ACS’ inaugural Queensland State Tech Summit took place last Friday at Fortitude Valley’s Cloudland, featuring some of the state’s recent technology success stories and industry leaders.
During the all-day event, speakers and panellists discussed the different generations’ perspectives of IT careers, how Queensland can attract more digital talent, leadership challenges raised by new technologies, and the direction of cyber security in the current global political climate.
Speakers at the event included Jamie Wilson, founder of Brisbane based Cryptoloc, named as one the world’s top cybersecurity startups to watch in 2020 by Forbes Magazine. The company’s global operations now boasts clients in twenty countries with offices in US, Japan, the UK and South Africa.
Another Queensland success story was Bob Tisdall, Executive Director of the Dialog Group, acquired this year by Singtel’s NCS for $325 million.
Originally founded as a mining technology services consultancy in 1979, the Queensland-based business now employs over 1,200 information technology specialists across operations in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin.
The keynote speaker was Queensland technology leader and communications entrepreneur Bevan Slattery who gave an update on the Hyperone Project, described as the largest private digital infrastructure project in Australia’s history, and what it will mean for regional jobs and connectivity.
Hyperone, founded by Slattery who was previously behind PIPE Networks and the NextDC data centres, is a national fibre project which will boost the national communications capacity by a factor of ten and connect over 2,000 regional communities to high-speed Internet access.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Slattery told the audience. “If we miss this, we’ve lost it forever.”
Slattery’s focus on Hyperone’s regional aspects highlighted the importance of connectivity to communities outside Australia’s capital cities, a focus of ACS’ Federal Election platform and the upcoming Queensland regional Digital Transformation roadshow.
Held in partnership with NBN Co, the Digital Transformation Regional Roadshow will feature local technology success stories in industries ranging across agriculture, medical software and IT managed services with panellists sharing their respective tech journeys.
Along with today’s successes, the roadshow will highlight opportunities for regional communities, workers, students and businesses in the technology sector.
The roadshow kicks off in Bundaberg today, followed by events in Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Cairns before finishing in Brisbane in December.
“Technology is embedded into all of today’s regional industries,” said ACS Queensland chair Beau Tydd. “The roadshow will showcase some of regional Queensland’s leading lights in technology, the sector’s career opportunities and how digital transformation is reshaping regional industries such as agriculture, education, transport and tourism.”
