CeCC Director Participating in Victoria’s Super Trade Mission in China

19 September 2012

The Director for the Centre for eCommerce and Communications (CeCC) at the University of Ballarat, Dr Helen Thompson, has been selected to attend the Super Trade Mission in China this month, from 17 – 21 September 2012.

The Super Trade Mission to China is being lead by The Victorian Premier, The Hon Ted Baillieu MLA, and includes over 600 delegates representing businesses and industries of strategic importance to both Victoria and China, including representatives from the education and ICT sectors. This is the largest Trade Mission to leave Australia for China, and includes a comprehensive itinerary of group and individual networking events and site visits in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.

China represents an important trade partner to Victoria, and strong ties have long been established between the education and ICT sectors in both countries.

Showcasing the University of Ballarat and the ICT capabilities of UB Technology Park will be high on Helen’s agenda, during this visit. She will also explore research and innovation opportunities with Chinese researchers in areas of knowledge management, eResearch, spatial mapping and data visualisation. Dr Thompson commented that the mission provides “a valuable opportunity for the University of Ballarat to build its research collaborations and strengthen the knowledge exchange between Australia and China science and research collaborations leading to joint research activities”.

Another important focus for the mission by the University of Ballarat delegate will be to promote the unique research and ICT capabilities of CeCC, including the use of single-source publishing technologies to modernise publishing workflows, and the current Visualising Victoria’s Groundwater project. This project highlights the application of ICT within the environmental sciences by using current data sources and networking services to map Victoria’s groundwater data, and to present the information via a central, and up-to-date data online gateway (see: http://www.vvg.org.au/).

Dr Thompson anticipates much interest and will be active in exploring the potential for new collaborations with Chinese researchers and ICT experts.

Photo: Dr Helen Thompson (front row, third from left) with Victorian ICT delegates attending a site visit to Huawei China during the Super Trade Mission, September 2012 (Photo compliments of Huawei).

Post Script: Reflections on the Super Trade Mission to China

Since returning from the Super Trade Mission, Dr Thompson has commented on the value of participating in the event: 'The mission was an important and highly visible event, where Victorian delegates were provided with diverse opportunities to share insights about their capabilities and ICT innovations with colleagues in China. It was also a valuable opportunity for the University of Ballarat, and more broadly, for the ICT sector in Victoria to foster research and business collaborations and to strengthen the knowledge exchange between the two countries'.

Helen looks forward to participating in future missions and will encourage other researchers and businesses to take up the opportunity and to experience first-hand the enormous potential for building research and business collaborations by participating in trade missions.

Another highlight of the visit to China was meeting a University of Ballarat graduate during a business matching event for delegates. Xu Ping, an MBA graduate from UB is now the executive director of a Shanghai Software company. The latest UB Alumni Newsletter profiles the meeting between Xu Ping and Helen Thompson, during the trade mission.

For further information about CeCC or its involvement in the Super Trade Mission to China, please contact Dr Helen Thompson, Email: h.thompson@ballarat.edu.au