Vivid Sydney has enjoyed its largest-ever opening weekend, attracting more than 453,000 visitors to experience Australia's largest event in 2023.

Festival-goers from Sydney, as well as regional New South Wales (NSW), interstate and international markets, turned out for the festival's first weekend to experience some of the 300+ events and activations that make up the 2023 program. The opening weekend attendance represents a 4 per cent increase from Vivid Sydney's previous highest opening weekend in 2022.

Minister for Jobs and Tourism John Graham said the 2023 program was about bringing people together while providing economic benefits to Sydney and NSW businesses.

"It was great to see tens of thousands of families out enjoying the Vivid Light Walk and it was encouraging to see the city's business district so vibrant and businesses benefiting from the record turnout.

"This festival is about community, bringing Sydneysiders and visitors from around the state, the country and the world together to celebrate our creative industries, and experience something new from world-class activations and events to diverse food culture and hospitality.

"Vivid Sydney 2023 is off to a flying start but there is still plenty of time to get out and take part in this unique Sydney celebration. I encourage those who are thinking about visiting the festival to plan their visit to the city and enjoy the festival in person."

The longest-ever Vivid Sydney Light Walk, festival-first experiences including Lightscape and Dark Spectrum, as well as Vivid Food, were all among the most visited festival offerings on the opening weekend. Restaurants, cafes and bars benefited from over 120,000 diners (up 5 per cent on opening weekend in 2022). Overall, 85 per cent of attendees purchased food and beverages during the festival's opening weekend.

Vivid Sydney 2023 started with First Light, a moving Welcome to Country, followed by a celebration of First Nations peoples and culture featuring Yothu Yindi performing the iconic song Treaty.

Then, at 6 p.m. on Friday 26 May (AEST), the bright and dazzling lights of Vivid Sydney 2023 were turned on as fireworks, searchlights and drones lit up the sky around Circular Quay and the sails of the Sydney Opera House were illuminated with the vibrant works of the late John Olsen AO OBE animated by creative technologists Curiious for Life Enlivened (2023).

On Sunday 28 May (AEST), more than 1,000 drones took to the night sky in the first of six scheduled drone shows titled "Written in the Stars." Tens of thousands of Sydneysiders and visitors were amazed by the incredible images and animations from the largest drone show in the Southern Hemisphere which provides an awe-inspiring journey through the natural world above us.

"Written in the Stars" will be staged throughout the festival on Sunday and Wednesday nights, and on Monday 12 June, from 9:10 p.m. (subject to weather conditions), and is set to an accompanying audio track available on Cinewav.

Vivid Sydney Festival Director Gill Minervini said the expanded program and new, innovative events were key to engaging audiences in 2023.

"Vivid Sydney is the ultimate celebration of creative industries and our spectacular city.

"This year's program raises the bar and reimagines the types of activations we offer - festival firsts, world premieres and never-before-activated spaces, and the brand-new pillar, Vivid Food.

"The programming is so diverse - there really is something for everyone. We are thrilled that so many have been part of our first festival weekend - the feedback and response have been incredible. There is still so much more to come!"

Vivid Sydney is the largest festival in Australia and runs nightly from 6 p.m. until Saturday 17 June. In 2022, the festival welcomed 2.58 million visitors and injected $119 million into the NSW economy.

The first diagnostic test for long COVID is now available to patients across Australia. The test can help physicians diagnose long COVID by differentiating it from other diseases with similar symptoms, and to design personalized treatment approaches.

Persistent COVID, or long COVID, is a multiorgan symptomatic complex with symptoms persisting over time. It affects patients who have suffered from acute COVID-19 infection. It is estimated by the US Centers for Disease Control that about 20% - 30% of patients who have suffered from COVID-19 may develop long COVID.

The typical symptoms of long COVID, such as fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, insomnia, and a wide range of cardiovascular issues, are certainly not unique to one condition. A diagnostic test to identify patients with long COVID, using objective measures of immune biomarkers, is an essential first step for treatment.

The simple blood-based test was developed by diagnostic testing company IGeneX using IncellDx’s incellKINE assay. incellKINE is a machine learning-based technology that is able to assess the presence of a distinctive immunologic profile characterized by patterns of cytokine and chemokine biomarkers found to be unique to long COVID patients, as reported in Frontiers in Immunology. The test provides 97% sensitivity. It received CE-IVD marking in Europe in 2022, which indicates that it fulfills the requirements of relevant European product directives and meets all the requirements of the relevant recognized European harmonized performance and safety standards.

