Reporting By: Hans van Leeuwen, Europe correspondent – Australian Financial Review
Date Published: 11 May 2022
Photo Credit: Hans van Leeuwen
At the sole restaurant in the huge Rotterdam conference centre where the World Hydrogen Summit took place this week, I ordered a flat white from a Dutch waitress.
“What is a flat white? I don’t even know. People keep asking for it,” she said exasperatedly.
There’s a simple explanation for its popularity.
As Hydrogen UK boss Clare Jackson observed, deadpan, on the summit’s main stage on Tuesday: “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but there are quite a lot of Australians knocking around here this week.”
In the exhibition hall, the Australian government hired one of the largest stands – triple the size of that rented by the likes of Canada, Chile, the UK or South Korea – and brought a flotilla of two dozen companies to tout their wares. Executives from listed companies such as Woodside, Origin Energy, Global Energy Ventures, Hazer and Fortescue, alongside private tech players like Star Scientific
and Hysata rubbed shoulders with trade promotion officials from Austrade and no less than five state governments.
