Distance proved no object as thousands of space experts gathered in Adelaide.

Almost 4,500 delegates, many from the Northern Hemisphere, attended the 68th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the largest ever business event in South Australia.

IAC was the first major event to be held in the newly expanded Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC), which boosted plenary capacity to 3,500 and the centre’s overall footprint to 20,000sqm

The IAC comprised a detailed program including eight plenary sessions, three highlight lectures, two breaking news sessions, and 200 technical sessions, which spread out over the entire building.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s presentation, ‘Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species’, drew massive crowds and generated extensive national and international media coverage

The Adelaide Convention Bureau in conjunction with the SIAA (Space Industry Association of Australia), began researching and pursuing the International Astronautical Congress in 2008.

A failed bid in 201 was turned around in 2014 with the announcement made in Toronto that Adelaide was to host the 2017 event, beating out Germany, Turkey and the United States.     

Jean-Yves Le Gall, IAF president, said: “The Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) has demonstrated to be an outstanding venue, having logistics perfectly sorted. They put their clients’ need at the uttermost importance. The city of Adelaide itself is a perfect location for congresses with easily reachable locations, beautiful sceneries, friendly people and fantastic food. This year’s IAC has been a tremendous success and the ACC has proven perfectly capable of facing all sorts of requests from the IAF Community.”