Victoria is set to host its fourth Digital Innovation Festival celebrating technology and Victoria’s culture of innovation.  

From 23 August to 6 September, the Digital Innovation Festival (DIF) will bring together visitors and digital experts to share ideas, network and learn new skills, with hundreds of events staged throughout the state.

Over the last few months, the DIF team has hosted a monthly 'mixer style' event at the Victorian Innovation Hub thanks to LaunchVic. The official launch was held on 6 August to showcase the inspiring events for this year’s program. Watch the video to see all the action.

So what is the DIF?

The Digital Innovation Festival is a 'grassroots' style of festival that encourages local organisations and individuals to host events throughout Victoria. It’s grown rapidly since it started in 2016, when it hosted just 70 events, to this year’s festival, with more than 15,000 people expected to attend over 400 events across the state. DIF will truly have something for everyone.

To help you navigate the DIF2019 Program you can search by topic digital inclusion, emerging tech, and future jobs or by audience groups: business and industry, entrepreneurs and startups as well as community and public sector. There are a lot of free or low-cost events to enable everyone to attend. Our event partners have worked tirelessly to bring an amazing lineup of speakers. If you do book a free ticket and can't go for whatever reason, please let the organisers know so they can offer the spot to someone else.

Regional innovation boom

Regional Victoria will host over 100 events thanks to the Victorian Government's Connecting Regional Communities Program.

Victorian agtech is booming and there is so much opportunity for regional growth, local business development and global trade. There are workshops exploring blockchain in viticulture and dairy and other ag-related events. Global Table: Feeding Our Future and Seeds & Chips are bringing thousands of innovators together from over the world to build a better food system for all. 

Regional development will need to embrace technology to create the jobs of the future. the Benalla Future Work Regional Summit. Binary Shift Gippslands leading tech conference is back for the 3rd year further east in Sale. A series of Digital Springboard events in Geelong and Shepparton that help people learn the digital skills they need to thrive in work and life.

Regional towns are embracing DIF with local festivals booming. Albury-Wodonga Innovation Summit & Expo (AWISE) is the feature of the 3rd annual North East Digital Innovation Festival (NEDIF) in Wodonga. This year the Swan Hill region is hosting its inaugural Mallee Digital Innovation Festival and

Bendigo is a hive of innovation these days and the 2nd Bendigo Invention and Innovation Festival or BIIF runs for the second week of the festival including the Symposium and the Festival of Failure. Whilst futureAUS has a weeklong program on South Coast, Torquay and Jan Juc where you can embrace a different way or working, on an art farm or in a tiny house.

Techs give back

The DIF helps foster new ideas, perspectives, capabilities and ways to solve problems. It also creates opportunities for women, Indigenous Australians and those in rural and regional areas to develop a strong and inclusive tech sector. Techs like to give back and they of if you purchase a ticket to the Digital AI Summit or the Social Innovation Summit via Humanitix the profits from all booking fees will be donated to literacy programs for young girls.

Another initiative sees 100% of proceeds from ticket sales for the Geelong Innovation Summit donated to regional tech charity Elf Squad Inc., to develop a much-needed bit of tech that will empower dozens of local charities and community groups to support more local families in need at Christmas than ever before. Now that's #tech4good. 

DIF Back to School is designed to encourage students, parents and teachers to engage with technology and innovation and to build awareness of the many future career opportunities. Over 30 tech professionals will volunteer their time to give back to their local community and help inspire the students of today to become the tech leaders of tomorrow. 

Celebrating homegrown innovators

Ingenuity is at the centre digital innovation and the creators of technology need to be recognised. Celebrating success is important if we are to keep moving forward and awards provide us examples of what we can achieve.

The flagship event is the national iAwards, hosted by the Australian Information and Industry Association (AIIA), recognising and rewarding excellence in Australian innovation, held on 29 August. The iAwards Pitchfest in the morning is a great showcase of the finalists.

The winners of the iAwards, the Be.Bendigo Invention and Innovation Awards, Women in Security Awards and Australia, the New Zealand Sports Technology Awards (ANZSTA) Spatial Excellence Awards Victoria and the Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur of the Year Award are a testament to our entrepreneurial spirit.

#DIFhub19 Victorian Innovation Hub

The DIF Hub program is back for one week this year running from Monday 2 to Friday 6 September 10.00am – 4.30pm. feature over 30 speakers across the 2nd week of the festival. Each day creates ‘mini-conference’ that people can join for one or all of the sessions and stay for the day and co-work between the sessions. Each session will be unique and will provide opportunities to connect and explore how technology is making a difference in Melbourne. But more on that next time!

Mon 2 Sep - Digital Economy Day 

Tue 3 Sep - AI Futures Day  

Wed 4 Sep - Connected World Day

Thu 5 Sep - Future of Work Day

Fri 6 Sep - Inclusion & Impact Day

For more information about #DIF2019 visit the Digital Innovation Festival website dif.vic.gov.au or contact me to talk about how you can make the DIF.