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.
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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:
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:
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.
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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.