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Ilkay Özkisaoglu

Since 04/2021 243 Episoden

#240 ICS 2026: Gemma Hardy of Fluency (UK) on Innovation, Community & the Future of Composites

23.07.2026 13 min Staffel 5 Episode 198

Zusammenfassung & Show Notes

The composites industry does not lack innovation. What it often lacks is connection.

Now Live: Composites Lounge Newsletter No. 34

That is exactly why the latest edition of the Composites Lounge Newsletter focuses on one of the industry's most important community-driven initiatives: the International Composites Summit (ICS) and the growing ecosystem being built around it. ICS 2026 returns to The Drum Wembley, London, on 1–2 December 2026, continuing its mission to bring together innovators, manufacturers, OEMs, researchers, investors, and technology providers from across the global composites value chain.

This issue explores why innovation and community building go hand in hand, revisits the success of ICS 2025.

The newsletter also follows the journey of the expanding ICS Innovation Hub network, which now connects companies across some of the most important composites marketplaces worldwide:

📍 JEC World — Paris, France (done in March 2026 already)
📍 Next CAMX - The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo — Atlanta, USA
📍 Advanced Engineering UK — Birmingham, United Kingdom
📍 International Composites Summit — Wembley, London, United Kingdom

Together, these Innovation Hub stops are helping innovative companies gain visibility, accelerate networking, and build international business relationships without the complexity of traditional exhibiting models.

👏 A special appreciation goes to PRF Composite Materials, also a valued Composites Lounge Premium Member and the Exclusive Forum Headline Sponsor of ICS 2026. PRF has spent decades supporting technical excellence, innovation, skills development, knowledge sharing, and community building throughout the composites industry. Their commitment to collaboration, education, and industry progression makes them a natural partner for an event that is fundamentally built around bringing people together to exchange ideas and create opportunities.

The latest newsletter is packed with:
🎥 Video interviews
🎙️ Podcast episodes
📺 YouTube content
🔗 Useful links and resources
📖 Executive insights from industry leaders

Whether you are an innovator, startup, researcher, OEM, supplier, investor, or simply passionate about the future of composites, this issue provides plenty of ideas, inspiration, and opportunities to get involved.

Because at the end of the day, the most important sound at any composites event is not the machine.

It is the conversation.

And the ICS community is growing.

👉 Read the latest Composites Lounge Newsletter now.
👉 Interested in exhibiting, sponsoring, speaking, joining a panel, or booking an Innovation Hub pod? The conversation starts here.

cc: Gemma Hardy, Katie Homes, Colin Leatham-Locke
Hannah Khusainova, Marcy Offner

