Talks, courses & workshops

Future Asia Business Summit

The Future Asia Business Summit is a City of Sydney yearly program designed to strengthen Sydney-Asia business ties and engage in emerging areas of opportunity.

Sydney thriving in a smart Asian century

The Future Asia Business Summit is a City of Sydney yearly program, designed to strengthen Sydney-Asia business ties and engage in emerging areas of opportunity. It brings together local and international businesses, government representatives, consular corps and bilateral chambers of commerce.

The theme of the 2019 program was ‘Sydney thriving in a smart Asian century’ on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 July 2019.

The comprehensive 2-day program provided attendees with opportunities to participate in a range of exciting City of Sydney and partnered events centred around the theme.

The headline event for the Future Asia Business Summit was on Tuesday 23 July. The summit explored emerging global trends and key opportunities for Sydney based businesses within the broader smart cities context, with the aim of better facilitating trade and investment flows between Sydney and Asia.

The 2019 summit featured Lee Lin Chin as host and a keynote presentation from Simon Kuestenmacher, director at The Demographics Group, about engaging with the smart cities in Asia and what it means for Sydney.

The panel of business and government leaders unpacked how businesses can capitalise on the next wave of opportunity and discussed lessons from our existing projects:

  • Raymond Fan – director, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Sydney
  • Kylie Bell – executive director, Industry, Trade and Investment, NSW Department of Industry
  • Princess Ventura – director, Urbis
  • Prof John Nelson – chair, public transport, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney
  • Mukund Narayanamurti – CEO, Asialink Business
  • Tom Grove – managing director, Smove Sydney
  • Daniel Fah – managing director, CEO Strategic
  • Pip Harley – sustainability engagement manager, City of Sydney.

The final element of the summit was a facilitated collaborative dialogue with the audience to explore opportunities around Asian engagement from individual and collective perspectives.

The official higher education partner of the Future Asia Business Summit 2019 was the University of Sydney.

Program events on Wednesday 24 July included: