ADELAIDE is exploring the frontiers of business-event legacies after the city was announced as the home of Australia’s new Space Agency.
The decision to base the AUS$41 million agency in the South Australia capital has been credited to Adelaide’s hosting of the 2017 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) with 4,500 delegates – the city’s largest conference to date and an event heralded as leaving the biggest legacy of any Australian business event.
The joint announcement by the Premier of South Australia and the Australian Prime Minister on December 12 is seen by the city’s convention bureau as the latest in a series of successes that includes more medical-related conferences being attracted to Adelaide thanks to the city biomedical precinct.
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“The Space Agency location announcement truly is the ultimate legacy following the hosting the IAC and it presents a huge opportunity for the Adelaide Convention Bureau,” says Damian Kitto, CEO of the city’s convention bureau.
“As with medical and health-based events following the massive investment in infrastructure in the BioMed City, this development has opened the doors to the bureau now having a huge asset to utilise when seeking to attract space and related industry events to Adelaide.”
The Australian Space Agency location announcement is the pinnacle of a series of legacies eventuating from the IAC 2017, a spokesman for the convention bureau says.
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“It will be housed, along with similarly aligned businesses, innovators and organisations, in the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site (now known as Lot Fourteen Innovation Hub) in the eastern end of the CBD – just walking distance or a free tram ride from the Adelaide Convention Centre and the BioMed City including the new hospital all located the West End of the city.”
Set to open in 2019, the agency is exptected to employ 20 people and will regulate, licence and assess space-related activities conducted by the private sector.
“It gives Australia a new seat at the table in the regulation of space under international law, will include a mission control centre and will be responsible for facilitating industry growth. The Federal Government hopes that the agency will help coordinate Australia’s space industry to create 20,000 new jobs and triple its current A$4 billion worth to A$12bn by 2030.”
Main picture: Elon Musk addresses International Astronautical Congress delegates at Adelaide Convention Centre. Photo: Andy Steven
