The Minister for Economic Development, Mr Andrew Barr, launched the 2012 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards on Monday 14 May 2012 at the Canberra Business Event Centre, Regatta Point.

If you are a successful exporter with a business registered in the ACT, then you should enter the 2012 Awards.

The Awards can help you to achieve ACT distinction and national recognition and can lead to further international success.

Entries close on 27 July 2012 and assistance is available to help you to plan and complete your application.

Don’t wait until the last few days to prepare and lodge your application. Start to prepare now by looking at your milestones and achievements during this and the previous two financial years . Early and thorough preparation will result in a strong entry.

For more information, visit the website here or call Craig Malcolm on 0438 808 233 to discuss your entry.

Companies are able to lodge their application at the Exports Events Website – here

The 2012 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards are managed by Canberra Business Council on the behalf of the ACT Government.

Proudly Sponsored by:

ACT Government – Economic Development

The Economic Development Directorate (EDD) area at the Chief Minister’s Department plays an integral role in the ACT Government’s mission to promote and enhance economic prosperity in a climate that encorurages the Canberra business community to thrive.

EDD provide a broad range of business information and policy, as well as services, events and seminars to all types of businesses and the community at large. EDD is the main point of contact for Canberra’s local and international business activities and aims to develop the territory as an innovative, creative and dynamic place to do business. For more information visit www.business.act.gov.au.

The ACT Exporters’ Network is a well recognised network of ACT and Region exporters collaborating and helping each other in the practical business of building exports. Creating effective, business driven and globally focused events, the ACT Exporters’ Network is committed to the sharing of knowledge to enhance businesses opportunities overseas. For more information visit www.actexportersnetwork.com.au

Austrade’s mission is to contribute to community wealth by helping more Australians succeed in export and international business by providing advice, market intelligence and support to Australian companies to reduce the time, cost and risk involved in selecting, entering and developing international markets. In addition, Austrade provides advice and guidance on overseas investment and joint venture opportunities. For more information visit www.austrade.gov.au

Canberra Business Council (CBC) is the ACT‘s leading business organisation and is committed to sustainable economic development in the ACT and Capital Region. CBC has a long history of active involvement with the local exporting community through its leadership and ongoing management of the International Business Taskforce (IBTF) and ACT Exporters’ Network.

For more information visit www.canberrabusinesscouncil.com.au

Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) provides finance and insurance solutions to help Australian exporters overcome financial barriers when growing their business overseas. As the Australian Government’s export credit agency, we help successful businesses to win, finance and protect export trade or overseas investments where their bank is unable to provide all the support they need. Our sponsorship of the Small to Medium Services Award reflects our commitment to small and medium-sized exporters. Contact EFIC on 1800 887 588 or visit www.efic.gov.au.

This two-day mission to Hong Kong is designed to help Australian businesses to understand the West Kowloon Cultural District project first-hand and to showcase their capabilities and expertise to relevant organisations and decision-makers with a view to making competitive bids in future.

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA – www.wkcda.hk) is developing an integrated arts and cultural district with a specific number and type of core arts and cultural facilities, retail, dining and entertainment facilities, communal and ancillary facilities on a spectacular site on the Hong Kong harbour front comprising of 40 hectares in West Kowloon. The Authority has officially become an institutional member of the Hong Kong Green Building Council and is committed to building an environmentally-friendly and sustainable cultural district. Fully funded by the Government of Hong Kong and valued at HK$21.6 billion (around A$2.6 billion), the project is expected to be completed in phases starting from 2013 and lasting until 2026. Major contracts will be offered through international competitions and tenders on a fair and competitive basis.

Australian design and cultural services providers have an excellent reputation in Hong Kong for world class innovation and efficiency.

This event is most suitable for companies in :-
• Sustainable building design and landscaping
• Acoustic, theatre and lighting consultants
• Environmentally sustainable building design
• Infrastructure & environmental consultants
• Green building technology and products
Herewith is the mission flyer for your reference. Please use this link www.austrade.gov.au/WKCDP2012 to register on line to be a participant of the mission.

