CTEC OPENS QLD OFFICE

West Australian owned CTEC, has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the New Diamantina Power Station, Mt Isa, QLD.

This project has presented CTEC with various new and exciting opportunities which have resulted in a rapid expansion into the East Coast. With a dedicated team of Perth staff prepared to take on a challenging new adventure, we can now announce the opening of our CTEC QLD Office. From here we will run our East Coast and NZ operations overseen by the Head Office in WA.

CTEC Queensland can be found at:
Office 24
7 Clunies Ross Court
Brisbane Technology Park
Eight Mile Plains QLD 4113

Tel: (07) 3147-8500 
Email: Diamantina@ctec.com.au

Joint media release with the Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr today announced a new $249 million package designed to help Australian industries become more competitive and create new job opportunities.

The Industrial Transformation Research program and cadetship package includes:

• More than 1,000 engineering cadetships over the next four years so students can get the work experience they need to kick-start their careers in manufacturing and other Australian industries.
• New research training centres that will provide quality industrial doctoral and postdoctoral training for up to 600 PhD students each year.
• New research hubs bringing researchers and industry representatives together to design and engineer commercially and technically viable solutions to some of our most pressing industrial problems.

These new measures are part of the Labor Government's commitment to a more competitive and research focused manufacturing sector creating quality jobs and building the industries of the future.

Australia is endowed with top quality researchers and top quality industry - this new alliance bringing the two together just makes good sense.

As a result, Australia's research effort will be better aligned with the needs of Australian industry.

This Government has provided researchers with the best research infrastructure the country can afford - now we can give these cadets the best training experiences too.

Manufacturers will have the benefit of additional research expertise and knowledge to tackle difficult problems in key sectors such as metals, food, energy, textiles, building and automotive.

For more information on the Industrial Transformation Research Program, please visit www.arc.gov.au.

For more information on the engineering cadetships, visit www.innovation.gov.au

Guess what collaboration just achieved? Innovation.

At the last Innovation Series in Melbourne, we learned of a seismic shift in the way GE – a company whose business DNA is innovation – has moved away from a culture of secrecy and protection in its research and development and embraces collaboration as its prime driver of innovation.
The result?
Breathtaking progress. In Australia, GE's collaboration with CSIRO and its electric vehicle program with Better Place is a showcase for rapid, positive technological and societal change.

The final Innovation Series Melbourne event in its introductory year in the city provided enlightening insights on the growing realisation among organisations of all sizes that collaboration is a vital driver of innovation and future success.

A profound example is that GE (once General Electric), a company formed in the 19th century that has at its core a culture of business innovation powered by one of the best research and development systems in the world.

While the power of R&D has not changed in the GE corporate culture, the way it is managed most certainly has, with the company benefitting greatly from its fresh, determined approach to embracing collaboration.

Both Innovation Series Melbourne presenters – Ben Waters, director of ecomagination for GE Australia and New Zealand and Alan Finkel, the chief technology officer for Better Place Australia – highlighted how they believed collaboration was one of the key drivers to facilitate open and sustainable innovation.

Their presentations had particular relevance with the current push for Australia to become a low-carbon economy, in which sustainable development and innovation will play a critical role in shaping the future of Australian business, creating new opportunities.

In fact, the GE-Better Place collaboration is creating a new paradigm in transportation, where electric cars powered by renewable energy are not only the norm, but they positively enhance the electricity grid rather than simply draw from it.

'GE' WHIZ DEVELOPMENT

Ben Waters, director of ecomagination for GE Australia and New Zealand, is happy to announce that collaboration truly is the new driver of innovation for GE.

GE is a company that has thrived through its own creative and R&D capabilities up until recent years, but has over the past decade opened up to new innovative partnerships that have produced staggeringly successful results.

"Being global meant for us selling American stuff everywhere," Mr Waters joked with the Innovation Series crowd.

"Now we are local. We have a performance culture, but we are localizing," he said, and GE achieves this through striking strong local partnerships around the world – especially, and importantly, in Australia, where its major partner is the CSIRO and Australia is a test market for innovation destined to transform the world.

"Australia and New Zealand is, in fact, our third biggest market in the world, after of course the US and followed by the UK. So we are localizing in our important markets," Mr Waters said.

