Dr Mirjana Prica is the managing director of Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL), one of six Industry Growth Centres established by the federal government to drive commercial growth in the food and agribusiness sector. In the episode of the Commercial Disco, Dr Prica outlines just how much value Australia is leaving on the table in the food business by not undertaking more value-added food processing and manufacturing.

To respond to the current and future challenges around Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), every leading business is looking carefully at its specific environment to better understand the complexity of quantifying and managing ‘externalities’ while being able to verify and credential its response. Sentiment analysis and other ‘soft metrics’ – which are relied on particularly by the emerging industry of advisory partners – are not acceptable to the rigour required of an organisation that has set itself high ESG standards. InnovationAus.com and Verizon are pleased to present this discussion panel on the topic, with senior technology business leaders in Sydney and Singapore swapping notes across different continents, industry segments and technology environments. Participants SYDNEY PANEL • Dr Priya Dev, Lecturer, Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies & Statistics, ANU College of Business and Economics • Andy Lamrock, Managing Partner Global Solutions, Verizon • Corrie McLeod, Moderator and Publisher, InnovationAus.com SINGAPORE PANEL • Rob Le Busque, Regional Vice President APAC, Verizon • Grace Sai, Co-founder and CEO, Unravel Carbon • Naomi Vowels, Director & Co-founder, givvable

The average cost to Australia of natural disasters is currently estimated at $38 billion each year. It is time to shift our focus from spending on response and recovery, and to invest more into resilience and recovery. Adrian Turner is the CEO of the Fire and Flood Resilience program at the Minderoo Foundation. In this podcast, Adrian lays the argument for change.

With just days remaining before Australians cast their ballots at the federal election, shadow industry and innovation minister Ed Husic joins the Commercial Disco podcast to talk policy. From the operation of the National Reconstruction Fund, the plans for an Office of Made in Australia, and the future of the Industry Growth Centres, Mr Husic details Labor plans for industry development if it wins next Saturday.

There is plenty of uncertainty in the global economy right now, from supply-chain concerns to the war in Ukraine to geo-political tensions and the complications of the ongoing pandemic. But Verizon Business chief revenue officer Sowmyanarayan Sampath – known universally as simply Sampath – the global business outlook has never looked stronger. In this episode of the Commercial Disco, Sampath talks about the megatrends of the telecommunications sector.

The final episode of the Counterpoint Conversations podcast series will focus on the challenges ahead in reshaping the cultural settings of the defence force, particularly in relation to the augmented reality and virtual reality technologies being adopted for learning and development. As the demands of the AUKUS program evolve, engaging the widest range of people with the right mix of problem-solving skills is going to be essential. Diversity of thinking – including addressing gender balance and managing awareness of bias – will be a central plank for success.   With the defence sector’s increasing move to gamification and augmented reality to innovate and adapt to the changing nature of warfare, this podcast will explore the importance of inclusivity at the design stage of technology to ensure diversity in thought, assessment, life experience and world view, to help address complexity in decision making.

New South Wales will continue to focus on research commercialisation through its on-going co-investment in critical research infrastructure and encouraging greater collaboration of the “triple helix” of universities, government and industry, according to the state’s Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology Alister Henskens. In this podcast, Mr Henskens – who is also NSW Minister for Skills and Training, talks to InnovationAus editor James Riley.

This discussion will explore transformative projects within the public sector. Public sector projects progress at a different speed to those in the private sector, and scrutiny of government project management extends far beyond a government agency’s internal stakeholders - there are multiple goals and milestones to report on, many teams of people to manage and access to an incredible wealth of resources. In this episode, Public Sector Medal recipient Patricia Kelly (formerly with the SKA and IP Australia), and Principal of Buildcorp, Josephine Sukkar, explore the projects that have been created in the public sector environment and become transformative by way of multiple applications across the economy. What are the projects that have been created within certain confines of government, that have gone on to be the foundation for significant national policies and outputs – and who are the people working behind the scenes to deliver them?

The Capability - Submarines, industrial development and frontier technologies webinar was a discussion at the highest levels of business about how companies can mobilise to build strategically important and commercially valuable intellectual property. Large-scale defence contracts direct huge investment into high-tech industries. At a time when a raft of powerful new technologies are coming of age, considered and well-directed industry programs and partnerships can be truly transformative. The industrial development opportunities for Australia are extraordinary. Where is Australia placing its big bets to leverage existing research leadership? Where does Australia already have comparative advantage, and where will it partner to augment home-grown capability ? Quantum, artificial intelligence, 5G, advanced manufacturing, robotics and automation, and critical mineral processing are all part of this mix. Expert guests included: Adrian Beer, CEO, METS Ignited Rob Le Busque, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific at Verizon Business Group Jens Goennemann, Managing Director, Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre. For more information on what was discussed, see AUKUS brings ‘huge multiplier effect’ to local industry (innovationaus.com).

The Capability - Submarines, industrial development and frontier technologies webinar was a discussion at the highest levels of business about how companies can mobilise to build strategically important and commercially valuable intellectual property. Large-scale defence contracts direct huge investment into high-tech industries. At a time when a raft of powerful new technologies are coming of age, considered and well-directed industry programs and partnerships can be truly transformative. The industrial development opportunities for Australia are extraordinary. Where is Australia placing its big bets to leverage existing research leadership? Where does Australia already have comparative advantage, and where will it partner to augment home-grown capability ? Quantum, artificial intelligence, 5G, advanced manufacturing, robotics and automation, and critical mineral processing are all part of this mix. Expert guests included: The Hon. Steven Marshall, Premier of South Australia Professor Michelle Simmons AO, CEO & Founder at Silicon Quantum Computing, Director at ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology Rear Admiral Lee Goddard , RAN, Head of Partnerships & Operations at Minderoo Foundation. For more information on what was discussed, see AUKUS brings ‘huge multiplier effect’ to local industry (innovationaus.com).