IICA to hold its final NSW Technology Expo for 2022 in Newcastle

The Institute of Instrumentation, Control, and Automation (IICA) will hold its final Technology Expo for 2022 for NSW on 25 October. The expo will exhibit Australia’s widest range of innovations, technologies and equipment in the advanced manufacturing industry.

The event will take place at The Arena at the NEX.

In becoming one of Australia’s most significant regional cities, Newcastle is the industrial heartland with strong engineering roots.

“Newcastle and the Hunter is such an amazing part of Australia. Newcastle has many of the facilities and opportunities of a large city, but with a more relaxed lifestyle. It is also a city with strong engineering roots,” said Andrew Mosdell of Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec in an article in the Newcastle Herald.

The Hunter region is Australia’s largest regional economy at over $50 billion in value. This ranks above Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory in terms of economic output.

With over six Regional Growth Funds, totalling $2.5 billion, there is no better space for businesses to invest, activate and expand their business operations. The regional funds’ objectives are to unlock economic potential by building, upgrading, and supporting the infrastructure needs, connectivity, power, transport, and telecommunications links as well as water and sewerage services. This is great support for small- to large-scale energy, manufacturing and other companies in terms of investment and development.

In addition, using new technology to improve transport efficiency and innovation in Newcastle, the NSW Government’s Smart Innovation Centre invites local innovators and industry leaders to collaborate and trial automated vehicles in the region, forming a solid space with opportunities for the automotive and green industry.

In May 2022, the NUW Alliance welcomed NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s commitment of $370 million to establish an Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility at the coming Western Sydney Airport. The facility will bring universities and industry together to generate new technologies and globally competitive manufacturing innovations.

This will not only pave the way to advanced manufacturing in NSW, but it will also boost the industrial sector across Australia.

WA engineering consultants BG&E Resources (BGER) has opened an office in Newcastle. According to BGER managing director Craig Bloxham, “With a GDP of more than $18 billion, the largest age cohort being 20- to 24-year-olds and the continued migration of residents from metropolitan hubs, Newcastle is a city on the move to becoming even more globally competitive.”

Despite the current interest of the Hunter region, in Newcastle wine and coal are soon to lose their primary economic contributor title as the renewable energy industry begins to take over. Many engineers testify that Newcastle has taken an unexpected and ‘very fast’ turn. The government has ambitious visions for clean jobs to replace those in the coal industry and the first sign of evolution has taken place.

Newcastle was able to facilitate the world’s first hydrogen battery system built by LAVO. LAVO builds a hydrogen battery system that works by drawing electricity from a rooftop solar array, using an electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, storing the hydrogen in a solid state in silver hydride tanks, before dispatching this as electricity via a fuel cell when needed to generate electricity.

Newcastle takes pride in its ability and strategic facilities, a great opportunity for businesses looking to relocate, innovate, develop, and achieve more with proactive regional government support.

The IICA Tech Expo 2022 will allow industry leaders and technology experts to explore not only advanced manufacturing technologies but also a strategic opportunity for investment, all under one roof at the IICA Technology Expo at NEX.

IICA Technology Expos are a one-stop-shop, featuring many companies showcasing their products or services related to the Instrumentation, Control and Automation Industry.

Visitors can pre-register now through https://bookings.iica.org.au/bookings/events/event.asp?bookingid=1351 and enter for the chance to win an Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen Smart Speaker.

Image: ©iStockPhoto.com/vitranc