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.
Spend DIF2023 opening day with Women in Emerging Tech and explore leading technologies such as Gaming, Inclusive Virtual Reality and the digital landscape impacted by AI. According to the ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse 2022 report, women make up just 31% of workers in the technology workforce compared to 48% of the Australian workforce. Therefore, this annual conference plays a pivotal part to support and showcase women in this sector. “We created Women in Emerging Tech (WiET) to be a welcoming place for women to be introduced to the concepts of Emerging Tech from Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Gaming, IoT and AI,” says Karen Cohen, who founded the organisation in 2017. Above: Karen Cohen, Founder of Women in Emerging Tech (WiET) It will be the third time that Women in Emerging Tech will partner with Digital Innovation Futures Festival. “This year we are re-imaging the world of AI, Gaming, and the Arts including physical, digital art and music,” says Cohen. “We are making this an interactive workshop where everyone can participate in the design of future WiET workshops.” Women leading the conversation Some of Australia’s leading speakers will feature in the event including Ghislaine Entwisle (Managing Director of Protiviti Australia), Alyse Sue (Director of Metaverse, KPMG), Sara Liyanage-Denney (Founder of KINSPACE) and Lisa Chikarovski (Head of Media and Communications, TCG World)– and that’s just four of the event’s 29 speakers. Ghislaine Entwisle “I will guide attendees through the evolving landscape of emerging technology, covering diverse fields such as artificial intelligence, metaverse, virtual reality, and more. I will share fascinating use cases from around the world - the inspiring and the concerning” Alyse Sue “The future is about using science and technology to overcome limitations of human biology such as exploring the possibilities of mind-uploading, living in virtual worlds, and importantly, achieving abundance and the decoupling of meeting basic needs from income. I’m eager to share my knowledge on the transhuman future, speaking to virtual humans in virtual worlds and humans merging with machines, highlighting what this really means for the future of our civilization.” Lisa Chikarovski “Truly inclusive game design requires two key components – a community of people who can contribute their ideas, views and opinions alongside flexible, adaptive and sophisticated technology that can bring these ideas to life. This is where I believe metaverse-based gaming could have an advantage over more traditional platforms. The communities behind these projects are normally highly engaged from the start and are ready and willing to provide input and feedback along the development journey.” Sara Liyanage-Denney Leaders who consistently question their own beliefs, bias, power and their role in the status quo, broaden their perspective. They begin to see what was otherwise hidden. I look forward to speaking about the power of inclusive practice and the role VR learning can play in mitigating bias and exclusion across the talent and product lifecycle. Hosted by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) at this year's DIF Hub Docklands other topics include: Where are we now - setting the current landscape of Emerging Tech How do we future proof ourselves against AI, should we put the brakes on? Neuro diverse design: A case study using VR The future of inclusive talent Inclusive Game Design ostering Creativity in a Digital World The cost of convenience: is sharing data selling our souls? The Future of Tech Reimagined workshop Find out more about WiET, the speakers and ticketing options to pay it forward! Women in Emerging Tech (WiET) is a DIF2023 Feature Event of the annual Digital Innovation Festival and is sponsored by the Victorian Government