By Kasturi Datta |
More than 150 attendees from across 20 countries, including industry leaders, technology providers and financial analysts, discussed the latest developments in industrial automation at the 2026 ARC European Industry Forum in Sitges, Spain.
The theme for this year’s event was ‘Achieving Resilient Operations through AI, Digitalisation and Sustainability’, with a central focus on resilience as a core foundation for modern-day industrial architectures.
Florian Güldner, general manager of ARC Europe, opened the event with an introduction to the ‘ARC Industry Talk Unplugged’ podcast and expert panel titled ‘Digital Twin Unchained’.
This was followed by several keynote plenary sessions on topics including AI use cases in autonomous manufacturing, reduction in custom engineering time through standardised interoperability models, scaling a reality-first digital twin and more. The sessions were delivered by gold and silver sponsors including Siemens, Almirall, COPA-DATA, DEXPI and Cisco.
Workshops, tracks and sessions at the event spanned seven categories, including industrial AI, digital assets, smart manufacturing, industrial cybersecurity, sustainability and machine building. Attendees gained insight into software-defined automation, electrification and new business models for manufacturing processes.
An Open Process Automation Forum session was held for owner operators and solution providers to discuss ongoing initiatives. The Open Digital Ecosystem Working Group also had its own dedicated workshop.