Welcome from Host, SIAA
Dear All,
As Chair of Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) and Chair of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), I extend a warm welcome to all of you and invite you and your colleagues, as well as your families, to join us in beautiful Sydney, Australia for IAC 2025.
It is not often that IACs are held in Australia or our broader region. SIAA had the pleasure of hosting IAC 2017 in Adelaide, and prior to this, CSIRO hosted IAC 1998 in Melbourne. In light of this scarcity, we would like to showcase not just our growing, and highly innovative, Australian space industry, but also that of the entire Indo-Pacific region.
Australia has a rich history of space knowledge and exploration including above all our First Nations Australians who have been studying the skies since time immemorial. Barely a day goes past where we are reminded of our distinct geographical advantage by other countries who value our vast, open spaces, and access to a different part of our skies, as well as our innovative, end-to-end space capabilities. Together with the rest of our Indo-Pacific region, we provide an incredible opportunity for the space industry and economy.
We acknowledge the incredible success of previous IACs and will continue the focus on the strength of the academic program. In addition, we will add a strong element of commerciality by enabling true business partnering, provide opportunities for start-ups and scale-ups including investor matching, and invite space-enabled industries into the IAC program for the first time. This will stretch across: resources; agriculture; manufacturing; construction; Smart Cities; health; financial services; ICT; utilities; and emergency management.
With the theme of ‘Sustainable Space : Resilient Earth’, we acknowledge the urgent need for us all to collaborate globally, and develop meaningful ways to make a lasting impact for space sustainability, and for the sustainability of our space industry at large.
IAC 2025 comes at the perfect time with so much progress planned for 2025 and beyond both in the public and private sectors. This includes our own Australian Space Agency’s Trailblazer Program which will see the design and development of an Australian-made rover, lovingly named “Roo-ver” as voted by the Australian public, go to the Moon as a part of NASA’s Artemis program.
For those not attending IAC 2025, the accompanying persons social program is particularly exciting for both adults and children and will include a Festival of Space.
We encourage you all to use IAC 2025 to best effect. This prestigious event provides a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity for catalytic advancement in the space industry and economy in Australia and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Join us to make the most of the incredible opportunities at hand at this perfect moment in time.
Jeremy Hallett
Chair, Space Industry Association of Australia
Chair, IAC 2025 Sydney Local Organizing Committee (LOC)