses on ceramics and the medical device space, which he estimates is 10 years behind the development of metals for the 3D printing industry. AMUG wasn’t just his first post-pandemic conference; it was a chance to catch up on developing standards for additive manufacturing and their effect on his corner of the market.

“I looked very specifically for what is going on in terms of quality assurance—what’s the current state-of-the-art capability I can expect,” he said. “There’s so many more variables in additive manufacturing that affect the end product that the quality assurance is a significantly higher bar. The question in the whole additive industry is where is the breakover point? That’s where being at AMUG can help. You actually talk to people doing it in real time. That’s really good feedback.”

As a bonus, he made some connections that may translate to new opportunities.

“I personally get a lot of value out of it. I met a lot of good contacts. I actually ran into multiple sales leads,” he said. “I don’t go there for that, but there are others that attend the conference who are asking questions that I had answers for.”

Van Bragt also appreciated the chance to field questions in person.“In a digital community where people are less and less connected personally, it’s amazing to see people connect personally and see what comes from that,” she said. “I really think my commitment to being connected to people in person was strengthened because you get so much more out of your experience than doing a virtual show or a webinar or something like that. You get so much more when you’re sitting next to the person talking to them.”

I also prefer a face-to-face exchange to a Zoom link. Most of us do, particularly after a year that’s kept us so far apart. “It’s 100 percent community,” Van Bragt said. “That’s exactly what it is. When they say AMUG is a different kind of trade show, it is. We’re encouraged to ask questions and connect. We’re mindful of [proprietary information] but still pulling for each other. Everyone’s committed to the industry’s success.” 

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Dawn Lissy is a biomedical engineer, entrepreneur, and innovator. Since 1998, the Empirical family of companies (Empirical Testing Corp., Empirical Consulting LLC, and Empirical Machine LLC) has operated under Lissy’s direction. Empirical offers the full range of regulatory and quality systems consulting, testing, small batch and prototype manufacturing, and validations services to bring a medical device to market. Empirical is very active within standards development organization ASTM International and has one of the widest scopes of test methods of any accredited independent lab in the United States. Because Lissy was a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, she has first-hand, in-depth knowledge of the regulatory landscape. Lissy holds an inventor patent for the Stackable Cage System for corpectomy and vertebrectomy. Her M.S. in biomedical engineering is from The University of Akron, Ohio.