With the ICT sector becoming increasingly important to the Illawarra economy, the region will be showcasing its knowledge services capability this month at Australia's largest IT industry event.
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Many of the Illawarra's burgeoning digital capabilities will be on show at Advantage Wollongong's stand at CeBIT 2013 in Sydney on May 28-30.
Many organisations have joined forces to provide a regional perspective at CeBIT 2013. It follows the successful launch of the "Wollongong is IT" campaign at CeBIT 2012 which generated national and international exposure.
The 2013 exhibit features the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus, Faculty of Informatics and iAccelerate initiatives and many technology companies such as Selera, Internetrix, Relativity and Metronode (which is opening a larger scale energy efficient data centre at Unanderra in August).
Global IT service provider Pactera will also be showcased after it announced last week that it would establish a development centre at the Innovation Campus.
Selera, Pactera and Internetrix were recently named recipients of Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund grants to expand their services.
Together these companies are expected to create over 50 jobs and more than $4.5 million in investment in the region.
Advantage Wollongong is a partnership between Wollongong City Council, the University of Wollongong, the Innovation Campus and NSW Trade and Investment. Funding for the stand is provided as part of the Advantage Wollongong Knowledge Services Strategy.
NSW Trade and Investment regional manager Nigel McKinnon said 5200 people were already employed in knowledge services in Wollongong and the sector spanned ICT, business and financial services.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the opportunity at CeBIT coincided with Wollongong's transformation into a knowledge services hub.
"Wollongong experienced strong growth in the financial, business services and ICT industries and the city is now recognised as an important centre for knowledge services and international trade," he said.
"With Metronode's new data centre and the NBN coming online this year, businesses and employees in the region will benefit from world-class digital infrastructure."
Another asset is that the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Informatics produces the most information and communication technology graduates of any university in NSW.
University corporate relations director Craig Peden said that was one of many reasons why the university supported the development of an innovation and technology ecosystem and drove the iAccelerate initiative.