Step into the future at Hybrid World Adelaide

For the first time in Australia -- we'll get a peek at the potential evolution of technology. The digital world will entwine with reality, through a vast public program for all generations, and an industry facing, hands-on development lab for new inventions.

Everyone from digital-savvy experts and industry professionals, to gamers, YouTubers and drone enthusiasts will get a glimpse of this exciting new world.

There's a change happening in the world, and it all began when technology became an integral part of our lifestyle. We have become reliant on what was once thought of as complex devices to make life easier. How can digital technology extend human senses and capabilities? What comes after the smartphone? And ultimately, how do we protect ourselves in a cyber world?

Global leaders in biotechnology, space engineering and brain-computer interfaces will give people a feel for the future at the Hybrid World Adelaide (HWA) industry conference.

From October 4-8 at the Tonsley Innovation District in beautiful Adelaide, HWA will give people the opportunity to understand the latest developments in technology and science.

"HWA will delve into hotbed topics that businesses and industries are experiencing as advanced technologies take over" said Robert Tercek, creative director of HWA industry events. Tercek was instrumental in helping to curate HWA, alongside one of Australia's leading gaming and tech experts, Janet Gaëta (nee Carr). Gaëta is well known for helping to bring the interactive world into the homes of Australians, through her ABC TV shows Good Game, Good Game Pocket and Spawn Point.

"Hybrid World Adelaide has been designed as a global and regional idea exchange: Our goal is to establish this event as an annual meeting of the boldest visionary thinkers in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Rim and eventually the entire world," Tercek said.

He said the best way for professional technologists and innovators to understand the latest developments is to travel and witness them firsthand. With international experts attending HWA, "there'll be a focus on what South Australian innovation has to offer in robotics, agriculture, spacecraft, artificial intelligence and virtual reality."

Conference themes include: Digital Augmentation, Digital Infusion, Digital Currency, Digital Substitution and Digital Transformation.

Tercek said that the streams on the digital augmentation theme will open a window to what the future could hold for humans.

"Augmentation is about the ability to do more with digital technology," he said. "Think of it as digital technology that adds new capability to innate human skill, and digital extensions of human senses and human power. It can also be digital-mechanical hybrids that can do things biological humans cannot".

"The 2017 HWA program will also focus on how biology is evolving from a wet science to a computational science via genomics, genetic engineering, CRISPR-Cas9, wide-area sensor arrays, big data and data analytics in the Digital infusion theme," he said.

According to Tercek, for businesses looking to find out how this new world affects them, the theme of Digital Substitution and Digital transformation will hold a lot of value.

"Substitution is about replacing physical things with software. There are digital substitutes for more than two million things already – the physical is being 'vapourised' into software. This good and bad – it creates destruction that leads to reinvention," he said.

"The Digital Transformation theme will look at reinventing business; how digital technology creates an opportunity to reimagine an existing industry and redirect it along a new trajectory."

Hybrid World Adelaide's international speakers include futurist and catalyst in biological technologies, Andrew Hessel; space engineer, Flavia Tata Nardini; technologist, entrepreneur and educator, Dr Phillip Alvelda; Mandy Simpson, Chief Executive at Wellington-based cybersecurity consultancy Cyber Toa and Co-founder and CEO at AgriDigital, Emma Weston.

HWA will also appeal to those who want to be hands-on and have an interactive experience. The public program will give visitors (young and old), the opportunity to touch and experience this futuristic technology. Daily workshops will also help attendees learn to code, hone their YouTube skills and even become part of the world of the walking dead in the narrative-based Zombie Apocalypse game by Zedtown.

"Digital technology has begun to infuse the world around us, and this process is going to reinvent the way the whole world works," said Tercek.

While the public program is free of charge, conference tickets are currently on sale on the HWA website - tickets to the public workshops are not yet in the market.