New year. New Technologies.

In the wrap up published by the AICD recently, two leaders made some memorable observations:

David Thodey?AO observed: “This understanding of new technologies really is as important as understanding financial statements,” he said. “You just can’t delegate it.”

and:

Lisa Chung AM said " it was up to every board member to be across technology. Having a digital specialist won’t solve the problem because while they might understand the technology, it’s the directors and managers with deep knowledge of the business who need to understand how technology and digitisation can actually be applied and produce better, more efficient and cheaper outcomes."

If you missed the article, you can read it here.

To help those readers wishing to embark on, deepen or accelerate their journey, here are some local people, platforms and ideas you may find useful. A global resource list is being crafted.

One simple piece of advice. It's best to learn by doing. Turn up, try it out, ask the questions, find a niche and burrow deep or skim across the surface and get a feel for more. Above all else, be curious and keep an open mind and heart.

Think Platform First

Once you start down this path, you'll feel overwhelmed by the volume of content. Best to choose a platform to help you capture the content you want to store, share and search later.

There are plenty of options to choose from. One that has stood the test of time is IdeaSpies created and bootstrapped by Lynn Wood. You can sign up for free. This is a repository of crowdsourced (and curated) ideas. Easy to use and fast to search.

A Helicopter View

Australian co-founders Alex Scandurra and Chris Clark created the Spark Festival in 2016 with the help of 21 track leads who volunteered their time and talent from across the ecosystem.

Each year, it is delivered by the marvellous Maxine Sherrin in collaboration (and it is a true collaboration) with members of the Australian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. It is a program of experiences designed and delivered by subject matter experts, founders, mentors, incubators, accelerators, investors and often presented at their premises and online.

At Spark Festival, you get access to the technology, and more importantly, you get to see how it is applied and what opportunities (and risks) it presents from people who are elbows deep in the technology transforming our lives.

There is something on the program for everyone from the young to the young at heart and most of the sessions are free of charge.

Spark Festival 2022 will be held from October 13-26, 2022.

October is months away, so Maxine curates events that are being held each week via ?#WeeklySparks. This is an opportunity to learn with Spark all year long. You can sign up for this free resource here.

If you want more depth, there are programs online, university-run courses and those that are offered by the tech companies (IBM has great resources, Google has a vast array of sessions as do Salesforce and Atlassian). It's also worth taking a look at the excellent Deep Dive Executive Education program delivered by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Tel Aviv University.

There are also hands-on programs offered by the hubs. It's worth connecting with Fishburners?(their Friday night pitch events are great), so are the briefings at?Stone & Chalk, the North Sydney Innovation Network?, the Canberra Innovation Network, StartupWA, The Studio and?Haymarket HQ. The opening of Tech Central will introduce a whole new dimension.

Southstart is happening from 9-11 March 2022 in Adelaide in case you want to take advantage of the program on offer there.

Maxine has also pulled together a list of accelerators and programs that link you directly to the work of the startups.

You can see the technology applied by the startups coming through UTS Startups with Murray Hurps and those guided by David Burt at UNSW. Most universities now have startup programs.

The World of Deep Tech

Rachel Slattery is another name to remember. Her annual?Tech23 gathering is a celebration of the complex problems being solved by deep tech companies in Australia.

A number of these companies started life at the deep tech hub led by CEO Sally-Anne Williams at Cicada Innovations. We also expect to see more coming out of the Nandin Innovation Centre operated by ANSTO and it is worth following Tim Boyle to see what's happening there.

The team at?Main Sequence Ventures?are making some important investments on behalf of all Australians. You can get up to speed with their work here. One of the MSV partners Phil Morle has recently begun to share his experience in a series of Atomic Essays on being a founder, lessons learned on boards and tools for venture building.

The Ecosystem

There is someone somewhere doing something that will answer a question you have. Communities build up relatively quickly and they connect in person and online locally and globally via meetups, events and town halls.

