as part of the promotional activities in favor of aerospace, it is planned to participate with a collective of companies in SpaceCom (Space Commerce Conference and Exposition) to be held in Houston at the George Brown Convention Centre from November 27-28, 2018.
The fair has been chosen as the venue to promote Italian aerospace technology in the United States, in the context of Innovation Days, which are days organized in various U.S. cities to promote Italian technological innovation in various sectors. The Italian Space Agency and AIAD are collaborating in the initiative. For this edition of Spacecom, Italy is a partner country thanks to an agreement between ICE-Agenzia and the NTP organizers.
This agreement allows an expansion of the Italian presence through the organization of an exhibition space with stations for Italian SMEs (next to NASA's) and the inclusion in the conference program of institutional and corporate speeches in the main sessions and workshops for speed presentations by exhibiting companies.
SpaceCom is the top review of the aerospace sector promoted by the main players in the field of design and utilization (NASA), production and industrial and commercial collaboration (Boeing) and associationism (GHP Greater Houston Partnership, the local Confindustria), an interesting showcase for the presentation of our most advanced technologies and software systems to all the American and other leading countries' operators. Now in its fourth year, the event is one of the most important events in the industry, intended to serve the entire supply chain of the advanced technology market, from commercial space exploration to advanced mechanics, from high technology and robotics to energy. In 2017, more than 2,000 delegates attended during the three-day event.
ICE-Agency Houston, in collaboration with ASI and AIAD has organized an Italian pavilion this year that will present a selection of 15 companies, leaders in the field. This will be an important opportunity to introduce the American market to a wide range of advanced technologies, products and services, capable of meeting the needs, even the most complex ones, of potential customers.
The program of the initiative includes:
- a keynote speech by the Italian Space Agency (Eng. Mauro Piermaria, Head of Equities & Governance Affairs), scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 27 with the following title: "Space Economy: Creating Opportunities and Shaping the Future."
- a panel, scheduled, Wednesday, Nov. 28 with the following title: "The Role of Italy in the Global Space Economy: Technology, Applications and Infrastructure." The panel, moderated by Dave Anilkumar (Head of Innovation and Transfer of Technologies Unit, Italian Space Agency), will feature representatives from Altec Spa, Thales Alenia Space , E-Geos , Lombardia Aerospace Cluster, Piemonte Aerospace, Campania Aerospace Cluster
- 2 workshops, scheduled for Tuesday, November 27, for Italian companies present inside the pavilion: Italian Precision manufacturing for the space economy, Italian Technology solutions for the space economy.

At the end of the event, participating companies will, in addition, have the opportunity to visit NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
In 2017, the turnover of manufacturing companies operating in the United States in the aerospace sector reached US$595 billion. The civil aviation sector, with USD 344 billion in sales, accounted for the largest portion, followed by defense (USD 188 billion) and space (USD 56 billion).
Imports of U.S. aerospace products from Italy are on the rise: they stood at USD 2.1 billion in 2017; it was USD 1.7 billion in 2015 and USD 1.8 billion in 2016.
Italy ranks eighth among U.S. supplier countries of aerospace products and technology; in first place is France, with more than USD 12 billion (2017 data), followed by Canada (USD 9 billion) and Japan (USD 7 billion). This positive trend is also confirmed in the first 9 months of 2018, with an increase in imports from Italy by 58.6 percent to USD 1.8 bn.

For more information on the initiative please contact machinesitalia [at] ice.it (subject: Machines Italia e-newsletter)