The booking deadline is 4th May 2012.

Places are limited, to ensure your participation in our mission please book earlier.

This mission will be hosted in conjunction with the Exporting Solutions to Government Pilot Program.

• Mission dates: 4 – 7 June 2012
• Expressions of interest due by: 27 April 2012

For more information please download the Application form from here

7 SMEs (from any industry, regardless of size, with or without international experience) in the ACT are invited to participate in the competition as business clients. Each client will have 4-5 groups of students working as consultants and preparing a comprehensive market expansion plan. Students will research and analyse information on 4 or 5 new countries and propose the most attractive market for the company. They will then recommend a suitable market entry strategy, recommend a wide range of marketing mix elements (product, packaging, distribution, pricing, and advertising/tradeshows), and design a sales or tradeshow brochures for the client. At the end of the semester, each team will make a professional presentation to the client.

Benefits for clients include:
• Minimal time commitment and minimal contact with the students;
• Free market research information of new/potential markets. Clients will receive all reports and print materials developed by the students;
• Fresh and innovative ideas from final-year undergraduate and Master students;
• Access to a pool of potential interns and future employees; and
• Linkage with the ANU College of Business and Economics.

Requirements for potential clients:
• Sign an agreement to participate in the competition;
• Attend the informal networking evening with the students;
• Attend one Q&A session with the students;
• Attend the final student presentations;
• Attend the award reception for the top teams; and
• Clients are also encouraged to provide one to two internships to members of their winning teams and/or other suitable rewards.

Previous client testimonials
“I was pleased to be able to contribute my time to the programme. The quality of the work presented by the students was of a high standard, and their enthusiasm was inspiring to say the least…” (Mr Michael Glew, Owner of Best Exhaust)
“Collaborating with ANU on this project has been enlightening, exciting and highly rewarding. The students’ unique perspective on our business has been invaluable and mutually beneficial… The competition provided the students with an opportunity to make real life solutions to real life challenges whilst presenting us with unique proposals, plans and concepts to assist decision making in key areas” (Mr Adam Castle, Event Coordinator and Manager of Kanga Cup)
“Involvement with the international business competition was very rewarding. The students did take the challenge seriously and the questions and discussions were unbiased without a preconceived approach.” (Mr Sudesh Mudaliar, Vice President of Asia Pacific of XP Solutions)
“Space Saver Rowing Systems was incredibly impressed with the opportunity to work with Dr Vinh Lu and students in his courses. It was an unbelievable chance to market test our product range in the Asian marketplace and receive feedback from the people not involved in the company in anyway. The students final presentations were of an excellent quality and enabled us to take the time to compare market expansion strategies which will be applied in the real world… just a great experience all round” (Mr Douglas Lumsden, Owner and Director of Space Saver Rowing Systems)

Contact information:
Dr Vinh Lu (Lecturer in International Business), (02) 6125 4905, or vinh.lu@anu.edu.au

GeoNav Executive Vice President Guner Gardenhire says NICTA’s ‘AutoMap’ technology will help the
company respond to a growing requirement for reliable road sign surveys to address maintenance,
safety and regulation issues. “In particular there is a growing demand for up-to-date sign inventories
to satisfy the Federal Highway Administration’s new traffic sign retroreflectivity requirements,” he said.
These new requirements aim to reduce the number of road deaths which occur at night.¹ GeoNav is
100 percent-owned by the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), which
represents the interests of around 1400 rural utilities and affiliates in 47 US states.

GeoNav mapping vehicles equipped with video cameras drive many thousands of kilometres
collecting video, LiDAR and GPS track data. The resulting footage is then uploaded onto their servers
in Montana. NICTA personnel remotely analyse the data from Canberra and create an inventory of
signs complete with their latitude and longitude. This information is incorporated by GeoNav into the
sign inventories it supplies to its customers.