GE created the first US industrial laboratory and in 1900, when the company was just eight years old, opened its main research centre in Schenectady, New York on the founding principle of improving business through technology. Today, it is still open and is of the world's most diverse industrial labs. GE's mission remains the same: it's about bringing great technology to market.

"As an engineer I love technology but as a sales guy and business leader, I love technology even more, because it's what differentiates us from our competition.

"Today, we need to invest in that and we are doing so more than we ever have .We value technology for our customers and shareholders. Innovation has always been the hallmark of GE's progress and will continue to be the primary driver that keeps us going as we go forward."

Thomas Edison's ductile tungsten filament lightbulb was GE's first transformational innovation in 1909, followed by the medical x-ray in 1913 and, with a few Nobel Prizes along the way, GE progressed through the first television broadcast reception in 1927, man-made diamonds in 1955, the semi-conductor laser in 1962, magnetic resonance imaging in 1984, GE90 composite jet engine fan blade in 1994 and the digital x-ray and light-speed VCT in recent years.

"The medical x-ray and the jet engine have grown into multi billion dollar businesses we are still in," Mr Waters said.

GE has four Global Research Centres globally, the original in New York, Shanghai, Bangalore and Munich. Spread among them are 3000 research employees sporting 1000 PhDs, along with 27,000 technologists worldwide. "These people sit outside the business and work directly for the chairman in corporate development," he said. "That system has worked well for us in the past and continues to do so." Australia is an experiment in a new virtual approach to R&D, he said. "For Australia we will have a virtual research centre for our collaboration with CSIRO."

"These people sit outside the business and work directly for the chairman in corporate development," he said. "That system has worked well for us in the past and continues to do so." Australia is an experiment in a new virtual approach to R&D, he said. "For Australia we will have a virtual research centre for our collaboration with CSIRO."

Mr Waters' area of responsibility is GE's signature approach to solving sustainability challenges in the modern world: which it calls ecomagination.

Ecomagination is a GE business initiative that began in 2005 "based on an analysis of the climate science," Mr Waters said. Simply stated, GE customers need and are seeking products that are both good for the environment and better for their operating economics. "We choose both," Mr Waters said. Ecomagination today has over 130 products created.

"These products meet both criteria and are best in class,"he said. "We now have about 130 products, having started with about a dozen.

"It is a business initiative and in has its own metrics," he said.

Mr Waters said those 'metrics' are based around sales and "around walking the talk. Reducing our own footprint".

Innovation and partnerships are key to the entire ecomagination process, Mr Waters said..

"It needs to be more than your grab bag of products. You need to create solutions that are relevant to solving your customers problems and to do that increasingly you need partnerships." Mr Waters said ecomagination has been GE's best ever business initiative. Over the five years, it made $85billion in revenues after having spent $5billion in R&D in the first five years.

"We reduced our greenhouse gas footprint 24 percent. In intensity terms, GE's emissions are down more than one third. We saved $130million in energy water and greenhouse gas emissions … and that is shown in the five annual reports that have covered the period.

"This is the scorecard of 2005-2010. We've done all right.

"It's cost down and revenue up. It is a repositioning of the business from an old way of doing things to a new way of doing things."

Mr Waters said, "We will double the metrics for the next five years … invest $10billion … And halve our energy intensity and consumption."

Such success vindicates GE moving away from its traditional control model to a co-operation model, he said, and GE is now confidently moving towards a future of long term partnership and a medium degree of open source collaboration, Mr Waters.

"We've learned a lot and found we do not have all the answers."

Mr Waters said the new low carbon economy involves "nothing short of a new industrial revolution".

Mr Waters said a few years ago GE took a closelook at its approach to open innovation – seeing what other companies with vastly open approaches, such as Nokia, were achieving.

"We needed to move the needle up towards the middle there (of open collaboration) – we were pretty closed," he said.

"In Australia we needed need a virtual partner and that is CSIRO. It's a broad and deep alliance with one of the world's best research agencies. We align in many key areas with CSIRO."

That has produced a five-year $20million alliance between GE and CSIRO "at this stage".

High on the in that collaboration agenda are clean coal, smart electricity grids, water treatment for the resources industry, renewable energy and health innovation, such as early detection of

Alzheimers disease. CSIRO helps GE localise that approach on the ground in Australia, Mr Waters said. An example is the 'ecomagination challenge' – a $200million open innovation challenge – which GE and four venture capital partners launched last July. Primarily, ecomagination has been about accelerating and developing next generation power grids through collaboration.

