2024 NEXUS Geelong

Last week the Victorian Cleantech Cluster was thrilled to welcome more than one hundred guests to Wurriki Nyal Civic Precinct for our second annual NEXUS Clean Economy Showcase. Presented in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong, NEXUS was a meeting of minds for people working in cleantech, circularity, sustainability and climate innovation – all the major elements that drive our clean economy.

We began the day with a look at what Geelong has achieved over the past decade, as Deputy Mayor Anthony Aiken took us on a journey to see where the region has come from, and importantly, where it’s heading. Geelong’s fervent support of clean economy development has supported more than 60 businesses, resulting in over 700 new jobs and over 2,600 people trained to deal with the transition. Significantly, this has seen an increase of more than $20m in sales of cleantech and sustainable products and services locally.

Our keynote was delivered by Ashleigh Morris, CEO and Co-Founder of Coreo, who explored life and work in our growing circular economy. There were plenty of takeaways from Ashleigh’s presentation, including our dire need for resource recovery as a country that still relies so heavily on virgin materials for the vast majority of products. Ashleigh’s passionate message for circularity resonated with the audience and gave us plenty to consider about how we design, use and discard the things that drive our daily lives.

We were also joined by Andy McCarthy who discussed his new book, Here Comes the Sun: How a high-school dropout brought renewable energy to coal country. Andy shared his experiences of growing up in Geelong in a time when the opportunities for getting involved in renewable energy and cleantech were sparse at best and shared his vision of hope for a future powered by clean energy.

Our first two afternoon panels put industry experts in the spotlight covering state and national policy and research aims as well as local SMEs working to grow Geelong’s clean economy.

Two poets then gave the audience some food for thought as they captivated the crowd and brought home the message of people, planet and peace.

The second two panels saw local government representatives and key organisations behind the microphone to share what they’re working on to grow the clean economy far and wide.

Nigel Murphy, Chair of the Victorian Cleantech Cluster, wrapped up the day for us with key insights and a look at some major projects on the horizon.

This year's showcase featured 20 expert speakers, ten companies on display, and an innumerable amount of passion from the people that attended.

We'd like to thank everyone who made NEXUS such a fantastic event this year, particularly Tina Perfrement from the City of Greater Geelong, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes and on the day to bring it all together.