Event: A3 Business Forum 2027
Dates: January 18-20, 2027
Venue: Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
City: Orlando, Florida
Host: Association for Advancing Automation (A3)
The A3 Business Forum is the annual executive meeting of the robotics and automation industry. A3 is the trade association behind Automate, North America’s largest robotics and automation trade show, and the Forum is its smaller, members-only gathering for the people who run the companies. It covers robotics, machine vision and imaging, motion control and motors, and industrial AI. About 700 senior executives attend, and A3 says 69% of past attendees were director level or above and 37% were in the C-suite.
What’s on the program
The Forum opens on January 18 with tech entrepreneur and author Josh Linkner presenting Disciplined Dreaming, on creativity in business. The session most attendees come for is the economic outlook: Connor Lokar, senior forecaster at ITR Economics, gives his view of 2027 and beyond, covering the macroeconomic drivers that will decide how much factories and warehouses spend on automation.
On day two an executive roundtable brings together Kevin Barker of Beckhoff Automation, Jean-Pierre Hathout of Teradyne Robotics and Matt Moschner of Cognex to discuss the opportunities and problems they see for 2027. A golf scramble at the Waldorf Astoria Golf Club opens the event, because this is as much a relationship event as a conference.
Who should go
Attendance is limited to A3 members, and the member rate is about $1,495. It suits executives at automation suppliers, integrators and the companies that buy from them who want an early read on demand for the year. Engineers looking for product demos should wait for Automate 2027, May 10-13 in Las Vegas. A3 also runs the International Robot Safety Conference on November 2-4, 2027 in Indianapolis.