ACS NSW Symposium and Annual Dinner 2016

The ACS NSW Team and Branch Executive Committee would like to thank everyone who joined us to celebrate our 50th Anniversary at the ACS State Symposium and Annual Dinner and helped make it an event to remember!

Opened by Richard Baecher, ACS NSW BEC Chair, and followed by a warm welcome by Andrew Johnson, ACS CEO, this inaugural event recognised past innovation that has brought us to where we are today and highlighted trends and developments in the technology sector.

Presentations began with Hilda Clune, CIO of PwC Australia, as she spoke about embracing emerging technologies and how they can impact your business.  She addressed the importance of fluid shared work spaces to create an innovative work environment and ensure we focus on bringing people and technology together at this time of exponential rate of change.

Chris Joscelyne, Managing Director at Australian Projects, continued by highlighting, not only the threats that are arising in new technologies in the work place, but also in our personal lives, how we continue to ensure our data is protected at work yet still need to be aware of the threats emerging from social media sites that are an attack on our personal security.

Emma Hossack, CEO of Extensia, concluded the presentations by discussing productivity and innovation in the IT industry and how the industry can help highlight the value of IT to productivity, innovation and privacy.

Facilitated by Peter Black, Executive Coaching Partner, ALCHEMY Career Management, and joined by our presenters and Ty Miller, Director of Threat Intelligence, the afternoon Panel Session finished with a lively exchange and discussion on how we connect people with the continuous changes in technology.

At dinner, The Honorable Michael Kirby AC CMG reflected on the speech he made 40 years ago to the ACS whilst reflecting on ACS history over the last 50 years.  He addressed the current environment we now live in, and how there needs to be a celebration of the diversity we have to offer in Australia which should be embraced so we can continue to evolve.

Thank you to all our sponsors and exhibitors, including, Hays Recruiting, eCorner, HCF, Blue Chilli, DDLS, UTS, Real World Technology Solutions, SP Jain and the ACS Foundation and everyone who attended this memorable event.  Thank you to everyone for your contribution to ACS in our first 50 years, and as we look forward to our next 50 years on and beyond.