The first New-gen Manufacturing Conference is held in Wuxi from June 30 to July 1, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Over 800 manufacturing enterprises along the Yangtze River Delta will gather at the 2019 New-gen Manufacturing Conference in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, on May 9-10.

Themed around "New industry, New plant, New industrial dream", the two-day conference will have one main forum and about 20 sub-forums to discuss issues faced by Chinese manufacturing companies regarding digitization, networking and intelligence.

Heads and representatives from leading Chinese manufacturing enterprises, including the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd, Hodo Group and Goodbaby Group, will join other enterprises to gather in Xuelang town, an internet of things (IoT) demonstration zone co-developed by the municipal government and tech giant Alibaba Group.

A group of technology experts will attend the conference and offer their ideas on the integration of IoT and manufacturing, including Wang Jian, founder of Alibaba Cloud and an adviser for Xuelang town.

The exhibition area of the 2018 New-gen Manufacturing Conference of Xuelang Town [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

An exhibition on intelligent manufacturing technology will cover an area of 10,000 square meters, staging intelligent collaborative robots, high-tech hardware, innovative products and the latest industrial internet solutions.

The final of the Xuelang Industrial Data Intelligence Challenge will also be held during the conference, looking for the "best brain" in the industrial internet business. The winner will take home a whopping 250,000 yuan ($37,000).

Relying on Wuxi's advanced IoT foundation and manufacturing resources, Xuelang IoT town will be built into a cradle of industry thought leadership and will strive to combine the industry with manufacturing.

In the future, Xuelang town plans to strengthen integration between IoT and manufacturing by combining investment capital, platforms and technologies. In collaboration with Hangzhou's Yunxi town, where cloud computing is the main focus of operations, it has initiated a forward-looking plan to better apply IoT technologies in the manufacturing sector.

Guests discuss how to better integrate the manufacturing sector with IoT during the conference, June 30, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]