Conference Identifies Cleaner, Greener, Smarter Direction

The Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (AEEMA) national Cleaner, Greener, Smarter conference and exhibition was held on Tuesday and Wednesday 15 and 16 October, at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Held concurrently with Austronics, Electrix and Automate, the combined event was deemed a "great success" by those in attendance.

Opening the conference and exhibition, The Honourable John Brumby MP, Minister for Innovation and State and Regional Development, said that the Bracks government was fully committed to building a cleaner, greener and smarter Victoria, "where innovative industries delivered high-quality jobs and increased dividends for all of us as shareholders in our environment".

"The two issues that cut across all the industry sectors here are innovation and business sustainability, and working cleaner, greener, and smarter," Mr Brumby said. "Our government sees these as central issues to Victoria's future."

According to Erik Scholz, President, AEEMA, the Cleaner, Greener, Smarter event sent a strong signal to members that AEEMA was committed to pursuing issues and interests which were paramount to the growth of Australia's high-tech industries.

"Given developments overseas, particularly emerging market opportunities, there is no doubt that cleaner, greener and smarter manufacturing represents the way of the future," Mr Scholz said. "Peak industry associations such as AEEMA need to be leading industry thinking and action in this area."

Dr Frank Reid, Managing Director, Australian CRC for Renewable Energy, outlined the factors that were driving the uptake of renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency in buildings. He said that market opportunities were being created in the area of embedded generation - there were many novel technologies that allow for glazing and cladding to provide supplementary power to buildings. Combined heat and power systems such as those provided by proposed fuel cell technology and micro turbines allowed for co-generation in commercial or domestic buildings. Opportunities also existed in efficiency contracting, where risks of energy usage were shifted from owners or tenants to a third party who guarantees energy performance. Dr Reid said it was also possible for companies, developers or building owners to engage in energy savings by incorporating efficiency technologies such as advanced lighting systems, and new and more efficient HVAC systems.

A conference breakfast session, chaired by Chris Joscelyne, Chair, the Australian IT Security Forum (a forum of AEEMA), was held on Wednesday morning 16 October. The session focused on conditional access technologies and provided lively debate on issues surrounding this pertinent topic.

A panel of specialists each presented on an aspect of this theme. Presenters included Stephen Wilson, SecureNet; Stephen Rennick, Spyrus; Mark Ames, Chair of the Information Security Interest Group and CXO, ICT Risk; TAC Pacific's Mark Nicholas; and Alf McMillan, LM Gemplus.

Nuclear physicist and co-founder and CEO of IdeaGuru Ltd, Ed Brown - brought to Australia by Invest UK - addressed the AEEMA conference dinner on 14 October. The topic of his address was Building Global Knowledge Networks. Mr Brown cited examples of many European companies that maximised value add through knowledge acquisition and exploitation by collaborating with others internationally.

Conference papers will be posted to the AEEMA Cleaner, Greener, Smarter conference web site over the next few weeks. Visit http://www.aeema.asn.au/conf2002/ and click on the 'Download' section.