On November 19, a bumper sell-out crowd turned out for the AIIA’s second last Victorian CIO Forum for the year.

More than 160 guests filled the River Room at Crown Casino to capacity to hear guest speakers Mal Collins, Utility Sector Executive of Global Business Services at IBM, and Russell Yardley, Deputy Branch Chair of the AIIA, speak about the implementation of a smart grid trial in Australia and the opportunities it will open up for ICT vendors. Ajilon client, Glean McClean, GM of IT at Powercor, was also a guest speaker at the event, invited by Ajilon’s GM Victoria, Brett Findlay. Guests drew considerable value from Glen’s insights, gained from the 14 years he’s led the information technology program at CitiPower and Powercor since the companies were privatised in 1995.

Smart grid technology - which uses two-way digital communications to deliver electricity - will provide Australia with more reliable energy delivery, allow consumers to monitor their electricity supplies, sell power back into the grid and ideally cut costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

And in line with the Federal Government’s 2009 Budget announcement that it will provide up to $100 million in partnership with industry to develop commercial scale smart grid demonstrations, Australia looks set to follow in the footsteps of America’s Unified National Smart Grid, championed by Al Gore, and Europe’s SuperSmart Grid.

Brett said the event “was the best we’ve had yet,” with his sponsor address hitting a chord with guests and speakers alike.

“We know the Federal Government has already legislated that 20 per cent of the nation’s electricity must come from renewable sources by 2020 – in line with this move, we know it will be looking to partner with a whole host of vendors in order to implement Australia’s first smart grid demonstration study.

“In order for the project to succeed, the IT strategy and architecture approach the Government adopts will be critical. My team and I were able to use this event as a platform to promote the large-scale IT strategy and architecture work Ajilon’s undertaken for some of Australia’s largest energy and utility providers, such as Water Corp, ETSA and ElectraNet. The exposure and credibility we gained at this event was excellent and we identified some strong leads that could potentially win us some new business. We were all extremely pleased with the outcome.”