• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Manufacturing Leadership Summit, Grand Rapids Michigan

Published: Wednesday, 29 September 2021

After a long pandemic hiatus from giving speeches in person, I was invited to be the in-person keynote speaker at The Right Place’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I spoke about why it’s so difficult to start a robotics company and what’s needed to start a successful robotics company.

I spoke about the great work being done by companies including:

  • Dusty Robotics (construction)
  • Rapid Robotics (manufacturing)
  • IronOx (agriculture)
  • AMP Robotics (recycling)
  • Icon Robotics (construction)
  • Zipline (delivery)

Starting a successful robotics company is hard! You need to find a problem robots are capable of solving, make the right technical choices in order to scale, and get the business model right. It was so fantastic to share my knowledge about robotics and to travel and attend an actual conference with other people, after not traveling at all for work during the pandemic.

I was fortunate ArtPrize was happening while I was in Grand Rapids. ArtPrize is this annual huge art competition in Grand Rapids where participants compete to win over $450,000 in prize money. I got to see some of the 1700+ art pieces that were competing. It was also really cool that not all the artwork was in one place, but was scattered all over the city, for everyone to enjoy in a distributed, parallel way. Also, it rained while I was there, and the artwork outdoors had to withstand that as well! The art pieces were so big and creative! Grand Rapids was a fun city!  Here are some of the pieces of artwork I saw being proudly displayed.

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

 Grand Rapids Michigan

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Accolades: Sonya and Harry

    I'm so proud of Sonya Chan and Harry Eakins, who were both recognised by their faculty at Imperial College for Services to the Community. Sonya Chan...

  • Austrade San Francisco Landing Pad

    In late 2018, Aubot participated in the Australian Trade and Investment Commission’s (Austrade’s), Landing Pad program, which helps successful...

  • Live at Shell Eco-Marathon Asia

    It's been full-on in Malaysia at Shell Eco-Marathon Asia. The most exciting thing has been tracking our Australian entrant, Girton Grammar Team...

  • 2Mar Robotics Blog

    Hello! It's been ages since I blogged here. More recently, I've been blogging at the 2Mar Robotics Blog.

  • Chinese History Museum

    The Chinese History Museum invited me to be part of their exhibition on notable Chinese Australians. In February, over Chinese New Year, my mum came to...

  • Unless people you’re working with support you, you are going to fail

    Who are the guys that you are going to have pizza with when you successfully raise capital? Who are the guys that are going to inspire you? Who are...

  • 10 Years Young Australian of the Year

    On this day, 10 years ago, I was named the "Young Australian of the Year", by the Prime Minister of Australia, in front of Parliament House, on...

  • City of Darwin Robotics Workshop

    I was invited to Darwin for National Science Week on 19 August where I ran a robotics workshop for the kids.  The next day, I gave a speech to 400...

  • Eyesight on technology

    When I was growing up, I read voraciously - for hours and hours a day.  When I was in year 7, my mum even went to my parent-teacher interview and...

  • Dividing time - most time spent on highest priority item

    If you're not spending most of your time working on your highest priority, then it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. My mum worked as a hotel room...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top