Year of Defence

SolutionCity has been focusing its activities on the Defence sector in 2007.

This decision was made because:

• SA is the Defence state;
• We win 30% (or more) of all Defence business;
• ICT constitutes over 30% of all Defence contracts;
• Many SolutionCity members viewed opportunities in the Defence sector as being in the ‘too hard’ basket;
• Bolstering the industry participation in Defence is critical for SA’s continued economic growth;
• the Eastern states were saying that SA has reached its capacity and cannot handle any new contracts;
• 2007 was a watershed year for the Defence industry in SA:
  • For example, the Defence+Industry Conference was in Adelaide this year; run by the Defence Materiel Organisation, this was the big event on the Defence calendar, and it rarely moves from Canberra.

The Year of Defence involved bringing all stakeholders from Defence and ICT together to focus on building Defence capability, culminating in a strong ICT presence at the August 2007 Defence+Industry Conference in Adelaide.

We worked closely with all the key stakeholders such as Defence SA, CEDISC and the Defence Teaming Centre to coordinate activities and promotion during 2007.

Events held within the Year of Defence were:

March

"The Defence Opportunity for SA ICT companies"

April

"Doing Business with Defence"

June

"Target: Defence"

August

Defence+Industry Conference

December

ICT Industry Evening of Celebration 2007