Experience the Next Wave of Innovation

Adam Spencer is a mathematician and comedian. He has hosted two top-rating breakfast radio shows, multiple TV productions, author 7 best-selling popular mathematics compendiums, deliver one of the all time nerdiest TED talks on massive prime numbers

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Armand Ruiz is the Vice President of Product Management for the AI Platform at IBM, where he leads the development of Generative AI products and offerings aimed at businesses. Born in Barcelona and based in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 10 years working at the heart of innovation in Silicon Valley, Armand has worked with customers worldwide from all industries. He has spent over 13 years working in AI and Machine Learning, developing products and solutions that have reached millions of users. Armand is also the founder of a popular newsletter with more than 50k subscribers and shares his passion for AI with over 90k followers on LinkedIn and X.

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Grace Brown is the CEO, Founder, Engineer @ Andromeda Robotics

A Mechatronics Engineering graduate from the University of Melbourne, Grace has always been driven by a passion for robotics and STEM. During university, she conceptualised Abi—a humanoid robot inspired by the magic of Disney & Pixar. Recognising the deepening isolation brought on by COVID-19, Grace founded Andromeda Robotics with a mission to introduce Abi’s companionship into homes worldwide. With accolades from the AWS Robotics Startup Accelerator, Future Minds, 7News, and Vogue Codes, Grace’s vision merges technology with the heartfelt needs of humanity.

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Julie Inman Grant is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. In this role, Julie leads the world’s first government regulatory agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online.  

Julie has extensive experience in the non-profit and government sectors and spent two decades working in senior public policy and safety roles in the tech industry at Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe.  

The Commissioner’s career began in Washington DC, working in the US Congress and the non-profit sector before taking on a role at Microsoft. Julie’s experience at Microsoft spanned 17 years, serving as one of the company’s first and longest-standing government relations professionals, ultimately in the role of Global Director for Safety & Privacy Policy and Outreach. At Twitter, she set up and drove the company’s policy, safety & philanthropy programs across Australia, New Zealand & Southeast Asia.

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Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an  Australian Astronaut and Space Systems Engineer. She is the first ever person to be trained as an astronaut under the Australian flag. Katherine was most recently a Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency, where she contributed to growing Australia's space capability through being technical lead on scoping the nation's first Moon rover mission, developing plans to capitalise on Australia's space strengths, and managing the Access to Space Team. She has more than a decade of experience developing space programs and strategies, technologies, and missions across Europe, the UK, the US and Australia. These include the Orion vehicle that is taking humans back to the Moon, space station facilities, earth observation missions and robotic satellite capture technologies. 

Katherine has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut and in early 2023 took the giant leap to achieving that dream when she began astronaut training with the European Space Agency. Katherine currently lives in Germany with her husband and two young daughters while training at the European Astronaut Centre.

Katherine holds four degrees across science (physics major), space and aeronautical engineering. She is passionate about using human spaceflight and space to unlock opportunities for researchers and industry, as well as to inspire the next generation.

Katherine is a keen volunteer, having worked with the Australian Army Reserves, Surf Life Saving, State Emergency Service, and Engineers Without Borders Australia. Her hobbies include scuba diving, flying, reading, backyard astronomy, surfing, sailing, basketball, netball, tennis, hiking and cycling.

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The technologies Martin has developed provide some of the biggest shifts in human connection and creativity since the invention of the computer.

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Melanie Perkins is CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online visual communication and collaboration platform with a mission to empower the whole world to design.Since launching in 2013, Canva has more than 190 million monthly users around the world, and has achieved the milestone of more than $2.3 billion in annualised revenue. From presentations to videos and websites, more than 25 billion designs have been created with the platform (200 every second) across more than 190 different countries and 100 different languages.

Noelle Russell is the Founder and Chief AI Officer at the AI Leadership Institute. She is a multi-award-winning technologist with an entrepreneurial spirit who specialises in helping companies with data, cloud, conversational AI, Generative AI and LLMs, and is a consistent champion for Data and AI literacy and is the founder of the "I ❤️ AI" Community teaching responsible AI for everyone.

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Professor Chris Lawrence is a proud Wadjak/Ballardong man from the Noongar Nation and Founder and Lead of the first National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA) with the Australian Space Agency and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Former Dean and Professor of Indigenous Engagement at Curtin University, Professor Lawrence has a strong track record of creating greater opportunities to support Aboriginal students, staff, partners and community members. With exemplary experience, networks and academic performance across research, education and engagement – particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – Professor Lawrence drives contributions from the Faculties of IT and Engineering to the broader University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Framework: 2019 – 2030 and Impact 2030.

Underpinning his work at Monash is a focus on collaborating with Aboriginal communities in Victoria – using technology and innovation to improve their health, wellbeing and education while fostering more ‘tech-smart’ communities through co-design. Working with researchers across the faculty, he also engages Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in schools and high schools to nurture the next digital and space explorer workforce of the future.

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Professor Simmons is the Founder and CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing and the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. As an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, she has pioneered unique technologies internationally to build electronic devices in silicon at the atomic scale, including the world's smallest transistor, the narrowest conducting wires, 3D atomic electronics and the first two qubit gate using atom-based qubits in silicon. Her team is at the forefront of the global race to develop a quantum computer in silicon. Michelle is one of a handful of researchers in Australia to have twice received an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship and now a Laureate Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, the UK Institute of Physics, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science.

In 2018 Professor Simmons was named Australian of the Year, one of the nation’s pre-eminent awards.

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Rohit Bhargava is the founder of the Non-Obvious Company and is a 3-time Wall Street Journal best-selling author. He has delivered sold-out keynote sessions in 32 countries around the world and teaches marketing & persuasion at Georgetown University. Before becoming an entrepreneur, he spent 12 years working in the advertising industry and was a part of the world-renowned team at Ogilvy that pioneered new storytelling models for global brands based on behavioral psychology. Rohit is a dual citizen of the US and Australia and spent 5 years living and working in Sydney.

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Ryan Patel is a world-renowned futurist and go-to authority on global business, political economy, and corporate governance. An expert in scaling businesses, he has worked for startups to publicly traded companies; his extensive knowledge in strategic global market development, concept scalability, digital transformation, global trade, and consumer-driven marketing, making him a thought leader in the global business realm. He is a frequent TV contributor, Board Director, and Senior Fellow with the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He also hosts the Webby Award-nominated series The Moment with Ryan Patel, filmed at the iconic “Birthplace of Silicon Valley,” The HP Garage.

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