Meeting of leading minds at key summit to support Australia's advanced manufacturing

A critical mass of Australian leaders will set their collective mind to support Australia’s future manufacturing industry at a summit next week in Sydney.

The summit, to be addressed by NSW Premier the Hon Mike Baird, will feature thought and business leaders, including Catherine Livingstone AO, chairman of Telstra and president of the Business Council of Australia; Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group; the Hon Stephen Martin, chief executive of CEDA; John Pollaers, chairman of the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council; Tim Hanley, global leader, manufacturing, Deloitte; and Peter Roberts, journalist and founder of the Australian Manufacturing Forum.

To reverse the movement of the advanced manufacturing industry following traditional manufacturing overseas, AusBiotech has convened the inaugural Advanced Manufacturing Summit to discuss how Australia can position itself to develop and sustain more knowledge-intensive, high-value, globally competitive manufacturing industries and companies. The summit will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney from 10-11 November. With the overall theme ‘Manufacturing Matters to Australia’, the summit will focus on how to drive change and embrace the opportunities for Australia’s manufacturers and their supply chains.

Sessions will cover the current landscape of global and local manufacturing trends, government programs and facilities available for Australian manufacturing, new technologies, additive manufacturing, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, and case studies. Discussions will be progressed regarding the proposed Australian Innovation and Manufacturing Incentive, a patent-box-style tax incentive that gives a lower tax rate to profits from patents, thereby encouraging the intellectual property and its manufacturing, commercialisation and flow-on benefits to stay in Australia.

The two-day program will also be strengthened by a stream dedicated to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The NCRIS program’s core objective is to develop Australia's world-class research infrastructure to ensure our leading-edge research remains competitive. As part of this strategy, 27 projects and facilities were born; advanced manufacturing is a focus for a number of them.

Featured keynote speeches include the following:

• Catherine Livingstone AO, chairman, Telstra and president, Business Council of Australia, will give the opening keynote.
• Tim Hanley, global leader, manufacturing, Deloitte, will present ‘Global trends in advanced manufacturing’.
• Innes Willox, chief executive, Australian Industry Group, will present on ‘Advancing Australian manufacturing’.
• Professor the Hon Stephen Martin, chief executive, CEDA, will speak on the topic, ‘Beyond the production line: Advanced manufacturing, innovation and industry policy’.
• John Pollaers, chairman, Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council, will present on ‘Competitiveness and Innovation: Australia at the crossroads’.
• Peter Roberts, journalist and founder, Australian Manufacturing Forum, will discuss, ‘Is Australian manufacturing dead? Or can we build a highly-skilled, high-value future?’

For more information about the Advanced Manufacturing Summit, visit http://www.advancedmanufacturingsummit.com.au/. To view the full program, see http://www.advancedmanufacturingsummit.com.au/program