So far, GE has invested $60million in 12 companies with good ideas as a result of the ecomagination program. "It's not how we would have done it previously," Mr Waters said. From ecomagination came contact with startups, universities and entrepreneurs in a mix that is the largest ever in size and scope, globally, in seeking out innovative projects.

Mr Waters said 70,000 people submitted more than 5000 ideas and business plans.

"They weren't all good ideas, but many of them were and from this we chose the 12 projects to invest in." The second phase of ecomagination looked at powering the home. It ran to June this year and GE is now in the early stages of working with new partners to accelerate deployment of their concepts.

Another key GE partnership in Australia today is with Better Place, with whom GE has a global alliance. This focuses on the transition in the transportation industry to electricity and will also change the electricity industry in the process. In 2010 GE is now the world's biggest customer of electric vehicles, committing to purchase 25,000 electric cars by 2015 for its own fleet and for its customers.

"Petrol cars don't make much sense," Mr Waters told the Innovation Series gathering.

GE and Better Place Australia's plan is to incorporate electric cars into everyday life and integrate them into the electricity grid, powered by renewable energy. Better Place collaboration is already taking place in Israel and Denmark but by far the largest program is in Australia.

"Australia is the biggest and is six times larger than those other two," Mr Waters said. "It will be a game changer for transportation and a game changer for the grid." GE, as part of the collaboration, is focusing on demand management, storage issues and the progress of renewable energy.

A key element of the program is that batteries of the vehicles are also used for the grid, as storage devices while parked and plugged into the grid. It is a masterful piece of innovation.

"Electric cars integrated well are great for the grid. Electric cars not integrated could be a disaster for the grid." Mr Waters said.

"Integrating them and operating them through renewable energy can make one of the most profound changes in transportation history." Lessons learned in Australia, he said, "will assist our teams in the US and Europe".

In Australia, GE is working with its own Custom Fleet business, part of GE Capital, which is the largest purchaser of vehicles in Australia – and GE can even use that same business for battery finance.

"So it's a broad alliance," he said. "It's a once in a lifetime industry transition." In another area of energy innovation, GE is working with airline customers on aviation biofuels. In Australia that collaboration is with Virgin Australia on a malee tree-based oil that can be used to make kerosene.

"There are lots of great ideas out there – we don't have them all ourselves, that's for sure," Mr Waters said. For example, he said, GE's work with venture capital companies on the ecochallenge program "brought great scale and investment smarts to our R&D knowledge".

"We know that collaboration is the fastest, easiest, most effective way effective way to bring about systemlevel change. The Better Place alliance a perfect example.

"And our long term research partnership with CSIRO that stated with aviation materials has broadened, and that has transformed over time to meet new and unexpected challenges. Mr Waters said it boils down to business leadership and in particular using technology better and creating new technologies to help make people and businesses more productive.

"We need that in Australia."

Source: Australian Business Acumen, November 2011

A record turnout at Zernike Australia’s Innovation Series lunch in Sydney last week demonstrated a growing interest in innovative agribusiness in the face of climate change – even in Australia’s most urbanised state.

The audience were not disappointed – as well as being treated to the first look at Bayer Australia’s sustainable agriculture strategy, they also gained an insight into controversial GM science and the surrounding debate from a former Monsanto executive and a CSIRO Director.

All three speakers, whose work has involved many international firsts, stressed the pressing need for education regarding the ‘frontier’ science that could transform the agrifood sector and help Australia meet human food demand on a global scale.

Joerg Ellmanns, Chairman, Bayer Australia and New Zealand, used the event to launch the global enterprise’s local commitment to sustainable agricultural development in Australia, which he called a ‘milestone'.

Along with fellow speakers - Dr Bruce Lee, Director of CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship and David Hudson, Managing Director of SGA Solutions – Ellmanns underlined the importance of balancing economic, environmental and social responsibilities.

Touching on the challenges facing Australian farmers, including unpredictable, deregulated markets, poor soil nutrient conditions, lack of skilled labour, drought, floods and locusts, Ellmanns described Bayer’s strategy to work with partners along the entire supply chain.

