
Clement Moreau
Today (January 7th) is the first day of International CES 2014 in Las Vegas and the atmosphere is buzzing - sometimes literally - with industry zeal for everything new, shiny and techy.
One company that knows how to look the bees knees at a show of this calibre is French-born 3D printing community Sculpteo. The company is promoting its new Batch Control feature for making mass production in 3D printing possible and CEO and co-founder Clément Moreau is here on the show floor representing the Sculpteo brand in the new TCT + Personalize-sponsored 3D Printing TechZone.
This is not Moreau's first time steering the Sculpteo ship through the crowded waters of CES, but the 3D printing industry leader believes these past two years have seen the industry's presence flourish under the bright show lights as the hype wave rolls on. But as with all waves, at some point there comes a break and Moreau believes this may be coming in the next couple of years.
"This year with 3D printing there's still hype," he said. "Many people will come here [to see 3D printing], but I am not sure it will stay like this. The reality is 3D printing in the smaller industry and [being able to produce] large batches for big industry."
Nevertheless, Moreau believes International CES is one of the best places to be when it comes to meeting the media, high-end executives, startups and anybody else who is interested in what Sculpteo has to offer.
"This must be the best place for media," Moreau stated. "The first reason we are here for is to get media attention. Really, this is the best place in the world for this. Where else would we find all the journalists from all the media from all over the world?"
The second most-important reason why Sculpteo has a sure presence at CES is due to the quality of business meetings.
"We have a lot of business partners we get to see and there are different types of people and a lot of different businesses."
"From a French perspective I suppose it is good to be in the US," he continued. "In Europe, we are still looking to America - the American Dream.
"But really, the level of contact here is very high. I can meet CEOs and strategy chiefs and innovation chiefs of all the big companies. As a French/European company it's very hard to get those kinds of meetings anywhere else. Here I can meet the innovation chief of Airbus for example - it's quite regular for this show.
"Meeting these innovations chiefs and executives in their offices is almost impossible, so this one of the main reasons for us being here. I can make high-level meetings as well as meeting startups and startups that don't even exist yet.
"The main thing is contacts. Media and contacts. Being able to reconnect with lots of people, reach with chief executives and innovators is so important."
Clément Moreau will be speaking tomorrow (January 8th) at TCT + Personalize's CES conference track Don't Believe the Hype? 3D Printing Uncovered.