RAAF in Canberra to unite world air power

2018 Air Power Conference

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) turned to collaboration and innovation last month at the 2018 Air Power Conference, hosted at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. The biennial event is a globally respected forum led by top international and Australian experts, and this year the theme was ‘Air Power in a Disruptive World’.

Over 1300 delegates from national and international Air Forces and other military services, government, defence, academia and think tanks descended upon Canberra from 20 – 21 March for the event. The aim was to collaboratively explore how air forces can shape and exploit strategy, tactics and technology within joint military, national security and coalition operations in the emergent security environment.

Staging Connections were the chosen audio visual and theming providers with a specific brief to create a unique statement piece that would work in with the “world” and digital theme of the conference. A dominating 13m wide projection screen brought the conference program to life, with a 3m diameter globe suspended dramatically from the ceiling delivering on the global theme.

The first day of the largest ever Air Power conference was opened by Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies, AO CSC; Minister for Defence, Senator the Honourable Marise Payne; and Chairman, Middle East Institute National University of Singapore, Mr Bilahari Kausikan. The two-day event was coupled with an exclusive cocktail function for members of the delegations to connect and share ideas.

The Staging Connections team designed creative multimedia projections to bring to life each of the presentations, discussing topics such as: AI, cyber, simulation; geo-political Interests and security policy; space and uninhabited aerial systems; and, people, machines and the military in the digital age.

The conference content was also live-streamed to the Convention Centre theatre foyer and the VIP area, enabling networking opportunities and session breaks to come complement the theme. Four gobos projected ‘flying’ aircrafts onto the ground and either side of the stage.

Sandra Finney, Corporate Manager at Department of Defence of Australia, commented on the success of the event.

“Air Power is strongly integrated into the Australian government’s short-term and long-term joint military strategy. This event is becoming more integral to developing Australia’s core international and domestic partnerships and plays host to key VIPs in the field.

We are thrilled with the level of professionalism and “military-level” organisation the Staging team delivered for our event – our distinguished guests were full of positive feedback on their experience.”

Stuart Buchanan, General Manager ACT, Staging Connections, commented on the work the Staging team delivered.

“As this event is biennial, we get a real opportunity to change things up and create a point of difference for each iteration. We built on the 2016 event with some new and interesting technology aspects which were greatly appreciated by the tech-savvy delegation.”

This was the fifth time Staging Connections has partnered with the Royal Australian Air Force for this event, providing audio visual and theming solutions.