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The eighth Digital Innovation Futures (DIF) Festival wrapped up on 6 September 2023, marking an exciting two weeks dedicated to Victoria’s vibrant digital innovation scene.

Over the course of a fortnight, the festival featured more than 300 events in person and online across Victoria. This included over 140 events across Melbourne and more than 40 in regional Victoria. These events were hosted at multiple venues, including the DIF Festival Hubs: Cremorne Digital Hub , Melbourne Connect and the ACS , which served as focal points for festival activity.

Above: The spiral staircase and light sculpture at Melbourne Connect, a DIF2023 Festival Hub.

The DIF2023 Festival kicked off with the AISA Cyber Debate. The discussion focused on AI's impact on cyber security, which is timely, as a recent AIIA survey revealed that 36% of Australian businesses have integrated AI within their practices, up from 27% last year.

Above: Karen Cohen, the founder of Women in Emerging Tech, speaking at the ‘Re-imagining the Future’ conference.

Down at the DIF Hub at the ACS, the team from Women in Emerging Tech held their 2-day conference, ‘Re-imagining the Future’. The conference delved into themes including AI, gaming, and the intersection of arts – both digital and physical.

Intersekt, the largest fintech event in Australia returned to Melbourne as a flagship DIF Festival event, with enthusiastic participation from across the fintech ecosystem. Meanwhile, in Bendigo, the Digital Summit at The Capital celebrated innovative digital achievements in the Loddon Mallee region.

Above: the panellists and presenter at The Churchill Club Top Tech Trends Debate; David Collins, Rupert Walsh, Dr Nataliya Ilyushina, Nigel Dalton, Jane Bunn and Gretchen Scott.

Adding to the festival's rich lineup, the Churchill Club delivered another engaging Top Tech Trends Debate. Panellists pitched their arguments for the world-changing power of 3D printed body parts, hyper-personalised weather forecasts and the merger of biotech and AI in implantable devices. The audience voted for the implantable devices as the next big tech innovation!

The domain of medtech was also in focus. The Committee for Melbourne’s MedTech: Melbourne’s Growing Sector event enlightened the audience about recent advancements in AI-driven healthcare technology and its profound implications for patient care.

On the startup front, the Startup Network organised a special DIF-edition Founder Connect session as one of the festival’s key closing events. It included a provocative debate that addressed whether technology could solve all the world’s problems.

The festival's curtain call was the Pearcey Oration and presentation of the Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award. This year's accolade was awarded to Didier Elzinga of Culture Amp, a tech trailblazer who is one of Australia’s biggest tech success stories; the Melbourne-based startup is now a global brand with over 6,500 customers in 40 countries.

Above: the winner of the Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year award, Didier Elzinga, speaking at the Pearcey Oration.

For those seeking online connection and education, this year’s festival also introduced DIF Live , which offered live-stream sessions throughout the festival on diverse topics, ranging from discovering unexplored markets, the benefits of optimism, angel investing and the importance of sleep health on workplace productivity. Missed a session? You can catch up on demand anytime at dif.vic.gov.au/ diflive

To help shape the future of the festival, the DIF community is encouraged to provide feedback via our survey at DIF2023 Feedback Loop .

In the meantime, you can still stay up to date with the latest digital and tech innovation events across Victoria via the DIF Online Hub , which provides a year-round window into what’s happening in Victoria’s digital innovation ecosystem.

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Victoria’s thriving digital landscape: A Retrospective of the DIF Festival 2023

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