About 100 industry and government officials will touch down at the Edmonton International Airport this month for a conference linked to the Villeneuve airshow.
The inaugural VilleAero Aerospace and Logistics Conference kicks off at the Edmonton International Airport this Feb. 28. The three-day event is part of the Alberta International Airshow scheduled to happen this summer.
Airshow president Richard Skermer said this conference was originally supposed to happen prior to last year’s airshow, but organizers couldn’t get it off the ground in time because of delays caused by the 2023 provincial election. They moved the conference to February 2024 to keep it in the same fiscal year.
Skermer has for many years spoken about pairing the airshow with a conference to draw investment to the Villeneuve region, similar to how the Calgary Stampede draws dollars to southern Alberta.
“The (Boeing) 737 takes about 1,300 manufacturers to put together,” he said, and those companies all need supply chains to operate.
“Our area is perfectly suited for (that) as the gateway to the North.”
Skermer said this year’s conference is aimed at investors and executives, not pilots and plane fans, and will feature talks on aircraft manufacture, satellites, and green energy. He pitched the conference as a great chance for St. Albert to promote itself as a place for shipping and logistics companies.
Yuliia Marcinkoski of the TYPE5-Venture Capital will host a panel discussion on Alberta and the new space economy at the conference.
Space technology used to be all about government investment, but that’s changed in recent years as private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have started pouring big bucks into it, Marcinkoski said. The investment group Morgan Stanley predicts the global space economy will grow to about $1 trillion from its current $350 billion by 2040.
“Alberta has been doing incredible research and contributions to Canadian and international space science, geomatics, communications, and satellite systems,” Marcinkoski said, with the University of Calgary alone contributing to about 20 recent space missions.
Marcinkoski said her panel will highlight Edmonton-area companies such as Wyvern Inc. (the founder of which helped build Alberta’s first satellite) who are making waves in the space industry, and how this region’s strengths in 3D printing and satellite imaging could contribute to space technology.
The conference will also feature a talk by Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally on hydrogen and transportation, Cole Rosentreter of Pegasus on drones and wildfire management, and a keynote address by Boeing Canada operations president Charles Sullivan.
Skermer said he hopes to draw about 100 guests to this event, which he considers a dry run for a much bigger conference that will be held in the leadup to this summer’s airshow. He hopes regional leaders will support both events.
“It’s time we show as a region that we can come together.”
Tickets to the conference start at around $670. Visit villeaero.com/conference for details.