To address economic needs, Ellmanns said Bayer invested heavily in R&D, resulting in six new crop protection products last year. Between 2006 and 2014, Bayer will have launched 18 new products. The company also provides funding to other organisations including CSIRO and Growcom, which provides on-farm training.

Like the economic strategy, Bayer’s approach to the environmental aspect of its sustainability commitment also included new product development and partnership aspects.

In response to a move towards no-till farming, which reduces water usage, erosion and diesel consumption but allows weeds to proliferate, Bayer has developed a pre-emergent herbicide suited to Australian conditions. The company has also signed another partnership with CSIRO to assess the carbon footprint of new generation crops from field to export markets.

The final piece of Bayer’s three-pronged sustainable strategy addresses social responsibility. Ellmans said Bayer’s main focus here was funding education in agronomy and horticulture.

He said this was at every level from middle school to university and even involved a training farm set up by the charity Aussie Helpers, to provide assistance to rural communities affected by drought and train locals in agricultural skills.

Dr Bruce Lee, Director of CSIRO’s Food Futures Flagship, treated the audience to a closer look at the work behind and the results of the ‘frontier’ science and technology.

He said in the next 20 years, 8 billion people will need to eat food produced on the same amount of land as today, emerging markets will challenge Australia’s $5 billion annual wheat exports, and an obesity crisis will coincide with a global growth in demand for meat and fish.

Dr Lee leads a team of 250 research scientists at one of the CSIRO’s ‘flagships’, which works with other research providers across the world to ‘deliver paradigm shifts and create new industries’.

In the area of wheat, the CSIRO is working with corn producers in the USA to discover how they addressed similar challenges. Using high-resolution gene mapping, the team can look at the interaction between quality, yield, water efficiency and other traits concurrently – giving them 60 times the power with only five times the resources.

He also outlined how the CSIRO found a way to ‘switch off’ a gene, which could cause
colo-rectal cancer, and changed the oil profile of canola using genes from algae to prevent cardio-vascular disease.

Other initiatives underway include artificially inseminating cattle to improve meat quality, increasing the yield of farmed prawns and using waste carbon for aquafeed – a project which includes working with the IT team to develop technology to listen to prawns feeding.

Dr Lee said perception was a major issue and his team is working with a group of psychologists to discover what foods would be acceptable to the public.

David Hudson, Managing Director of SGA Solutions, also highlighted the perception and education issue, stating that he held the first GM Canola plant in his hand 18 years before it was released onto, and accepted by the Australian market.

He said in this time, plant breeding had become a more exact science - whereas it used to take years to breed traits in and out of plants, it was now a case of selecting the desired gene and bringing it across.

Hudson said even non-GM crops are hugely different to wild varieties, yet the lack of understanding remained a massive problem for biotech, which could help reduce the use of pesticides, land and water, and minimise risk for farmers.

In terms of opportunities for Australia, he said a particular strength was in providing a platform for technologies that could be adopted globally through public and private biotech partnerships.

These kinds of Australian initiatives are attracting funding from global organisations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and have produced many crops including papaya, pineapples, bananas, wheat and canola.

Hudson said the ongoing struggle to increase and sometimes just maintain production levels in the face of land degradation, urban sprawl and change from cropland to pasture, meant government and public support was more critical than ever. Download the Podcast

The Innovation Series is run by Zernike Australia, with events currently being planned in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for 2011. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For further details contact Zernike on Ph. 07 3188 9000

Source: Australian Business Acumen , November 2011

Generating electricity from the sea is now possible, but e3k had to sell its technology to expand, writes Jason Clout.

The founder of engineering consultancy ek3, Duncan Gilmore, knew that generating power from ocean or river currents was not going to be an easy assignment.

But he says the fact that a version of the technology it developed is now operating in the wild seas off Scotland shows its ability and perseverance paid off.

“A client came to me in around 2001 and asked did we think it was possible. So we started thinking about what could be done. “

The technology a decade ago did not look promising, but Gilmore says he knew there were powerful currents in many parts of the world, so it was an idea worth exploring. “There is a current that runs from Brisbane to Sydney, about 30 kilometres off the coast.

“Sailors can use it for a nice ride heading south, and if they’re smart they know to avoid it of they want to head north.”

The consultancy worked on using natural power. That involved ocean and river testing sites including one in the Clarence River near Yamba in northern NSW.

