Yesterday, EEF held a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference with the Work Foundation and Pat McFadden, the Industry Minister, to debate the role that manufacturing should play in the economy and how best to achieve it.
(Given the dire state of the public finances, it seemed somehow appropriate that we were meeting in Brighton, the home of Fatboy Slim's Skint record label.)
But despite this and the still fragile state of the economy, there was a sense of optimism in the room that the coming decade will see a resurgent manufacturing industry in the UK that is poised to repeat the wave of innovation that we saw in the 1930s after a similar period of economic crisis.
Also encouraging was a shared understanding of the role that government should play, in particular setting a clear direction for the economy, mapping out the markets and technologies which will bring increased prosperity to the UK and ensuring that industry has access to the finance that will enable it to bring the new generation of products and service to market.
Such was the strength of feeling on the finance issue that the Prime Minister responded within hours by announcing the creation of a new National Investment Corporation.