Anton van den Hengel is the Director of the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies, a Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence on Robotic Vision, and a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide, overseeing $50m in research funding, and leading a group of over 60 researchers working in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Anton was born in Ede in The Netherlands and moved to Australia when he was 4 years old. A few years ago he was back in in The Netherlands for a while, living at the famous Herengracht in Amsterdam. 
​
Anton will talk about the mind-blowing research programs he is working on. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the global economy at an astonishing pace, adding an estimated 40% to the global GDP by 2030, totally changing the employment landscape and driving the 4th Industrial Revolution. This talk will be an eye opener!

The Australian Institute for Machine Learning was jointly created by the South Australian government and the University of Adelaide, to capitalise on this revolution. The Institute is based in the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site and led by Professor Anton van den Hengel. It will house up to 200 creative thinkers, researchers and start-ups and is already one of the top Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning research centres worldwide, partnering with companies like Microsoft, Facebook, BHP Billiton, Google, Bayer, Samsung, BAE Systems and Canon.

---

Terry Burgess is the Chairman of the Tonsley Project Steering Committee and a member of the Economic Development Board of South Australia, which was instated by the Premier to address challenges facing the State’s economy. In his long career spanning over 4 decades, Terry has served as Managing Director and Head of Metals & Mining for ABN AMRO Bank spending time in Amsterdam and more recently as MD & CEO of OZ Minerals.
​
Terry will talk about the ins and outs, struggles and successes of the Tonsley project and show us around the site!
Tonsley is Australia’s first innovation district, and symbolises the transition of mass production to high tech niche manufacturing in an innovation driven economy. A transition that in combination with Adelaide’s top 5 global liveability ranking can attract the best international talent and investments to South Australia, preparing our economy for the next industrial revolution.
Under the enormous roof of the legacy Mitsubishi Motors main assembly building, a highly sustainable, open plan business park has been created, with flexible pods in various sizes to house start-ups and more mature businesses, as well as café’s, parks, squares and sports facilities. The 61 hectares precinct is a Valhalla for innovative start-ups, cutting edge research, education and commercialisation institutions, as well as mature businesses. Co-locating like-minded companies in an open collaborative environment creates the ideal eco-system for global investors to develop innovative products and translate ideas into commercial success!

The success of Tonsley has not gone unnoticed and after winning various prices it is now a finalist in no less than 4 award categories of the prestigious 2018 Property Council of Australia/Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards (Best Mixed Use Development, Development Innovation, SA State Development of the Year and National Development of the Year). Winners will be announced in May!

---

​Joe Thorp is the Chief Executive of TechInSA. He is an award winning CEO and seasoned Company Director operating across manufacturing, international wholesale, retail and e-commerce distribution, mining and construction services, health, education, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and energy industries in Australia, New Zealand, EMEA and North America. With extensive experience in product conceptualisation and realisation Joe has led domestic and off shore development centres and has a track record of successfully managing joint ventures with international technology partners.

Joe will give an overview of the startup eco system in South Australia and the key challenges TechInSA is working on to leverage all the investments and great new capabilities like the Tonsley innovation precinct and the Australian institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

TechInSA (Incubate – Accelerate – Commercialise) works closely with the State’s high-tech startup companies and entrepreneurs to bring innovative technologies to global markets. TechInSA is South Australia’s high-tech startup accelerator, offering customised programs including grants, business and marketing assistance, lab and office space, and access global networks.

---

Nam Nguyen is Director Australia & Southeast Asia at the Malik Institute in Switzerland where he specialises in organisational growth and transformation, city development and systems design and complexity management. The Malik Institute is one of the world’s leading organisations for holistic general management, leadership, governance and transformation solutions. 
Nam grew up to be a farmer in the Vietnam country side, but moved to Australia and built a globally recognised and awarded reputation as a leader in systems thinking and complexity management. Dr. Nam Nguyen is now an honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide Business School, co-founded Think2Impact Pty Ltd, providing a collaborative platform for applied systems thinking, enabling a holistic approach to problem solving and creating sustainable solutions to complex problems, and became a Director in an international consulting firm. A thoroughly impressive achievement from Nam, who recently returned to Vietnam to help the national government solve complex issues to advance the country. A remarkable Journey!

Nam’s company The Malik Institute has facilitated strategy development for the Dutch government in the “Brainport” high tech region. Nam will talk about this project, which is very relevant for Tonsley and the economic development of South Australia, as Brainport is widely regarded as the international best practice reference case for a successful “Triple Helix” development.
​
Brainport is an innovation district and high-tech cluster in The Netherlands, that was developed out of necessity after Philips, DAF and various other major manufacturing companies almost simultaneously closed their industrial production facilities in the Eindhoven region, which is similar in population to Adelaide. Government decided to invest significant resources into what has become known as a triple helix structure, where government, businesses and knowledge institutions work hand in hand to develop an eco-system that is ideal for the creation of knowledge and valorisation of research in global (niche) markets. 

Over 2 decades of consistent policy have transformed Brainport into Europe's leading innovative top technology region, good for 40% of all R&D in The Netherlands, making The Netherlands the second most loved country for high tech companies world-wide (Bloomberg) and having Eindhoven region elected as smartest region in the world with the highest number of patents per capita (beating #2 San Diego area by a factor 7).

Now this is not where the Brainport story stops. The ambition is to make Brainport Smart District the most liveable adaptive residential area, using cutting edge research and technology to enhance socio-economic development. The question is what can we to do today to realise this ambition? This is where the Malik Institute came in to apply their proven Syntegration approach to analyse this complex challenge with countless stakeholders and relationships. 

What were the results and are there lessons to be learnt for South Australia?

---