Europe’s space industry meets at Industry Space Days 2006
Representatives of some 630 companies and organisations will meet later this month at ESA’s Industry Space Days 2006. This event, which has been organised by ESA’s Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Unit every two years since 1999, has become a ‘must-do’ for industry.
“The Industry Space Days 2006 is a major forum for all space actors,” says Michel Courtois, chairman of the Industry Space Days (ISD) organising committee and ESA’s Technical and Quality Management Director.
ESTEC, ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre, will host the ISD2006 from 29 to 31 May. This event will bring together institutional actors, small and medium sized enterprises, small and large system integrators, product suppliers and service providers to allow them to identify tomorrow’s industrial strategies and business opportunities within the sector.
The ISD will highlight the expertise of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the role they can play. “ISD2006 aims at improving the involvement of SMEs in space activities and fosters cross-fertilisation between the different actors in the whole space sector,” adds Courtois.
To date, some 700 participants, representing 371 SMEs, 152 larger industrial groups, 36 institutions, 21 networks, 30 research laboratories and 20 national space agencies have registered to take part in this event. The ISD will, as usual, propose a whole range of conferences tailored to inform industry in general and SMEs in particular on business opportunities as well as technology innovation and market trends. During ISD2006 representatives of ESA programmes, national space agencies and some of the large space groups will present the business opportunities available with their organisations.
Participants in the ISD will be able to:
- attend a full set of well targeted conferences on space perspectives and market trends
- be briefed on business opportunities with large groups and institutional investors
- benefit from pre-arranged face-to-face business meetings with potential clients and partners (6000 meetings have been requested and are being arranged)
- exhibit their innovative technologies to make them better known to potential partners and clients
ISD2006 is part of the global project SINEQUANET (Space Intelligence Engineering and Quality Network) initiated at the end of 2005 by ESA’s SME Unit and co-financed by the DG RTD (Directorate-General Research and Technology) of the European Commission.
"SINEQUANET will use engineers and other experts to support SMEs, with the purpose of helping them improve their skills, lower their entry barrier to space and foster their competitiveness in the space and non-space markets. Once fully operational, SINEQUANET will make a valuable impact on the SME sector," says Nora Bougharouat, Head of ESA’s SME Unit and the instigator of the project.
ISD2006 will be open to the press on Monday 29 May. Those interested in attending should contact the ESA Communications Office at ESTEC and register using the attached registration form.
ESA Communications Office ESTEC
Tel: +31 (0)71 565 3006
Fax: +31 (0)71 565 5728
