Speeches 

I would also like to acknowledge the extraordinary level of sponsorship that has helped fund this conference, nearly $180,000 in cash and $500,000 in-kind support. I would like to thank all sponsors for their contributions. Without this sponsorship, it would not have been possible to hold such an important meeting in New Zealand.

This conference will give the New Zealand research community, and telecommunications industry, a chance to showcase their contribution to research and innovation. And conversely, will give you, our Asian Pacific partners, a chance to do the same.

First APAN conference in New Zealand

This conference marks many firsts for New Zealand and a first for me too - this is the first time I have addressed a meeting over KAREN, the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network. I have been looking forward to this moment.

KAREN is the result of a lot of hard work by numerous people and organisations. It has been running for 19 months now and we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve with advanced networking.

This is also the first APAN conference to be held in New Zealand, probably not a surprise given we've only had an advanced network for a short time. But what might be a surprise is that New Zealand is ready to hold this conference so shortly after KAREN has gone online. This is due to the work of Donald and his team at REANNZ. Not content with just getting the network up and running, they have undertaken the huge amount of work needed to run an international conference of this scale. I congratulate them for their effort.

Environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability is an important driver of advanced networking. Collaboration using advanced networking will reduce our business travel, and therefore, our carbon emissions. I'm talking to you from an office across the road from my office at Parliament, preventing 85.7kg of carbon dioxide emissions entering the atmosphere and it's good to hear that this conference aims to be carbon neutral.

As well as reducing travel, advanced networking can help us manage our environment better and I hear that the conference will cover topics such as developing better access to environmental data.

Advanced networks, like KAREN, give us new ways of addressing natural resource issues. As we collect more and more data from the environment we need ways of collating, storing and sharing it to get the most out of it. KAREN makes this possible in New Zealand.

High speed computing will allow us to integrate local climate models with global models. It will allow us to feed the results from atmospheric modelling into ground water models, and combine that with land use data. The result will be complete models so that we can make accurate predictions of the effects of climate change. This is vital for us in adapting to the challenges of climate change.

I am pleased to hear that the conference will cover energy conversation with the use of new technology. Networks and computing infrastructure are becoming increasingly significant users of power and this trend will continue as we place more emphasis on communication through new technologies.

Leading Research

But we need advanced networks for more than environmental sustainability, otherwise you wouldn't have come all the way to Queenstown. Advanced networking is about staying at the leading-edge of research and we do this by collaborating across the globe.

Already advanced networking is making a huge difference to research in New Zealand. New Zealand has long been a world leader in agricultural science. Advanced networking will help us maintain our leading-edge. Later in the conference, scientists from AgResearch will tell you about the Sheep Genomics Consortium, where advanced networking makes it possible for six sites across Australia, New Zealand and the United States to collaborate on high throughput sequencing.

It probably comes as no surprise to you that New Zealand is a leader in sheep genomics and earthquake science. But what is not well-known is that New Zealand is also a leader in using electronic distance collaboration, called ‘teleporting' between medical institutions. You will learn more about this technology this week. It opens a new world of medical opportunity.

At the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, scientists are collaborating with international colleagues as part of the Physiome Project. This is a global effort to understand physiology, using computer modelling. The project itself can integrate models of biological organisation, from genes to whole organisms; these models can also be used for teaching physiology. Auckland Bioengineering Institute researchers use advanced networking to share and analyse data on a real-time basis.

International Linkages

This conference is about how we can build our capability in the region. With advanced technology we can collaborate and work across our region seamlessly and in real-time.

I've mentioned the sheep genomics programme and how Peter Hunter and his Team in Auckland are making a big impact on the Human Physiome project using advanced networking. The Auckland University of Technology can collaborate with Australia in Radio Astronomy. We share our earthquake seismic data across the globe. We are to become part of Planet Lab - working on new technologies for distributed processing. We are part of PulseNet, an international microbiological laboratory network. The list goes on.

Broadband infrastructure

I was at a board meeting two weeks ago and they told me that only the previous evening the first connection had been made to this conference venue. Fibre would not be passing through Queenstown at all without advanced networking; it is driving new broadband infrastructure in New Zealand. Other groups will also be able to connect to the fibre and the improved broadband access will boost our economy.

Advanced networking also allows for better use of expensive research infrastructure, a significant problem for a small country like New Zealand. The University of Canterbury's Blue Gene super computer, which had its own symposium here yesterday, could only be bought because two other KAREN members committed to using it over the network.

Closing

This conference is a great opportunity for our countries to share ideas, networking innovations and discuss the future of sustainable networking in the 21st century. My hope is that you secure many contacts at this conference.

Again, welcome to New Zealand and to APAN26. I hope that while you're here, you will make the most of what Queenstown has to offer.

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