Australian Manufacturing Week 2024 has officially opened. Make sure to get over to Darling Harbour
With much fanfare, today the Australian Manufacturing Week event opened at the ICC in the beautiful Darling Harbour precinct. The show was officially opened by the NSW Government Industry Executive Director Maroun El-Khoury, standing in for the Hon Houssos, the very first Minister for Local Manufacturing, and a message from NSW Premier Chris Minns.
“I want to extend my best regards to everyone attending Australian Manufacturing Week,” said Minns. “This state is home to more than 28,000 manufacturing businesses and it employs close to 300,000 people.” Minns also noted that the State generates more than $135bn of output each year. “If we work together, we are convinced manufacturing has a bright future in New South Wales,” he said.
Introduced by MC Warrick Perry, the gathered crowd experienced an educational Welcome to Country and Idiki Ceremony by the Aboriginal Land Council councillor Brendan Levin to Gadigal Land on the Eyora Nation.
Not long before, guests enjoyed an exclusive breakfast upstairs with Simon Kuestenmacher, the Director and Co-Founder of The Demographics Group who presented his findings on the future economy of Australia. There was a lot to talk about.
Kuestenmacher went over the history of population in Australia, and their demographic strengths and weaknesses with regards to education, training, industry focus and life spending. It felt to him that Australia offered supply chain sovereignty in manufacturing, mining, food products and education. “This was a long rather convoluted way of saying “she’ll be right, mate,” he said.
“This is wealth creation at scale,” said Kuestenmacher. “Australia is certainly in the right place to take advantage of this explosion of the Asian behemoth.” He believes politics will support manufacturing. Areas of national sovereignty like defence and pharma. Population and economic growth suggest further manufacturing growth. The skill shortage will remain and staff retention will become the name of the game. Manufacturers will never be short of work. Many of us will struggle to service the growing pipeline of work.
Back on the show floor, the doors were opened and many thousands made the move into the aisles. This year there are a lot of smaller companies with stands, as well as many of the larger metal manufacturing behemoths giving their sales base a good look into their new range. Koenig Machinery once again has a large stand, more gear, and a few more personnel with the opening of their Sydney showroom. Amada Oceania, Stamac Engineering, Kraftech and Robotic Automation are just some companies with a massive splash of presence.
Do not miss this show. If you’re coming in later in the week, please take the time and register now online.
To see more of what happened today, CLICK HERE