YouTube Episode: https://youtu.be/JUGPP2M8sbc

Transkript

Dear LinkedIn Community Composites Lounge members JEC WORLD exhibitors and visitors. Now I'm together with Gemma. Gemma Hardy she's the managing director owner of Fluency Business Group and we are going to talk about the UK market. Do we need events or do we need networking community? Do we need innovation to be driven? And Gemma has some fantastic new ideas how she wants to drive the story. And yeah, Gemma, how is it going so far? We're here at the end of JEC WORLD and it's been busy, right? It's been busy and we've had lots of conversations. So obviously with the launch of the Women in the Composites Industry Europe, we were involved in a lot of the launches, the drinks reception here on the ICS Innovation Hub. We've had we had 16 customers on the show floor this year, so it's been pretty busy. It's been pretty busy. But innovation is real. Innovation is happening. You know, you kind of think, oh, you know, are we getting stagnant, is there much happening? Every single customer that I've spoken to has been so excited about what's still to come about, what composites can make happen. And that's amazing. And that's also what I really picked up on the show floor. Very positive outlook. There had been a market report launched yesterday that Europe has a bit of a drop of a production output, but in general the people are very focused now on innovation. Yeah, I specializing in niche markets. Do you know what I think? I think people like to report negative. Yes. But you have to walk through the doors here. And I always people laugh at me because I say JEC WORLD is Christmas, right? This is my Christmas. You walk through the doors here and all you see is innovation. All you see is new manufacturing processes, new materials, new products being built, new opportunity. Let's stop being negative. Let's start being positive. And let's really shout about what we're achieving. Yeah, absolutely. And also you had this Woman Composites reception here. Thank you so much that you support this woman in composites. Obviously you are also a female leader. So it makes sense that you support that. And it's not always just the output. It's also you know, how you gather the community together, get the diversity in. And with that comes in. Yes. Let's talk about innovation. What is your idea on innovation? My idea. What is my. Idea on 26? My idea on innovation for 2026 is that we just need to keep innovating. We need to keep talking. So the most important thing, and I think it's pretty clear when you come in here, I was part of the Women in Composites industry mentoring session earlier. And I said to everyone, just listen you listen to this hall and you don't hear machines, you don't hear, you hear people talking. Because that's the biggest thing happening here. There is business taking place on the floor. There's networking, there's opportunity. We are all talking to each other, growing ideas, creating the innovation of our industry. Yeah. Your home base obviously the UK. Yes. And let's drive straight into it. Last year's edition ICS 2025. Now it's a couple of months over. What is your conclusion about the last year's edition? Obviously I'm going to be very positive because it is my event and I invested a lot into that event. But the truth is, I've heard nothing but positive. And the nice thing is that I've heard nothing but positive from people around the globe, you know? So, you know, I spoke to Marcy just yesterday and she said to me, that event is going to be very important. And that was from somebody that is based out of the US. You know, that's important. And she wasn't the only one. You know, we've we've literally had people come in and come up to us the whole time saying, you know, are you definitely running it again. Can we you know. Will it be the same format? Can we, you know, will we still have all the really good content that you put on? You know, it will. You know, we're going to keep growing that event. We're going to keep making sure it's important and we're going to keep making sure that kind of innovation from the UK gets its place here. And ICS is never, ever going to replace anything like this. And we don't want to, you know, to me, if you want to you want your place on the European marketplace, this is the place to come. You know, we have come in America. We have the advanced engineering show in the UK. We're not competing. We don't need to compete. What we need to do is we need to get people talking about innovation. We need people talking about what the next hot topics are. We need people making our industry grow, passionate about our industry. We then need those people and we need to take them places like this where we can help springboard them onto the show floor. Hopefully, you know, and and grow the show, grow the network, grow the conversation. So you can do this in a warriors way. So that will have perhaps an influence on your conference program. Absolutely a new way. Yeah. So you probably have already a lineup of speakers of panel discussions of topics. And that will create your story, right? Yes. And look, you know, I went out last year wanting to provoke. I didn't want to just put the same people on. I wanted to provoke. In addition, I wanted speakers that came from around the globe that had a story to tell that we could all learn from. That can't stop there. So what we did last year, we have to go bigger and better this year. Okay, wonderful. I'm looking very much forward to it, right. It's the first and 2nd of December if I remember right again. And you're going to come in and do another, are you going to come and do another session for us. Provided it is a juicy topic? Because I love it. We will get a juicy topic. Look at it. By the way, yesterday we had a nice juicy topic. Katie was there, Hannah was there. Yes. So we talked about the sense of marketing function and that was a top one that will be shaking up. Definitely sales and marketing. I like. That be be prepared. I like that, I like that. So if we have a topic like that, yes. Why not? Let's do it. Let's do it. Wembley. Great place. Just shortly before Christmas. Like this. Same set up. Yep. Bond Street. That was your shopping? No, I stayed in Wembley, but I did shop in Wembley. Indeed. Okay. For some nice sporting. The outlet place. The outlet places that that I used a lot. People can sign up already for their parts and. Yeah. And I really want to hear, you know, I want to hear from people that have got something to talk about as well at the moment, you know, are you interested in, in coming along, telling us about your innovations? Have you got something that you think we should invite people to? You know, you're talking to me about hot topics. I'm saying let's be provocative. You're saying juicy. Yes. You know, send me a little email and tell me what you want to hear about. You know, we don't have to put your name to it, but we'll go out and get those people talking. Absolutely. You have an open slots still that can be filled with fresh new ideas. As long as it's good. I don't want the same. I don't want the same people again. Let's. Let's go with good topics. Yeah. So you can sign up. You can ask for your booth. We are seeing here the innovation hub at JEC WORLD. You will have this innovation hub also at CAMX i understand. Yes we will be there at CAMX. And obviously the ICS, anywhere else where you're planning this year? Advanced Engineering and a few people have talked to us about taking it to a few of the end in sector events as well. So, you know, if we're not .. What sector? End-sector events, so maybe like METZ, maybe one of the areas espacially. Yeah, exactly. So if you if you don't do it already, come and talk to me because my passion is making the composites industry grow. And I can only do that if people are honest with me and tell. Me and also makes total, total sense. Go into the verticals like aerospace, automotive, boating industry is a is a very good one. Yeah. But I would say about CAMXs, if you are interested in CAMXs, come and talk to us soon because I think, yeah, we've done good sales on CAMX this show. So glad to hear that. Okay, that was it for this year's JEC world edition. Now looking forward to see you then at Advanced engineering next time. I can't believe Christmas is over. Yeah, yeah, Christmas is over. Until JEC next year. Me as a Muslim im saying it's a pilgrimage. And right now we have Ramadan, the holy mass of Ramadan. Yeah. And. Yeah. With that said, I would say have a safe trip back to the UK. We will go back, hopefully tomorrow to Germany. Yes, Germany. Unfortunately they are on strike so we will see whether. Good luck in getting home. Bye bye bye.