“There have been many attempts at solving the problem of automatically detecting road signs, but few
of them have been successful on a very large scale. We have used our technology in the Australian
market for some time, and this deal with GeoNav allows us to prove our technology in the North
American market as well,” said NICTA Senior Researcher and AutoMap developer Dr Lars Petersson.

GeoNav’s clients in the utilities sector also require inventories of roadside objects relating to electricity
distribution networks. To service this contract, NICTA has developed a new library of US signs and
added the capability of automatically finding power poles in 3D point clouds. Point clouds are created
by a 3D scanner mounted on a survey vehicle and represent a relatively new form of sensing
technology for mobile survey vehicles. The most common type of scanner, called LiDAR, sends out a
wide beam of laser pulses and captures the reflections from roadside objects, such as signs and
power poles, providing size, shape and position information about those objects.

The software will be taken to market in the US by Automapic, a business emerging from technology
developed by the NICTA Automap team. “This contract not only places NICTA’s research in an
important international market, it also delivers direct income to NICTA through a sales revenue
sharing arrangement with GeoNav,” said NICTA’s Chief Operating Officer Dr Phil Robertson. “It is
also an important validation for a promising emerging business which is looking to spin out of NICTA
later this year.”

¹ http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/night_visib/policy_guide/fhwasa08001

Background

For the last three years, NICTA has provided road and rail sign analysis to customers in Australia and
New Zealand, including Sensis’ location navigation business, Whereis® Maps. Whereis® Maps uses
AutoMap to enhance and maintain a national map database via the capture and analysis of images of
road signs, including speed limits, turn restrictions and bridge load limit signs.

General Manager of the Whereis® mapping business, Fred Curtis, said: “Our agreement with NICTA
has allowed us to evolve our process for capturing signs and coding the database, further improving
the completeness, accuracy and quality of our digital mapping products. We adopted NICTA’s
AutoMap technology when we started using field surveyed imagery to help keep our databases up to
date. NICTA’s AutoMap services are integral to our business of delivering the quality our customers
expect.”

The AutoMap system uses object recognition, motion estimation and machine learning to improve the
rate of detection of roadside assets in video footage collected by survey vehicles. The system
identifies 99 percent or more road signs which appear in a given video, compared to an 85-90 percent
detection rate using manual methods. AutoMap can be trained to recognise most sign types found on
roads worldwide. Automatic power pole detection is a new development, with benefits accruing from
the reduced time taken to find the poles.

About NICTA

NICTA (National ICT Australia Ltd) is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA develops technologies that generate economic, social and environmental benefits for Australia. NICTA collaborates with industry on joint projects, creates new companies, and provides new talent to the ICT sector through a NICTA-enhanced PhD program. With five laboratories around Australia and over 700 people, NICTA is the largest organisation in Australia dedicated to ICT research.

NICTA is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence Program. NICTA is also funded and supported by the Australian Capital Territory, the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian Governments, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University.

Craig has been involved in international business for the last 20 years, initially through licensing electronics technology and sourcing products and components from around the world and then selling these components and completed products to a global network of licensees.

For seven of the last eight years he was engaged as an Export Adviser delivering the Austrade Tradestart program in Melbourne, assisting over 300 potential or existing exporters, with many achieving export success to a number of countries. Although a specialist in advanced manufacturing, he has extensive experience working with various industries, including food, ICT, agribusiness and business services sectors. He has also lived and worked overseas and have traveled extensively throughout Asia as well as the USA, UAE, New Zealand and the UK.

During this time, he developed and delivered a number of workshops and training sessions for both manufacturers and service providers to assist companies in increasing their knowledge of working in an international market place.

Craig has the international experience and skill in nurturing the growth of new exporters to enable him to implement the Network’s strategy.  His immediate focus will be to get out and meet as many ACT exporters as possible; to introduce himself and the Network to the many allies and export service providers in the ACT, and to bring Network members up-to-date with recent export developments.

