Early Bird Passes Ending In
Sydney, Australia – Tuesday 29th April, 2025 – South by Southwest Sydney® (SXSW Sydney®) has today revealed its first keynote, Meredith Whittaker, Signal’s President, along with other speakers for its most ambitious Tech & Innovation Festival yet that celebrates established innovators alongside emerging local talent from Australia's startup and tertiary education sector.
Meredith Whittaker is Signal's President and a member of the Signal Foundation Board of Directors. She has over 17 years of experience in tech, spanning industry, academia, and government. Her research and scholarly work helped shape global AI policy and shift the public narrative on AI to better recognize the surveillance business practices and concentration of industrial resources that modern AI requires. Meredith has advised the White House, the FCC, the City of New York, the European Parliament, and many others on privacy, security, artificial intelligence, internet policy, and measurement.
Understanding the positive potential of artificial intelligence will be a major theme at this year's event. As newly announced speaker Sandy Carter says: "Stop fearing AI—fear the businesses that refuse to embrace it. The real threat isn't machines overtaking humans, but companies missing out on transformative potential." Sandy is a best-selling author and tech industry authority and the COO of Unstoppable Domains, providing user-owned digital identities using Web3 technology.
SXSW Sydney are also excited to confirm Ivan Zhao, Co-founder and CEO of Notion. Under his leadership, Notion has grown into a $10B leader in AI-powered collaboration and productivity software - often described as the 'Lego for software.'
Also joining the stellar lineup is Paige Costello, Vice President of Product at Figma, a powerful, collaborative design platform for teams who build digital products together. Paige was previously at Asana where she led Core Product and AI.
And Rohit Agarwal, the MD of Peak XV Partners (Formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), a leading venture capital and growth investing firm investing across India, South East Asia and beyond. Over the last 17 years of their operations in the region, Peak XV has grown to manage over $9bn in capital across 13 funds and invested in over 400 companies.
And providing local insights, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC, Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator leads national cyber security policy, the coordination of responses to major cyber incidents, whole of government cyber incident preparedness efforts, and the strengthening of Commonwealth cyber security capability. Prior to this appointment, LTGEN McGuinness served as Deputy Director Commonwealth Integration in the United States Defense Intelligence Agency.
Importantly, since Tim Cadogan, CEO of GoFundMe, was first announced for SXSW Sydney 2025 earlier in April, TIME named Cadogan to its prestigious list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2025. “Tim has redefined the impact a business can have, proving it can be both deeply human and remarkably resilient, especially when the path forward is unclear” (Sarah Friar, for Time).
Alongside the Conference, this year's event maintains its cornerstone competitions—the prestigious SXSW Sydney Pitch and high-energy Hackathon—while introducing two exciting new initiatives: the Student Pitch and Tech & Innovation Showcase. These specifically spotlight the brilliance emerging from universities and technical institutions, providing tomorrow's leaders with unprecedented exposure to industry veterans, investors and media.
As SXSW Sydney Head of Tech & Innovation Caroline Pegram explains: "The Tech & Innovation content is woven right across the program and offers meaningful collisions, access and opportunities that extend way beyond the event. In two years, we’ve seen great outcomes for startups and other talent taking part. Now with the growing synergy between Sydney and our counterparts in the US and Europe we have a year-round node of connections that are providing global opportunities to Australian talent and companies.”
Open for applications today, the SXSW Sydney Pitch showcases ground-breaking startups that will disrupt industries and change our lives for the better. Startups from around the world will pitch their big ideas to a panel of industry experts, high-profile media professionals, and venture capital and angel investors - all in front of a live audience. The SXSW Sydney Grand Final Winner has the option to then attend and participate in either SXSW in Austin or SXSW London, in 2026 including credentials and flights for two and an opportunity to present during that event’s Pitch Grand Final. As the winner of the SXSW Sydney 2024 Pitch Stefan Mazy stated recently, “being a founder in a start-up is a hard, gruelling job not for the faint hearted, so recognition from these global innovation platforms adds immensely to our credibility and has accelerated our market entry timeline significantly."
Introducing the SXSW Sydney Student Pitch, for tertiary students to pitch their big ideas around “what’s next.” 12 finalists from the next generation of innovative thinkers will have 3-minutes to pitch their idea on October 18th within the Innovation Expo. SXSW Sydney are collaborating with student run venture capital firm, NextGen Ventures to identify student led start ups.
And this year the Tech & Innovation Showcase is extended to two days and will feature groundbreaking projects from tertiary students and early-stage innovators at the pre-commercial phase, this 2 day exhibition within ICC Sydney will highlight interactive technological advances of all kinds.
The SXSW Sydney Hackathon will once again bring together top engineers, founders, and curious minds to solve big challenges with AI. Kicking off with an expert-led brainstorming session, this multi-day experience invites technical builders and AI learners to team up, code, create, and compete for prizes and bragging rights.
The Innovation Expo returns to the ICC Sydney Exhibition Centre from Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th October. While only $40 to attend during the week, on Saturday 18th the Expo will be free and open to the public for the first time.
SXSW Sydney 2025 is shaping up to be particularly strong for Tech & Innovation, with the following speakers some of those already announced in the Conference Preview on April 8th: Ethical Technologist Andi Mastrosavas, CEO of Pladia, a trailblazer reshaping digital responsibility; Visionary Robotics Leader Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics; Public Policy Architect Aruna Sathanapally, CEO at Grattan Institute; Global Digital Policy Shaper Brendan Dowling, Australian Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology; Space Nutrition Expert Flávia Fayet-Moore, Founder and CEO of FOODiQ Global, revolutionising astronaut diets; Quantum Physics Luminary Prof Jim Rabeau, CEO of DeteQt, transforming sensing technologies; Iconic Science Communicator Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at University of Sydney; Elite Cyber Security Strategist Katherine Mansted, Executive Director of Cyber Intelligence at CyberCX; Change Maker Kyah Bell, Co-Founder of the Black Excellence Fund; Barrier-Breaking Technology Leader Luli Adeyemo, Executive Director of TechDiversity; AI Educator Nicholas Renotte, Head of AI Developer Advocacy at IBM, democratising advanced technology; Cutting-Edge AI Transformation Strategist Noelle Russell, AI Executive highlighting the way forward; Modern Workplace Global Executive, Silvija Martincevic, CEO of Deputy; Sustainable Food Production Innovator Stela Willemstein, Director of JBS; tScience Sleuth Wendy Zukerman, Host and Executive Producer of Science Vs.
SXSW Sydney 2025 returns from October 13 - 19th, featuring 1,600 sessions and events - 400+ conference sessions, 150+ professional development sessions, 300+ music performances, 95 film screenings, 150 games, and more than 400 brand-led events. More about the Tech & Innovation Festival can be found here, and more about the Conference can be found here. The first 16 artists for the 2025 Music Festival were also announced today - see here for more.
Now on sale at early bird pricing on offer until the end of May 1st, so the widest range of the curious and creative can attend the event than ever before. To find out more or to secure early bird access, click through the button below.
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