But Scotland’s Firth of Forth was a different proposition. “That current which runs off the Australian east coast is 1.5 to 2 knots. In Scotland near the Orkneys, it can be 8 knots.”

So the establishment of a 1 megawatt facility in September this year is very satisfying to the e3k, which stands for Engineering in the Year 3000.

“The marine technology has to be adapted to the specific area. But if this works then you could put 100 or 200 of that size of facility on the seabed and generate significant power.

“It’s a more expensive way to produce electricity than nuclear and certainly much more than coal.

But as technology improves and other conditions possibly change, things may be different.”

While there is pride in e3k’s achievement, there is also some wistfulness too.

Gilmore says the technology is fully owned by Atlantis Resources Corporation.

“It owns the technology outright it’s totally theirs,” he says.

The lack of commercialisation possibilities in Australia disturbs Gilmore. Even the fact that legislation on reforming research and development has taken years to get through federal Parliament casts doubt over the country’s commitment to grow its technological base.

In pure research, Australia holds many advantages: Gilmore says there are a lot of skilled people, the costs are reasonable and there is plenty of room to conduct experiments.

But to take the plunge and try to develop the technology requires an overseas partner with big pockets.

“We need a big brother if we are going to take that on,” he says.

However, an earlier foray into the US has sourced Gilmore. While he admires the drive of the US and the funding it can furnish, he finds the attitude there too hard and self-centred.

“It’s not as bad in Europe, so that is probably where we would head next.”

The company was set up as the new product division of Gilmore Engineers. It has applied its talents to a number of sectors for clients including heavy industry and biotechnology.

“We have another renewal energy project on the go as well. We’re a small team, there are only six of us, but there are three PhDs and two with master’s degrees, sp we are very focused on what we do.”

The Brisbane Technology Park was started in 1986. In 2002, the Queensland government brought in Zernike Australia to expand the park, which now has 90 tenants.

BTP manager Gill Laird-Portch says companies like e3k were well suited to the precinct because it was an innovator in its own right as well as working closely with other park tenants.

“Gilmore Engineers, which includes e3k, is one of BTP’s longest-standing tenants and makes the most of being located here by getting involved in park activities, and interacting with other companies to share knowledge and, of course, win business,” Laird-Portch says.

“Because the company offers engineering services to the R&D-based businesses, as well as coming up with their own inventions, they really thrive in this collaborative environment.”

The $13.5m high tech, eco building for 20 tenants opening at 88 Brandl Street, Brisbane Technology Park in early 2011 will be Australia’s first example of a new business model and part of a global network of science and technology parks.

Zernike Precincts is a new venture that brings together real estate and commercialisation expertise to build business communities around research and knowledge hubs - such as universities or hospitals - and nurtures them by offering business and investment support.

The global Zernike Group manages six science parks in Europe and Australia, including Brisbane Technology Park, works with 31 finance partners and 90 academic institutes around the world, and administers five investment funds.

The Zernike Precincts model will bring all this expertise together within a physical infrastructure to give tenants access to knowledge, markets and funds – the three core requirements for commercialisation.

Zernike plans to roll out the precincts nationally; it is already in talks regarding other opportunities in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria and aims to start work on four precincts within the next three to five years.

The first example of the business model in practice - the new 3,400 sqm development in Brisbane Technology Park - will offer a mix of commercial and serviced offices ranging from 50 to 750 sqm for 20 companies. It is designed to give high growth, science and technology based businesses the services, networks, flexibility and space they need to develop new products and expand.

The building will offer short-term leases, cutting edge, ready to go ICT infrastructure which doesn’t require any upfront investment by the tenants, and added value services such as marketing consultancy, meeting rooms and secretarial support. Telco Spiderbox will install and support a $500,000 showcase of the latest Cisco solutions covering voice, messaging, video and desktop applications and offer data hosting, disaster recovery and fibre-optic broadband access through its own network.

The infrastructure and leasing arrangements will enable tenants to afford cutting edge communications solutions that would normally be out of their reach. The building will have outstanding green credentials including highly efficient multiple zoned air-conditioning, solar hot water, rainwater harvesting, individual power metering, heat efficient glass, low energy lighting and thermal insulation.

Zernike Precincts Director Arnold Stroobach said the building and precincts would cater for businesses of all sizes but their design and culture was best demonstrated by taking the example of a PhD student about to leave a local university with a great idea.