Here is a list to get you started. It doesn't pretend to be comprehensive and assumes you're already tracking what's happening at CSIRO and what's being shared by Chief Scientist Cathy Foley.

As suggestions are made in the comment section below, the list will expand:

1. Artificial Intelligence - track what?Toby Walsh,?Jeremy Howard?and the work being done at Fast.ai alongside Rachel Thomas. Worth also familiarising yourself with the efforts of the?Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML). Good to keep in touch with?Genevieve Bell's work building out the Cybernetics program at ANU.
2. Cyber Security - ?Internet 2.0?presented a practical update of the Global Threats and Local Impacts at Spark Festival recently. It's worth you making the time to catch up here. It's also worth following the insights shared by?Robert Potter?who has his finger on the pulse of cyber incursions, ransomware and all things China. Daniella Traino is an excellent CISO and brings a practical lens to her thinking. She's also a Spark Festival Lead and curates content for Idea Spies. Read the content published by Jamie Tarabay on Bloomberg.
3. Data - we all rely on the ABS, Alan Kohler's graphs (be honest, who doesn't snap those?) and the Reserve Bank's Chart pack as well as the reports by the economists from the major banks, think tanks and those produced by global organisations like WEF, the IMF, the World Bank and OECD. It's also useful to delve into the Atlas of Economic Complexity and the Edelman Trust Barometer if you haven't spent time on either of these. The consulting firms known to us all, produce material that is also useful, including this work by BCG on the Future of Jobs in the Eral of AI. There's also the incredible work being done by ecosystem icon Liz Jakubowski on the platforms released by the National Skills Commission.
4. Fintech - there are now many resources available and you can kick off by taking a look at what's offered up by the home of fintech - Stone & Chalk. Such is the growth of this sector, there are now specialist groups including The RegTech Association?led by?Deborah Young,?Blockchain Australia?(the local guru in this space is Adriana Belotti) and?FinTech Australia. It's also worth tracking what's happening with Senate inquiries, including the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre and the comprehensive Report they released recently. Brian Hartzer had some interesting things to say at the World #FinTech Festival 2021.
5. Transformation - Digital companies do the work themselves, in-house. The best example of how this feels is the response by boards, CEOs and the C-Suite in the early days of the pandemic - it's hands-on. This is how you remain nimble, agile and responsive to events. You use the external teams, consultants and specialists to fill gaps. Two outstanding examples of the how to are of course Service NSW and their Minister Victor Dominello - scroll back through his LinkedIn feed and you'll piece together a remarkable journey - and the work being done by Jordan Hatch at the Department of Agriculture who shares his journey here and on this blog. In this space, it's worth being across the work of Simon Wardley, the thinking being done by Dave Snowden and the contribution of the Public Digital team. On the question of transforming our economy, I can highly recommend working your way through the catalogue of resources published by Andrew N. Liveris AO and catching up on the Partners In Progress conversation with Australia's Ambassador to the United States, the Hon. Arthur Sinodinos AO. It's also worth following the work of Net Positive author and former Unilever boss Paul Polman.
6. Drones and Robotics - Catherine Ball?and?Sue Keay are the go-to people. The World of Drones and Robotics Congress is a must-attend.
7. Impact - Worth taking a look at the SheEO community of founders that are working on the world's to-do list and follow Monica Bradley. Others in this space include Alan Jones and Anne-Marie Elias at Beckon Capital. There's also the great work being done by Pete Horsely and the team at Remarkable Tech and Mikaela Jade and the team at Indigital Edutech continue to impress.
8. Space - Professor Anna Moore?keeps us focused on all things space as do the team at the?Australian Space Agency who recently shared a decadal plan signalling where they think we're heading. There's plenty happening at Lot Fourteen to support the sector in Adelaide and tracking the work of startups like Myriota and Gilmour Space is worth the time.
9. VCs - There was mention of Main Sequence Ventures above. There's an entire community of VCs, angels, private offices and other sources of funds with Blackbird being featured often in the press, given their success with Canva. There's more to Blackbird and it's well worth looking at how they support the creation and scaling of startups (and take the time to listen to this interview with Niki Scevak recorded by Adam Spencer recently).

