Alumni, current students and industrialists attended the CUEA's (Cambridge University's Engineering Association) Annual Conference on 'Products and services - the changing balance of global industries' in September.

The aim of the conference was to share the experience of leading businesses in changing the balance of their operations towards a greater proportion of services and to review the implications for the economy as a whole. The DTI's Chief Economist, Vicky Pryce, opened the day with a presentation on the changing national and international context in which companies are operating, including a review of the implications for the UK economy for the trend towards services.

Other speakers included:

• David Kynaston, Chairman, Electronics, Innovation & Growth Team, DTI (formerly Philips and Solectron) on Production capability as a service - the rise of electronic manufacturing service providers
• Dr Steven Cook, Head of Services Strategy, Civil Aerospace, Rolls Royce plc on Delivering service through engineering and product expertise
• John Edwards, Director, Overseas Operations, Jaguar & Land Rover on Changing the perception - from product performance to customer experience
• Peter Featherstone, Vice President, Business Development, Alstom Power on Spare parts to global service excellence