A student view of IAC 2021: 5 Days in Dubai (5)

Bram De Winter was in Dubai for the International Astronautical Congress 2021. In his last blog from this fivesome series, Bram takes a look into the future, with his newfound experience from IAC 2021.  

This is the last of 5 stories about IAC 2021 in Dubai from a student’s viewpoint. Bram is a graduate student geology and geochemistry at VU Amsterdam and Space Exploration Projectgroup Co-Lead & national contact for the Netherlands SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council). He is part of the NL Space Campus Student Working group. 

Day 5: Final blog IAC Dubai 2021

Hi Everyone,

In my last blog of my IAC 2021 experience, I want to look into the future, towards IAC 2022 in Paris and how myself and other young professionals can contribute in this event.

As mentioned in previous blogs, there are several key topics that stand out in IAC 2021: diversity, sustainability, and the role of young professionals. These key values for a successful space sector, will become even more vital in the upcoming years. Me and other young professionals, can benefit majorly from this development and we can let our opinions on tackling the major obstacles in the space sector be heard. It is really good to get new ideas in, that bring a stronger message forth about how we should approach future subjects. We are working on future solutions, which is more important for Young Professionals than members who are in the industry longer. 

These days it is very easy to get involved, since there are many organisations that you can enter and become active in. For instance, the organisation I am part of, the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), has been growing rapidly in the last year and recently hit its number of 16.000 members. On top of that, the IAC is now co-hosted by SGAC, and our Space Generation Congress is visited by many experts from the space sector. 

My advice would be, if you are a Young Professional who is reading this and actively wants to become a part of the space community, step outside of your education bubble. You can get active for space related issues by joining an organisation or student body, grow your experience and develop your career in the space industry. I sincerely hope to meet a lot of enthusiastic Dutch young professionals next year in Paris for IAC 2022.

Ad astra,

Bram de Winter