If you’re still tracking downtime on a whiteboard, you’re not falling behind, you’re already there. That’s the blunt message from John Broadbent, a veteran of Australia’s manufacturing sector with nearly five decades on the floor and in the boardroom.
For the last 25 years, Broadbent’s been helping manufacturers move beyond buzzwords and toward practical, profitable change.
At this year’s Industrial Transformation Australia (22–24 July, Sydney Olympic Park), Broadbent opens the Innovation Stage on Day 3 (11:10 AM – 11:35 AM) with a keynote that cuts through the noise. Titled The Future of Manufacturing: Operate to Grow, his talk doesn’t romanticise digital transformation it demystifies it. He’ll unpack what’s actually working, where the money goes to waste, and how to build capability without blowing the budget.
That kind of pragmatic focus defines the tone for the entire event. Across three days, the ITA Innovation Stage features more than 25 sessions from global and local leaders, each delivering straight-talking insights to help manufacturers close the gap between ambition and implementation.
Another standout is Professor Henrik von Scheel, internationally recognised as the originator of the Industry 4.0 concept. He’ll deliver two separate keynote sessions across the program:
- Tuesday 22 July (10:30 AM – 11:30 AM) on the ITA Innovation Stage, with Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade of Advanced Manufacturing. This headline session explores where Australia sits in the global evolution of Industry 4.0 and what strategic moves are required to stay in the game.
- Wednesday 23 July (10:30 AM – 11:00 AM) as part of the APPMA Processing & Packaging Program, with a tailored look at Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade in Processing and Packaging, highlighting technology and structural shifts already reshaping the supply chain.
Whether you’re in advanced manufacturing or packaging, von Scheel offers a rare dual perspective on the global strategies being deployed right now, and the risk of falling behind if we wait for a perfect plan.
You’ll also hear from Michael Lee, Group Manager of Science & Innovation at Meat & Livestock Australia, who on Tuesday 22 July (12:00 PM – 12:20 PM) presents The Modern Meat Factory: A Snapshot of How Tech is Unlocking Data. His session explores how the red meat sector is digitising operations to increase traceability and capture greater export value across the supply chain.
Later that afternoon, Elton Brown, Senior Consultant at DMS, reveals findings from a year-long benchmarking project on AI readiness in his session Tomorrow’s Supply Chain, Today: The AI Readiness Blueprint (3:50 PM – 4:10 PM). His data-led insights show where Australian manufacturers are ahead, where they’re falling short, and what steps they can take to close the gap.
Beyond those highlights, the agenda dives into the real mechanics of transformation: net-zero manufacturing, circular design, cybersecurity, 5G infrastructure, and unified namespace strategies, all designed to equip teams with takeaways they can act on now, not next year.
The Innovation Stage anchors a much larger experience. Industrial Transformation Australia is Co-located with CeMAT Australia (automation, robotics, intralogistics) and the Processing & Packaging Pavilion powered by APPMA, this is Australia’s only three-in-one event built for the entire industrial ecosystem.
More than 200 exhibitors will showcase working solutions on the show floor. From smart conveyors and pallet racking to intelligent robotics and autonomous mobile systems, the event includes major names like KNAPP, Swisslog, Dematic, Visy, Combilift, and Libiao Robotics. But the real strength lies in the diversity of scale, from local startups to global integrators, there’s something to trial, test, or take home for every business and budget.
The full agenda is now live. Build your plan, brief your team, and register today.
www.industrialtransformation.com.au