Time to secure your tickets for the Hunter Innovation Festival
The 2025 Hunter Innovation Festival will bring together experts from clean energy, storage, manufacturing and new industries for a series of panel discussions that explore how the state can cut carbon, scale new industries and shape future jobs.
The Hunter Innovation Festival is back on 25 September 2025, for its 23rd year.
Organisers say the festival is the single annual event where the region’s innovators gather to connect, debate and plan the Hunter’s future. This year’s program puts a sharp focus on renewable energy, carbon reduction and new industries, with sessions ranging from energy storage to advanced manufacturing and aerospace capability.
The future of energy storage
One of the headline sessions, The Future is Storage, will examine how Australia can expand energy storage to support a grid powered almost entirely by renewables. Experts will discuss how the Hunter’s infrastructure and resources could make it a national leader in this field.
Panellists include Clare Larkin-Sykes, Co-Lead of New.E – the Hunter New Energy Cluster and Managing Director of Forelight Advisory. She will be joined by Jeff Nitsch of Acciona Energia, Sam Mella of Beyond Zero Emissions, Erich Kisi from MGA Thermal, and Professor Thomas Nann from Allegro Energy.
The panel is set to explore both the technology pathways and the economic opportunities, with a particular eye on how the Hunter can position itself in the national transition.
Advanced manufacturing on the agenda
Another session, Creating a Future Made in Australia Today, will look at advanced manufacturing and its role in reshaping industries and supply chains. The panel brings together speakers from companies already exporting their products and technologies.
Guests include Justin Bain, CEO of 3ME Technology, which focuses on electrification in off-highway vehicles; Brett Thomas, Director and COO of The Melt, which supports hardware startups and invests through Melt Ventures; Frere Byrne, CEO of PlasmaLeap Technologies, developing zero-emissions reactors for heavy industries; Alex Lautenschlager from Pitcrew AI, working on inspection systems for mining; and Jess Hodge from Resourceful Living, known for recycling plastic into new building materials.
The discussion will centre on how local innovation is turning into real-world production and export, and how the Hunter can play a role in Australia’s push for advanced manufacturing.
Low-carbon concrete hackathon
Construction materials will also be in focus, with a hackathon titled Accelerating Low-Carbon Concrete Adoption. Participants from across building, design and innovation sectors will be asked to re-think how concrete can be made cleaner, cheaper and easier to use.
Guided by design leaders and construction experts, the session aims to generate practical solutions that could change the way the region builds. It’s a hands-on addition to the festival that sits alongside the more traditional panel discussions.
Building aerospace capability
Aerospace and defence will also feature, in a panel that explores the development of sovereign technology and capability within Australia. Speakers include Linc Horton of Newcastle Airport, Mai Le from Investment NSW, Chris Shaw of Advanced Navigation, Adam Gilmour of Gilmour Space Technologies, and John Fry of Kongsberg Defence Australia.
The session will cover opportunities for the Hunter in aerospace technology, space, and advanced navigation, showing how these industries are being developed locally as well as nationally.
One day to connect
The festival program spans months of lead-in sessions, but the main day remains 25 September, when the full range of speakers, panels and discussions come together.
With experts spanning clean technology, heavy industry, resources and manufacturing, the festival is designed to connect established sectors with the emerging industries that will shape the Hunter’s low-carbon future.
Find more information about the festival programme here.
