This is happening today and tomorrow,
http://www.surfacedesignshow.com/I had a wander around the preview last night.
Like any other trade show, there's a lot of people trying to sell their services, but there's a few engineer at some of the stalls that are more than willing to gossip about the different materials that they have developed.
There's also one lighting exhibit that is run by Dyson, with a really nice counter-balanced transport mechanism, that would work for low-weight CNC systems.
Some chewy idea's there.