“Imagine the student had invented some kind of groundbreaking technology, straight away he or she would need advice on intellectual property (IP), business mentoring and funding to transition into a business,” Mr Stroobach said.

“The start-up would then need to get its product to a marketable stage - so it will need a small office space, a handful of skilled staff, manufacturing or laboratory facilities, advice on commercialisation, and access to networks and new markets.

“Soon we would hope this business would start to grow rapidly so it will need flexible office and manufacturing space; short term leases and a variety of accommodation with telephone systems and other services which are affordable, set up and ready to go.

“Even more importantly, it will need to attract and retain affordable and qualified employees – so this is where the intangibles come in, ensuring the region is prestigious enough to avoid losing talent to other high-tech hubs and the lifestyle is attractive enough for all kinds of workers to want to live locally.

“Top notch technology, which benefits the local residential community as well as Zernike tenants, shops, cafes and transport links all play a part in this. “This is where Zernike’s skill set lies; in ensuring all these pieces of the innovation and commercialisation puzzle are in place so IP, prestige, skills and economic benefit are retained and not lost overseas or even to another State,” Mr Stroobach explained.

Zernike was appointed Manager of Brisbane Technology Park in 2002 and has since worked with the Queensland Government to grow the Park from 24 to more than 90 tenants ranging from multinationals like Smiths Medical to early stage and start up companies. Spiderbox, which will be providing all the technology for the new building, started off in a Brisbane Technology Park incubator.

It now occupies 500 sqm on the park, and has changed its business model and established new revenue streams as a result of being in the cluster. Zernike supports park tenants by bringing in trade delegations and organising regular formal and informal networking events to encourage them to find ways of working together, new technologies or solutions to problems, new markets or funding.

But Brisbane Technology Park Manager and Zernike Precincts Director – Operations, Gill Laird-Portch said the new business model would take this model further.

“Zernike Precincts represents the future of science and technology parks in Australia because we will be actively setting up Investment Networks and offering business support programs such as training in finance or business coaching for start-ups,” Ms Laird Portch said. “The key to all of this is people – they are the most valuable asset and to compete successfully for the top talent against international technology and innovation hubs such as California, we need to make sure we have all the ingredients in place.”

Although Australia currently only has a handful of science and technology parks, the model is well-established in Europe and North America. Nearly 400 clusters across these continents bring investment into regions, create jobs, foster innovation and help local talent grow alongside multinational businesses.

Enquiries Click here to contact Gill Laird-Portch, Manager Brisbane Technology Park

Date: 29 July 2010

Publication: Australian Financial Review

Private syndicate Harvest Property is backing a $90 million rollout of four technology precincts in Australia over the next five years. The project is a joint venture will Holland-based technology company Zernike Group, which manages six science parks in Europe and Australia including Brisbane Technology Park.

The first joint project is a $13.5 million development in Brisbane Technology Park, which will offer a mix of commercial and serviced offices to 20 companies. Talks are taking place regarding sites in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria with the aim to of starting work on four precincts within the next three to five years.

Zernike was appointed manager of the Brisbane Technology Park in 2002. It has since worked with the Queensland government to grow the park from 24 to 90 plus tenants, ranging from multinationals like Smith Medical to star-ups. The joint venture, Zernike Precincts, call on Harvest’s property knowledge to create commercial and office suites that offer short-term leases and low start-up costs geared towards incubating new technology businesses.

Zernike Precincts director Chris Slack, who jointly founded Harvest Property in May 2008, said the joint venture partners were targeting businesses that began with a good idea and a handful of staff, then expanded rapidly. “Zernike Precincts is about providing a holistic accommodation solution that is a mix of property transaction, business support and a long-term environment,” Mr Slack said. “It aims to enhance collaboration between occupants of the precinct and larger community stakeholders like universities and medical institutions.”

The first building in Brisbane Technology Park will have strong green credentials and serviced offices ranging from 50 to 750 square metres, allowing firms to expand on site.

The medium-term plan was to build similar developments in India and south-east Asia, Mr Slack said. Since its founding Harvest has bought $60 million of assets and now has a workbook of $150 million in development activity. They are typically properties that offer immediate opportunities, such as the $9.25 million purchase of a 6.97 hectare caravan pack in Tingalpa, Queensland, last year

Enable2010 is a bold new initiative to showcase Brisbane as a centre of world-class innovation and collaboration, with a range of events planned from July 19 to 28.