He will continue to build on the solid foundations laid by his predecessors in developing and coordinating the many activities of the Network, including organising exporter networking events and delivering workshops aimed at improving the knowledge and capability of our exporters.

Being able to share experiences, share knowledge and encourage each other in their exporting journey, while drawing on assistance from those that provide support for exporters, is what the ACT Exporters’ Network is all about.  If you would like to be involved in our events, or find out more about the Network, please contact Craig at craig.malcolm@canberrabusinesscouncil.com.au or on 0438 808 233.

These SMEs include:

1. Best Exhaust
2. Kinetic Performance Technology
3. Space Saver Rowing Systems
4. The Kanga Cup
5. The Wise Academy
6. XP Solutions

Under the supervision of Dr Vinh Lu, the course convenor, and Mr Genrikh Salata (PhD candidate in International Business), a total of 26 groups of undergraduate and Master students in the International Marketing and Global Marketing courses at the ANU competed and identified the most suitable international market for their dedicated client.

Based on the project brief and a Q&A session with the client, each team developed a comprehensive international business plan (incorporating market screening and selection exercise, SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, identification of target market and market size, potential market entry strategies, international marketing mix tactics, and implementation costs and schedule). Different countries and territories emerged as the top export/expansion destinations for the six business clients, including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Qatar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Students also produced a range of print/advertising materials such as posters and sales brochures, which were evaluated by a team of marketing professionals from Saatchi & Saatchi, Roy Morgan Research, Channel 7, Singapore Airlines, Ogilvy & Mather, Freedom Foods Group, Shingleback Wine, Selleys Pty Ltd., UniSA, University of Adelaide, etc. These professionals are former graduates of Dr Vinh Lu. The top teams were officially recognised at a School reception, and some clients offered further rewards of lunch/dinner or internship opportunities.

In addition to attending the professional presentations by the students, the business clients received full copies of the reports and the print materials. The information and recommendations proposed by the students may serve as good starting point, especially in terms of market intelligence, for the clients in their quests for international opportunities. The participation of the clients in the competitions further strengthens the University-industry linkage between the ANU and the business community and the ACT.

This international business plan competition will be implemented again in July 2012. Seven clients, regardless of your industries and international experience, are being sought to participate in the courses. If you are interested or would like further information, please contact Dr Vinh Lu, Lecturer and Research Fellow in the ANU School of Management, Marketing and International Business, at vinh.lu@anu.edu.au, or on (02) 6125 4905.

The film charts the history of legendary fighting soldier the Australin Digger from their origins in the Boer War to the present day.  Through a sequence of pivotal battles spanning the globe, THE DIGGER follows the rise of these tough-as-nails fighting soldiers and their well-earned reputation for wartime heroics and off-duty subordination.

The film’s producer, Michael Tear, says that the film was a logistic and creative challenge, “we had to condense 100 years of history into 90 minutes. The shoot took place in six counties, South Africa, France, Egypt, Korea, Vietnam and PNG.  Recreations from the battlefied scenes were shot in Queensland right in the middle of the floods of January 2011″.

For more information please contact Michael Tear on 0417 441 932 or at mail@bearcage.com.au.

Meyer Vandenberg is the Canberra member of the ALFA International Legal Network, which is one of the oldest and largest international legal networks, comprising approximately 145 law firms (and 10,000 lawyers) in the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

The International Legal Practice Group of ALFA meets annually and conducts a client seminar for businesses involved in international commerce as part of its annual meeting.

This year, for the first time, the ALFA Client seminar is being held in Sydney at the Sydney Hilton on Thursday 10 November.  Click here to browse the event brochure.

Participants will include international lawyers from member firms around the world as well as local and international businesses engaged in overseas activities.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Yuko Harding on 02 6279 4489  or at yuko.harding@meyervandenberg.com.au to obtain further information.