IncellDx is a precision medicine company advancing novel diagnostics and prognostics to better understand and treat infectious disease and cancer. The company’s innovative technology platform enables simultaneous cell classification and single cell analysis of proteomic and genomic biomarkers. The company launched the Chronic COVID Treatment Center to apply precision medicine approaches to evaluate, characterize and more effectively address chronic COVID.

Meyer Burger enters Australian market and exhibits at Smart Energy Expo in Sydney.

Meyer Burger Technology AG is now offering its premium solar panels in Australia, a significant and growing market. The company will present its product portfolio “Made in Germany, designed in Switzerland” at the country’s largest solar trade show, the Smart Energy Conference and Exhibition from May 3 to 5 in Sydney.

BayWa r.e. will be Meyer Burger’s first distributor in Australia. “BayWa is well known in the Australian market as a supplier of German-made solar panels, and we believe Meyer Burger will fill an important gap in the Australian market,” said Durmus Yildiz, managing director of BayWa r.e. Solar Systems in Australia. “For us it is particularly important that Meyer Burger is adhering to sustainable manufacturing and sourcing practices, aiming to continuously reduce the carbon footprint of its high-performance modules.”

The products available in Australia are Meyer Burger White, Meyer Burger Black and Meyer Burger Glass, all of which contain highly efficient heterojunction solar cells produced in the company’s own production facilities in Germany’s “Solar Valley”. Compared to conventional technologies, the solar panels feature higher energy yields over their expected lifetime of more than 30 years.

“The Australian solar market, with its high demand for sustainable products manufactured to high social and ethical standards, offers an excellent opportunity for Meyer Burger,” says Brendan Kay, Head of Sales of Meyer Burger in Australia. “With our solar panels, the customer can harvest more solar energy from the rooftop – even at very high temperatures. This advantage is even larger with the glass-glass product, which, when installed appropriately, converts sun into electricity even on the back side with a bifacial efficiency of over 90 percent.”

Meyer Burger’s Australian sales team will give a presentation at the trade show on May 4 at 9:30 a.m., detailing the product portfolio and patent-protected heterojunction/SmartWire technology and providing insights into the company.

Meyer Burger has started production of high-performance solar cells and solar modules in 2021. Its proprietary heterojunction/SmartWire technology enables the company to set new industry standards in terms of energy yield. With solar cells and modules developed in Switzerland and manufactured in Germany according to high sustainability standards, Meyer Burger aims to become a leading European photovoltaic company. The company currently employs around 1200 people at research facilities in Switzerland, development and manufacturing sites in Germany and sales offices in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia.

Meyer Burger was founded in 1953 in Switzerland. As a provider of production systems, the company has shaped the development of the global photovoltaic industry along the entire value chain in recent decades and has set essential industry standards. A large part of the solar modules produced worldwide today are based on technologies developed by Meyer Burger.

DHL Supply Chain, the world's leading contract logistics provider, is extending its strategic partnership with Nestlé Nespresso S.A, the company announced today. DHL will now provide logistics and fulfilment services in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. This builds on the existing partnerships in Italy, Brazil, Malaysia, Taiwan, UK and Ireland, with some dating back to 2014.

"We're so pleased to be extending our relationship to cover Australia for the first time," said Steve Thompsett, CEO of DHL Supply Chain Australia & New Zealand. "This marks the beginning of a great partnership here in Australia and expands on the tremendous global partnership. The two facilities here will be a mix of manual and automation operations, featuring a pick-to-light system."

Projected to handle over 1 million orders in year one, the Australian operation will be based in omnichannel facilities in Brisbane and Sydney.

In all markets, DHL Supply Chain manage key aspects of the supply chain, including storage, warehousing, and picking and packing of individual orders.

"We're thrilled to partner with DHL Supply Chain with the opening of our new Sydney site to enable faster and more efficient order preparation, improving the delivery experience for our customers," said Jean-Marc Dragoli, Managing Director, Nespresso Oceania. "Our new Brisbane site is also another important step for Nespresso in reducing our emissions locally as it minimizes the need for airfreight from Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane."

The flexibility and capacity to scale up the operation is a key driver for Nespresso's decision to partner with DHL Supply Chain in Australia. To meet the brand's growth in a key market, the Brisbane warehouse was strategically chosen to bring speed-to-market efficiencies and contribute to the brand's sustainability goals. The new Queensland location reduces the carbon footprint by shipping directly from the Brisbane port to the distribution centre nearby.

DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfilment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 380,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, engineering, manufacturing & energy, auto-mobility and retail, DHL is decisively positioned as "The logistics company for the world".

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 81 billion euros in 2021. With sustainable business practices and a commitment to society and the environment, the Group makes a positive contribution to the world. Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to achieve net-zero emissions logistics by 2050.