A Week in Social Innovation

I recently discovered the Chinese proverb 'may you live in interesting times' is commonly mistaken to be a blessing but in fact intended to be a curse. From its original translation, it actually means 'may you experience much disorder and trouble in your life'.

Social Innovation Forum

Late last week we held our inaugural Social Innovation Forum. Over 600 industry executives attended an information packed 1 day forum that showcased much of Hitachi's Innovation areas. Opened by the President of Hitachi, Higashihara-san with speakers including the Mike Baird (Premiere of NSW), Sam Walsh (retired CEO of Rio Tinto), David Thodey ( recent CEO of Telstra and chair of CSIRO), Japanese Ambassador (Kusaka-san) and many others. In addition to a large showcase, sessions were held of Public Safety, Mining, Health, Transport and Smart Cities.

To cap off the evening, an announcement of $1.25B investment into Social Innovation will be made in Australia over the next 4 years!

Exhibit Area at Hitachi Social Innovation Forum

A Night in Macau

Yesterday evening, I presented in Macau to an industry group of gaming specialists and executives on the topic of 'predictive casino'.

Ideas Board to extract new IOT data sources, leverage biometrics and provide real-time awareness

Hitachi Mobile Application to track and engage in a customers journey

ANZ Channel Partner Summit

Having signed 3 new security partners in Australia, multiple solutions were demonstrated at the Hamilton Island Summit

Other highlights:

• Live Face Match travelled to Germany last week to integrate recognition technologies into a premier video management system
• Install team in Darwin install a new video management platform
• Security team in India finalising partner agreements
• Technical team in Bangkok undertaking site survey in a premier college

It goes without saying I'm very proud of our regional teams and progress. I'm equally excited by the support, drive and investment Hitachi is making in the area of Social Innovation.

If interesting times are anything but a blessing, I'm ecstatic to receive such a curse. Of course, may you live in interesting times also.