Enlit Australia 2017: Exciting Highlights and New Learnings!
Myself and Aymeric (PQ’s CEO) attended Enlit Australia at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on 16-17 March; our first face-to-face event in a very long time! For those who haven’t heard of Enlit Australia, it’s a conference and exhibition which brings together the best thought leaders, innovators and disruptors in the energy industry together all in one place!
We work with a host of energy clients here at ProQuest so Enlit Australia was the perfect opportunity to connect with these and our partner Salesforce, plus get all clued up on the energy industry which is evolving more than ever at the moment! We also got to meet up with some of our Melbourne team too!
The two days was a mix of conference sessions and networking with sessions providing insights on a huge range of topics including; Managing the Energy Transition, Energy Mix and Decentralisation, the Role of Hydrogen in the Energy Transition, The Current Energy Investment Climate, Trends in Large Scale Solar, Trends in Electricity Retailing, and our particular favourite ‘Digital Transformation’.
Our partner Salesforce kicked off day one with their great session ‘Customers at the heart of the Energy Transition’. The session really highlighted the importance of customer experience in the energy industry which was a key theme across the two days.
It was clear to see from the sessions that Australia is definitely pushing boundaries and leading the way in the path to net zero, which is really exciting to see!
Other key takeaways from Enlit Australia (amongst many!) I took away from the 2 day conference were:
- How decarbonisation is one of the biggest challenges the energy industry is facing right now
- There is bigger expectation from the customer than ever before and innovation is required cross the whole value chain to keep up with this demand
- Customer engagement has taken over price and product as one of the key industry drivers. The industry needs to engage with customers more than ever and hear from them directly what they want instead of assuming (setting up a dedicated Customer Advisory Board is becoming a common trait amongst retailers!)
Also, did you know that France plans to forbid petrol/diesel vehicles by 2040? Some countries are really stepping up when it comes to leading the way to net zero!
It was great to hundreds of attendees on the show floor and see events back in action again! The exhibition floor saw a mixture of utility, retail and tech companies including; Utilibill, Databricks, General Electric, Hatch, IFS, Salesforce, SAP + qualtrics, Smart Energy Water and TransGrid.
Networking drinks took place on the show floor on the Wednesday evening. It was great to end the day with a glass of wine and connect with so many other attendees. I absolutely loved being at a face-to-face event again, it certainly highlighted how meeting people in person cannot be beaten.
The energy industry is finally undertaking a long overdue transformation and we’re very excited about it! Thanks for a great event Enlit Australia.
Want to talk about our experience and learnings? Message us!
