As Canberra prepares to host GEO Week 2019 next week, the new Industry Track component promises to capitalise on Australia’s blossoming space-adjacent industries to highlight the promise of Earth observation capability.
The new initiative’s development has been led by the Australian Space Agency and supported by the CSIRO, which will host an Earth Observation 2.0 workshop for startups and the small to medium and micro-sized enterprise (SMME) community.
Material released by Geoscience Australia indicated that over 50 representatives from international tech and space leaders such as Planet, e-GEOS, Google and Amazon Web Services will attend the event.
“As an international intergovernmental organisation, GEO focuses on increasing cooperation and coordination between its 108 Member governments and Participating Organisations,” said Australia’s Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Principal Stuart Minchin from Geoscience Australia.
“Rapid developments in technology have given us more Earth observation data and information than ever before and we know that we have only just started to unlock what is possible. The commercial sector has an important role to play in harnessing the full potential of Earth observations, including driving sustainable economic growth. As the hosts of GEO Week 2019, we have designed the Industry Track to break down the barriers between the public and commercial sectors to benefit Earth observation users.”
Industry Track partners including the SSSI, FrontierSI, the Space Industry Association of Australia, and Earth Observation Australia will lead sessions throughout the week.
“We are excited to be part of the first ever Industry Track, which demonstrates that governments everywhere are recognising how critical businesses are to innovating, operationalising research and development, and growing economies,” said Frontier SI’s Projects and Strategy Manager, Eva Rodriguez.
“The Industry Track will bring together the data supply chain, covering capture, supply, and processing, but most importantly analysis, insight and use of Earth observations. All the ingredients needed to build future commercial and economic impact.”
The Industry Track will run from Tuesday, 5 November to Thursday, 7 November, parallel to the GEO Week 2019 Side Events and GEO-XVI Plenary.
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