The Australian Computer Society has held a special event for international members and guests, with an intimate leader’s breakfast panel at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Panellists spoke about the fourth industrial revolution, and the future of innovation for users and producers.

The event was hosted and organised by ACS Vice President, Yohan Ramasundara, currently based in San Francisco.

He discussed ACS’ role in shaping the future of innovation.

“It’s not just the future way of working but also the future way of living which is going to change,” he said. “ACS aims to empower Australian innovation by building technology capacity and capability.”

Also speaking was Chris Oldfield, Senior Trade Commissioner and Consul General in San Francisco, who spoke of the recent opening of the CSIRO US offices in Silicon Valley.

He discussed the Australian start-up ‘landing pad’ in San Francisco, launched by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission as part of the Government’s 2015 innovation strategy.

“We’re seeing some of the best and brightest of Australia come through here and try to introduce them to an ecosystem that they’re not familiar with,” he said.

“We know it’s not possible to recreate Silicon Valley in Australia, but what we can do is bring Australians here to help them understand what’s needed for success, introduce them to the right people and make contacts that will be good for them.

“Many Americans think of Australia and they think of kangaroos and sunny beaches – and we’ve got that… But we’re also quite a sophisticated society as well.

“What we haven’t been doing very well is explaining that to people. “

L to R: Partner at SuperVentures, Matthew Miesnieks; Head of Society and Innovation at the World Economic Forum, Nicholas Davis; and President of ProductionSale, Kent Langley.


Sharing the Fourth Industrial Revolution

One individual flying the flag for Australian innovation is the Head of Society and Innovation at the World Economic Forum, Nicholas Davis.

Davis has worked with the World Economic Forum since 2010, and focuses his research on how we can fix global problems with innovative solutions.

“So, the fourth industrial revolution, as the World Economic Forum defines it, is it’s normative – it’s talking about what we want to happen.

“It is a conversation about what the future should look like and who can be included in that conversation in the future.

“If you look back at the last 300 years of how we’ve collectively used technology on a mass scale, the greatest social injustices have been that we’ve had a lot of people miss out.

“So, part of this fourth industrial revolution conversation should be on making sure people are not excluded.”

Also on the panel was Partner at tech investor SuperVentures, Matthew Miesnieks and the President of ProductionSale, Kent Langley.