Top speakers lined-up for EEF National Manufacturing Conference

Keynote speakers Kenneth Clarke MP and business secretary Vince Cable will join leading industrialists to debate the challenge of doubling British exports to £1 trillion by 2020 while reversing the migration of manufacturing overseas. Chief executive of GKN plc, Nigel Stein will be joined on stage by Peter Anstiss, business development director at BAE Systems Military Air and Information. Other successful exporters set to speak include Angus Thirwell, co-founder of Hotel Chocolat; Tony Caldeira, CEO of Caldeira Group, and Sarah Brown, managing director of PAI Skincare. Chris Sullivan, chief executive of RBS Corporate Banking Division and Crispin Simon, managing director of trade for UKTI, are among the panellists who will debate the Make it Britain Challenge. The debate will continue into the evening for the EEF conference dinner, featuring guest speakers shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna MP and political commentator Matthew Paris. The event coincides with the publication of an EEF research report into reshoring which will reveal the extent of reshoring in the UK, examining the drivers behind bringing production home and the economic impact. EEF chief executive, Terry Scuoler, said: "Is the reshoring trend fact or fiction? Is the flow of production back to the UK a trickle or torrent? And what types of manufacturing are returning to our shores? "These are the questions we will be posing at the conference and that our research paper will inform. Some of the UK's most successful exporters will be sharing their stories and delegates will have an opportunity to talk to government and the opposition about how they can support export growth and help companies restore and strengthen British production."