Brisbane Technology Park is a hub of innovation.Culminating with the launch of the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard by Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman on Wednesday July 28, Enable2010 will celebrate excellence in innovation and challenge industry, education and government to position Brisbane as the epicentre of commercially driven innovation.

Cr Newman said he was dedicated to making Brisbane an innovative, liveable, new world city.

"Brisbane is currently experiencing phenomenal growth that is forecast to continue outstripping other major Australian centers for the next 20 years," Cr Newman said.

"To remain competitive and achieve our vision of becoming a world-class, easy living city, we must embrace continuous learning and remain at the forefront of innovation.

"I encourage everyone to join in Enable2010 and support Brisbane's pursuit for world-class knowledge and innovation."

Brisbane Marketing CEO John Aitken said Brisbane's reputation as a progressive and globally competitive destination has steadily developed and there is growing recognition in the Brisbane business environment that a spirit of collaboration, open innovation, knowledge sharing and a global outlook are critical to business success.

"As the city's economic development agency, Brisbane Marketing seeks to foster a culture of innovation within the Brisbane business community and to highlight the essential role of innovation as a key driver of sustainable growth, productivity and the region's economic prosperity," Mr Aitken said.

"This partnership is essential in keeping Brisbane a prosperous and entrepreneurial city that remains globally focused and continues to attract leading national and international companies to locate, innovate, create and export," he said.

Enable2010 culminates with the launch of the Brisbane Innovation Scorecard, a new initiative which will measure Brisbane's innovation footprint and recognise companies, businesses and individuals committed to excellence in innovation.

The results of the survey, the first of its kind in Australia, will demonstrate Brisbane's achievements in innovation and promote the city as world-class enabler of innovation.

Other key Enable2010 events include the Innovation Series luncheon on the topic of Eco Innovations: Sustaining Industry and the Environment. This is a fascinating series of presentations and panel discussion looking at eco innovations and sustainability, sponsored by Zernike Australia and presented at the Hilton Brisbane on July 19 from noon to 2pm.

There is also a discussion session on the National Broadband Network, Beyond Installation. This timely discussion follows the latest announcements on Australia's National Broadband Network, looking at the possible futures created through an ubiquitous broadband infrastructure. The event is on Thursday, July 22, from 3pm to 5pm.

On July 23 is a luncheon event titled Future Energy - Future Solutions. As Australia moves to a lower carbon economy, leadership in the energy sector is perhaps more important than in any other industry - and this event tackles the issue in its Friday session from noon to 2pm.

The Australian Innovation Exhibition, an allied event sponsored by Venture Capital Corporation and Business Acumen magazine, will feature on Monday and Tuesday, July 26 and 27, at Reddacliff Place and Brisbane Square, opposite Conrad Treasury Casino. The event aims to showcase Queensland and Australian innovation to the business community and public, while providing opportunties for potential investors to examine innovations and inventions first-hand. Foundation sponsors include the Australian Association of Angel Investors, AVCAL and the Australian Institute for Commercialisation.

The QUT Dean's Breakfast is on Tuesday, July 27. This not to be missed event discusses the role of higher education in nurturing and championing the innovators of the future.

Wednesday July 28 is the Lord Mayor's Leaders of Innovation event and the release of Brisbane Innovation Scorecard. The inaugural Brisbane Innovation Scorecard and recognises those companies, businesses and individuals committed to excellence in innovation. The event runs from noon to 2pm.

Throughout Enable2010, Brisbane Innovators' Showcases will feature, a rare opportunity to look behind the scenes of a number of Brisbane's successful exporters and innovators. Various dates and times are to be confirmed, but a highlight is the official opening of TechnologyOne's new headquarters at HQ Fortitude Valley - a location that is a leader in sustainability in Brisbane.

http://www.enablebrisbane.com.au/

Source: Business Acumen June Edition

As an investor, owner and manager at Brisbane Technology Park, Zernike Australia has made another significant commitment by signing up as the first tenant of the precinct’s planned $14 million new office complex The Dutch company, which manages science and technology parks around the world, plans to use the space to nurture innovative small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and expand its own operations.