ANN ARBOR — The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) announced on Friday that it has postponed its signature event and is rescheduling for 2022.
The worldwide organization, headquartered in Ann Arbor, organizes the popular event Automate, a trade show for the automation industry. Automate 2021 — scheduled for May 17-20 — has been called off and rescheduled for June 6-9, 2022 at the TCF Center in Detroit.
However, A3 also announced a virtual conference to be held on March 22-26 next year called Automate Forward. The virtual event will feature 80 speakers who will discuss topics that range from robotics and machine vision to smart automation technologies.
“The pandemic has taken a major toll on people all over the world,” said A3 President Jeff Burnstein. “While we expect that vaccines will have a positive impact in 2021, we don’t believe it would be in the best interests of our exhibitors, attendees, speakers and staff to hold an in-person Automate in May of 2021.
“Coming out of the pandemic, companies in every industry will be looking for automation products and solutions to help them become more successful in an increasingly automated world. Automate Forward and Automate 2022 will be critical to that growth.”
In 2019, A3 moved Automate to Detroit after holding it in Chicago for more than 25 years.
The organization said Automate 2021 was poised to be the biggest installment in the event’s history with 20,000 attendees and 600 exhibitors expected.
After Automate 2022, the event will return to its normal odd-year cycle.
