Perhaps you missed our March 2026 event, or maybe you just want to refresh your memory and revisit some of the opinions and advice offered by our stellar speaker line-up? Either way, it’s all waiting for you online
In March 2026, designers and engineers from across the UK, Europe and the US flocked to DEVELOP3D LIVE for an incredible non-stop line-up of talks, debates, networking opportunities and hands-on interaction with the latest technologies.
Held at the Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry, our event attracted attendees from across the product development sphere, from automotive visualisers and aerospace simulation experts to consumer electronics designers and prototyping wizards. All of them came together under one roof, rubbing shoulders, sharing ideas and hunting for the next big idea, workflow or technology to give their company a competitive advantage.
DEVELOP3D LIVE really is like no other event. We don’t silo specific industries or roles, and the variety of speakers and topics covered really speaks to the diverse experience we aim to provide. At this unique event, you’ll see automotive designers point headphone designers towards the latest rendering tools and CFD experts learn about the latest AM materials from FDM 3D printing experts.
The exhibition floor was its usual hive of activity, where attendees got the chance to follow up with suppliers on presentations they’d seen or conversations they’d had.
This year, we partnered with Threaded! by Aras for our Start-ups Stage, giving us a chance to showcase many new technologies and entirely novel approaches to tackling longstanding problems.
If you managed to make it along to DEVELOP3D LIVE this year, then we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you didn’t, you can catch up on some of the presentations at videos.develop3dlive.com. Hopefully, that will spur you to add next year’s event to your team’s calendar.
Editor’s picks from D3D LIVE 2026
With three conference stages operating simultaneously, it would have been physically impossible for any attendee to sit in on every presentation at DEVELOP3D LIVE.
Thankfully, the entire event was caught on camera for everyone to enjoy after the event – myself included, as I spent much of my time at the event introducing speakers on one stage, with very little chance to focus on what might be happening on the others.
Having finally caught up, I can assure you it’s well worth having a delve into this year’s presentations. There’s a huge wealth of knowledge being shared in many of them – far more details and nuances than you might expect, many of which could be valuable in a variety of different roles and companies.
Here, I highlight five that I think not only demonstrate very clearly the remarkable changes happening in our industry, but also the rich variety of experiences that DEVELOP3D LIVE delivers.
The first is perhaps the most obvious pick. Ryan McClelland’s talk is the kind of presentation that leaves audiences feeling excited about building things, whether they are focused on developing parts and components for spacecraft, or something completely alien. AI is enabling a shift in engineering in many organisations, but seeing what NASA is doing on that front is rich food for thought.
My second pick is Node Audio, a company that wrapped up the event for us with a talk I really valued. This presentation showcases how the brilliant minds of product designers and engineers can be applied with extraordinary impact not just on their own organisation, but also on a whole industry The 3D printing of audio loudspeakers is a case in point and any story of how a team entirely ripped up the rulebook is always a pleasure to hear.
This year, Jesper Mosegaard of Figurement was kind enough to offer us two options on presentations. We found the topics so equally intriguing that we made space in our schedule to accommodate both. Mosegaard’s presentation on the adoption of AI in visualisation, in particular, provides a great grounding on the background to and future directions of this trend, as well as some eye-opening examples of what can be achieved and how users might even be able to create their own purpose-built tools to produce amazing results.
In 2026, we also welcomed back Ben Redford and Makyu as part of our Future Fabrication track. Redford first presented at our 2016 event, to show off the company’s first small desktop vacuum former. In his 2026 presentation, he covers the story of how Makyu scaled up this device to produce an industrial pressure former, before subsequently pivoting even harder. It’s also a story with a happy ending that anyone working on a new product should hear.
My final pick is a presentation given by Darren Jobling, in which he not only explains the origins of Zerolight in the foundational years of video games, but also how that industry’s focus on efficiency over power has enabled Zerolight to take a games technology stack and apply it to visualisation in industrial use cases.
With technology for product design and engineering evolving so rapidly – think AI, game stacks, 3D printing and more – there’s no better place to explore this brave new world than at DEVELOP3D LIVE. Who knows what talks next year will bring? Either way, we hope to see you there!
Stephen Holmes, Editor
This article first appeared in DEVELOP3D Magazine
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