Festival Highlights
Innovation is about ideas, and the transformation of those ideas into value creating outcomes. Innovations include breakthrough ideas that lead to new products or services, and incremental ideas, which improve the way processes are undertaken, or products are manufactured. The Australian Innovation Festival provides an opportunity to showcase Australian innovation to a wide audience ranging from
The 2005 Australian Innovation Festival recorded increased events and attendees in every State and Territory throughout Australian. The festival saw 724 events registered and over 400,000 participants. Country and regional events accounted for around 40% of the total festival event tally. A major highlight of the Festival in 2005 was the large increase in associated festivals including ICAN – Canberra’s ideas and innovation festival, the Limestone Coast Innovation Festival and Broome’s North West Expo.
Australian Capital Territory
The festival program in the ACT featured 27 events, with ICAN – Canberra’s ideas and innovation festival - the signature program in the nation’s capital. ICAN 2005 was a huge success, with a total of 17 events presented from May 2 – 15, 2005.
In 2005 ICAN focused on the concept of leadership and how nurturing a culture that engenders leadership has the capacity to grow our economic base. Other highlights of the program included The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) conference on ethics in human research, and Austrade’s Ticket to Export - Women in Export seminar series.
New South Wales
New South Wales featured 103 events with associated festivals in Illawarra, Narrabri and Wagga Wagga, being major focuses of the state program.
In Sydney there were a number of major events featured including the Future Aerosol Innovation Showcase displaying innovative new concepts and technology relating to aerosol products, the Smart Internet Technology Showcase at CeBIT Australia, the Museums Australia Conference focusing on politics and positioning, the Annual Federal Budget Breakfast, Mercedes Australian Fashion Week and many more.
The annual Ironfest event in Lithgow featured in the NSW program, celebrating current, planned and traditional uses of iron and steel, and this year included a special innovator’s exhibition. Northern Territory
A growing focus on innovation in the heart of the Northern Territory saw 21 events take place this year, with Desert Knowledge in Alice Springs being the feature event of the NT program. The eight events by Desert Knowledge focused on their construction, communications and ecological programs based on traditional and current scientific understandings of living in arid zones.
Also featured in the program was the Arafura International Sports Conference held in Darwin, the inaugural Northern Territory Research and Innovation Awards Dinner and Presentation Ceremony, and various business forums hosted by the Darwin Business Enterprise Centre and AusIndustry.
Queensland
A highlight of the 98 events in the ‘Smart State’ program this year was the QUT Smart Train. Traveling around Queensland for six weeks, the train visited 25 rural and regional communities with four carriages of highly interactive fun and learning, and was tagged "a ride for your mind". The displays in the four carriages gave visitors the chance to experience a real internet radio station, a virtual crime scene, a new Queenslander house design for sub-tropical and tropical climates, the miracle of skin cell growth and much more.
Other highlights in the Queensland program included the associated festivals SKI Cairns and the Gold Coast Innovation Festival, as well as the Ozwater Conference & Exhibition – Watershed, 2005 International Ethanol Conference and the ATUG/Alcatel Breakfast titled: The Future of Broadband - What's Next?
South Australia
South Australia featured 54 events in this year’s program, with the major focus being the Limestone Coast Innovation Festival, which incorporates the towns of Elizabeth, Naracoorte, Mount Gambier, Kingston and Mundulla in its region. The Limestone program included an export awards dinner, an open line radio program on the ABC, a networking innovation breakfast that was chaired by Hugh Bradlow, Telstra’s chief technology officer and a community forum on biotechnology 2020.
Highlights from Adelaide included the Solution City - Adelaide Australia Innovation Showcase, the ‘Connecting Up’ Conference about information and communications technology for Australian communities, research forums by the University of Adelaide as well as a number of business workshops hosted by the Department of Trade and Economic Development.
Tasmania
The Tasmanian program included 27 events throughout the Island State, from Burnie, Devonport and Launceston in the north to Hobart in the south.
An event that caused a whirlwind of attention was the launch of the eco - friendly, handmade "Roo Poo" paper which captured international media publicity, attracting 51 radio interviews (including BBC, Radio Israel, ABC); 3 TV shows including The Jay Leno program in the USA, 12 magazine articles and around 300 newspaper stories including articles in The South China Morning Post, The Washington Post, and The Age. Roo Poo paper was by far one of the most interesting concepts launched during the festival this year, even making it to Canberra to be presented to Prime Minister John Howard.
Another highlight of the program was the University of Tasmania’s illustrated lecture and viewing at the Optical Observatory, Mt Canopus, on Saturday 14th May. Approx 200 people braved the cold night to attend the lecture.
Victoria
The Victorian program featured 231 events, which covered all aspects of innovation, from an innovative approach to enhancing cross-cultural relations at the Jewish Museum to a luncheon and panel discussion on the potential benefits for Australian and US businesses following the signing of the Free Trade Agreement, particularly in Investment and IP.
The biggest state program in the festival, Victoria featured prominent events including the Alfred Deakin Lecture Series, National Manufacturing Week, The Australian Design Awards, the 2005 Future Summit, AGIdeas, the ATSE Clunies Ross Awards and the CRC Association's Annual Conference - CRCs: Driving Australia's Economic Growth through Innovation.
Victoria also featured five associated festivals - Gippsland Innovation Festival, Swinburne Innovation Festival, Monash Innovation Festival, Latrobe Innovation Festival and Ballarat Innovation Festival.
Western Australia
This year, the WA program included over 160 events held throughout the State. A series of events were held in regional centres including Broome, Geraldton, Margaret River, Albany, Fremantle and inner and outer suburbs of Perth.
One of the most popular events in WA was the Careers & Education Expo held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, attracting over 10,000 visitors.
Highlights of the program included the Belmont Designedge Innovation Festival, focusing on fashion, the Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 Business Breakfast, the Margaret River Vintage Festival Stomp, and the North West Expo, which celebrated innovation in the Kimberly region of WA.