AirTree have pulled together a brilliant resource that is a useful place to begin to get across the complexity. With thanks to Julia Wells for sharing.

Curated Conversations

Technology is at the heart of a number of economies and it's well worth taking the time to scan the resources and events shared by:

• Advance.org - who connect you with the Australian diaspora look at what they've made available so far. Also worth keeping an eye on the global talent attraction task force led by Peter Verwer who are introducing
• The Royal Society of NSW - gives you access to the thinking of some of Australia's best minds. Worth joining and attending their briefings.
• The Pearcey Foundation - is a brilliant resource - it "operates broadly across the Australian Information Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, from celebrating achievements through national and state?awards, to being involved in?debate?and?public policy?on critical national issues such as productivity, the digital economy and national infrastructure." Watch some of the past lectures.
• American Australian Association?- is hosting some excellent sessions profiling the tech, the startups that are growing globally and the applications for companies.
• AmCham Australia - does a great job of showcasing the tech, introducing the leaders and profiling successful application and commercialisation.
• Australian British Chamber of Commerce is doing more to reveal the thriving digital ecosystem that has grown up in the UK. It's also worth tracking the investments that are being introduced by Lord Gerry Grimstone. The UK has been aggressively attractive business, talent and investing in remaking its economy for the past 10 years at pace.
• Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce - this Chamber stands out for a number of reasons. In addition to its tradition of hosting trade missions to showcase the Israeli ecosystem, the AICC also welcomes inbound delegations and hosts excellent tech and innovation briefings. Its annual Innovation Summit provides a window to what's happening globally.
• Investment NSW - is doing some brilliant work and is signalling the priorities of the NSW Government. LaunchVic is doing the same for Victoria and there are similar teams in each state and territory.
• Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership at UQ - is growing tomorrow's leaders. They're bringing to the table global experiences. The interview with will.i.am is definitely worth the time.
• Other groups to monitor include the UBS Australasian Conference, Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee (AJBCC), European Australian Business Council (EABC) and Sonia Sadiq Ghandi's work at the IABCA.

Jobs

I believe that Australians want better-paying jobs, that we need to create the companies that produce these jobs and Australians must have the skills to do these jobs.

The Future Work Summit was launched in 2018 to discuss the issues this presents.

You can catch up on the 2019 and 2020 programs. This year's conversation on 9 March 2022 in Adelaide brings to the podium a new set of challenges with which leaders will grapple. You can catch up here. This was meant to be held in 2021 and wasn't because of Covid - so we recorded the Skill or be Skilled session.

The Tech Council of Australia has been created and is focusing the attention of policymakers on the impact of the contribution to our economy and society that can be made by technology and the sector.

Listening

Podcasts are widely available and easy to find. They could well be the subject of their very own post. If you're just starting, scroll back and listen to Reid Hoffman and the a16z podcast by Andreessen Horowitz. Oh, and it's always worth tuning into the marvellous work of Mark Pesce, particularly his effort on The Next Billion Seconds and Ian Gardiner's catalogue of Open the Pod Bay Doors (the one with Peter Dunne is a standout). Finally, Adam Spencer is producing a history of the innovation ecosystem with over 150 interviews by the time it's done.

More?

Feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments below so that we can end up with a practical guide for all.

...

Maria MacNamara is CEO and Co-Founder of Portal Ideas. She is also an Industry/Professional Fellow at UTS, Member of the AFP Commissioner's Advisory Panel, Chair of the Strategy Board, ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience and a Member of the University of Sydney Business School Board of Advice. She sits on the Advisory Boards of Idea Spies, Internet 2.0 and MIMI. Maria is also a board member of the Spark Festival.