D61+ LIVE Answers: What a digital-driven economy will demand of Australian business

We’ve seen first-hand how digital development is impacting our nation. New industries and jobs are being created, while existing industries are transforming and are demanding new skills and approaches. 

While Australia offers world class research expertise and a skilled workforce, our nation is currently lagging behind its OECD peers in digital innovation. This digital technology economic cycle is ours to capitalise on, however, to ensure Australian industry achieves the full economic benefit of digital innovation in the future, we need a new vision for digital success. 

This means actively developing new digital opportunities in industries where Australia is already globally competitive, and improving the innovation system’s ability to support Australia’s areas of competitive advantage.

Our Going Global panel on the Big Ideas Stage on Day 1 will explore the imperatives for innovation and how Australia can stay relevant in a globally competitive market.

Experts including Andrew Stevens CEO of Innovation and Science Australia and Dr Stephanie Fahey CEO of Austrade, and Gail Williamson, Chief Growth Officer, WiseTech Global will provide insights on how digital innovation can deliver AU $315 billion in gross economic value to Australia over the next decade and what businesses need to do to adapt. 

Hosted by Senior Principal Scientist and Head of CSIRO’s Data61’s Insights team, Dr. Stefan Hajkowicz, on Day 2, Our future world: what will happen by 2040? keynote will explore this century’s megatrends, using strategic foresight to explore future risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, climate change, the rise of Asian economies, demographic ageing, changing human experiences and other driving forces. He’ll look at how to identify issues or trends that are of strategic interest to your organisation and how to translate them into your strategy.

Strategic foresight is an emerging field that aims to explore multiple plausible features to assist individuals and organisations make 

better choices, a technique that will be taught in masterclass Data-Driven Strategic Foresight.

Designed to give you a taste of how strategic foresight can help your organisation navigate current and future strategic, policy and business dilemmas while building resilience in a rapidly changing and evolving operating environment, you’ll receive examples illustrating how you could use similar techniques in your organisation.

A visit to the SME Connect: Where Business Meets Research booth is essential for entrepreneurs and business owners, with CSIRO’s Small-to-Medium Enterprise (SME) Connect program designed to bring start-ups and SMEs together with Australia’s best researchers and facilities. 

Data61 has supported 18 of the total 200 projects, with 16 of these within CSIRO’s Kick-Start program, which provides dollar-matched funding of up to $50k for start-ups to work with researchers to build prototypes, demos or test their technologies. 

CSIRO’s Data61— Mixed Reality Lab from CSIRO on Vimeo.