Melbourne, 23 August 2007
David Hanna, CEO of the Victorian Government’s Innovation Economy Advisory Board, today officially opened the Siemens Innovation Forum, an exciting new gathering point where business leaders, academics, government and students can come together to discuss the opportunities and challenges impacting upon Australia’s future growth and prosperity.
The multi-million dollar interactive exhibition space showcases knowledge and innovative solutions in response to some of Australia's most pressing challenges in the areas of water, energy, environment, healthcare, productivity, mobility, safety and security, which all need urgent attention.
The Innovation Forum, opening to coincide with National Science Week and National Engineering Week, features a range of interactive ‘kiosks’ where visitors can explore new technologies and learn about integrated approaches to solving the challenges caused by Australia's growing cities and our ageing population and the worldwide impacts of globalisation and climate change.
Siemens Chairman and Managing Director, Albert Goller, said the Innovation Forum’s role is to encourage new and innovative thinking and the dynamic exchange of ideas between business leaders and government, while also inspiring the younger generation and the wider public to embrace technology and science.
“Siemens is focused on delivering innovations for generations through ground breaking technologies which transform today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities,“ he said.
“By looking to the future and pre-empting tomorrow’s challenges today, we give our existing and potential customers, as well as our employees, industry and the wider community, the best chance for a bright and prosperous future. Australia has the opportunity to become a creative ‘engine room’ for some of the best solutions technology can offer.
“Our Innovation Forum is a promise of our ongoing commitment to the ceaseless generation of new ideas and better ways of tackling modern challenges of a rapidly changing world. We also hope it inspires the youth of today to become our innovators, engineers and scientists of tomorrow,” Mr Goller said.
As an example of how Siemens is taking everyday concerns and turning them into innovative solutions, Albert Goller referred to the Siemens Memcor micro filtration system to be installed in the Gippsland Water Factory, which will treat up to 35 million litres of domestic and industrial water to provide eight million litres of recycled water per day.
In opening the Innovation Forum, David Hanna congratulated Siemens on its dedication to innovative and creative technologies.
Mr Hanna said: "Innovation is the key not only to the future competitiveness of companies and of Victoria but also to our ability to address the challenges that we face. It is very exciting to see Siemens taking this step as a part of its already impressive commitment to encouraging and supporting innovation in the company and in the community.
The Victorian Government is confident that we will all benefit from this new facility especially because it will provide inspiration for young future innovators.“