The Women In Leadership program supports women in the Greater Whitsunday region who have the potential and drive to be workplace and/or community leaders. This program has been designed to help women grow and develop their leadership skills and opportunities especially if they’re interested in a leadership role, being on a committee or board, or wanting to step up in the organisation.

The Women in Leadership program combines face-to-face learning, personalised mentoring and industry networking to facilitate the following opportunities:
• Identify and leverage your individual strengths.
• Build self-awareness and confidence in skills and capabilities.
• Identify leadership skills.
• Develop a network of other local leaders.

The next Women In Leadership Program round will be announced soon.

Robotics, autonomous systems and sensing technologies sit at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution, at the intersection of physical and digital worlds. These technologies underpin self-driving cars, smart cities, autonomous drones, and sensor technology capturing data that will revolutionise and enhance industries.

The fast-growing robotics industry is expected to be worth $23 billion by 2025, with our local robotic industry already generating about $12 billion in revenue a year and employing almost 50,000 people.

Australia and its major industries such as mining and agriculture are primed to be transformed by robotics and autonomous system. The opportunity is in using robots and sensors to capture information about complex environments and to automate tasks that would otherwise be completed by humans in high-risk situations and at a greater cost.

Australia is building a robust, resilient and globally-competitive defence industry. It exports innovative defence technologies to key global partners and supports an agile and capable Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Some of our defence exports
• More than 70 companies share more than A$3 billion in contracts as part of the global Joint Strike Fighter Program investment. (Source: Australian Government 2023)
• Thales Australia Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles, designed and built in Australia, are used by a number of countries including Fiji, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
• The Nulka Active Missile Decoy protects ships from missiles and has been adopted by several nations. Its concept of a hovering rocket decoy was initiated in Australia by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and developed in partnership with the US Department of Defence and BAE systems. It is currently deployed on over 150 Australian, US and Canadian warships.
• Droneshield, an Australian company that makes innovative AI-based counter drone systems, in July 2023 received a record A$33 million order from a US government agency. It followed a $9.9 million order from another customer among the Five Eyes community.

Japanese processors, wholesalers, restaurant chains, supermarkets and premium food stores are proactively looking for new products that are safe, price-competitive and uniquely value-added overseas. Consumer buying patterns continue to influence demand, procurement and marketing.

Trends and opportunities include:
• Ageing demographic: Japan’s ageing population and rising single person households is increasing the demand for food products such as ready-to-eat meals.
• Unique products: Wholesalers look for products that are ‘interesting’ for consumers. ‘Unique’ and ‘high quality’ attributes are seen as strong selling points and are often used in marketing strategies. For instance, in many cases, products with a distinct ‘Australian’ flavour or feature are at an advantage
• Seasonal gifts: There is a strong gift culture in Japan around seasonal events such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year and Obon. Opportunities are open for food products that can be tailored to meet this seasonal demand.
• Natural products: The natural and organic market continues to gradually expand, opening up new opportunities. The emphasis is on natural ingredients which minimise additives and preservatives. Australian products in this area remain well regarded in terms of quality. However, competitive pricing remains a challenge.
• Sweets and snacks: Demand for confectionery and savoury snacks remain high with the focus on quality and uniqueness rather than the overall size of the product.
• Health food: Demand for healthy food is increasing due to an ageing and more health-conscious population. In response, Japanese manufacturers are focusing on healthy, functional and anti-ageing products.
• Growing cities: There is a growing demand for high quality, gourmet and uniquely packaged food products in some of Japan’s major cities. For example, as Japan’s overall population continues to decline, Tokyo’s population is expected to expand.

General purpose artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT, are quickly transforming the way AI systems are built and deployed.

While these technologies are expected to brin benefits in the coming year, their disruptive nature raises questions around privacy and intellectual property rights, liability and accountability, and concerns about the potential to spread disinformation and misinformation.

Is Australia’s housing crisis self-inflicted?

If so, then we need a series of reforms to reverse it

The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public and/or affordable housing.

Reform incentives that give more advantages to investors over owner-occupiers.

Reform on “no cause” evictions, where landlords can kick tenants out for no reason and make it within reason.

Make renting more Sustainable! Increase rent assistance or look at rental caps, similar to countries in Europe and some US states, long term tenancy agreements with incentives for all parties to the agreement.

The list goes on and we plan to have some robust conversations within this group that focus on solutions rather than the cause!

In Kindness

Allan 'Big Al' Connolly
Founder - Kommuniti HQ
Managing Director - The Whealth Group
Co-Chair - WA Alliance to End Homelessness,
and Lived Experience of Homelessness Expert
M: +61 411 468 337
W: bigalconnolly.org
E: admin@bigalconnolly.org
LI: linkedin.com/in/bigalconnolly  

Geotourism is a sustainable form of tourism based on the geodiversity of our environment and encourages learning about natural and cultural heritage. Australia’s natural and cultural geo-attractions are unique and complement existing tourism markets.

The rich geodiversity of our environment is an opportunity to support sustainable growth as well as adding value to the overall tourist experience. Despite the fact that we have an abundant geoheritage other countries only dream off, this great potential is currently still largely overlooked.

Geotourism is emerging as a new global phenomenon which fosters tourism based upon landscapes.

Its definition has recently been refined as a form of tourism that specifically focuses on the geology and landscapes which shape the character of a region.

The University of New South Wales, also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive universities.

Food Agility makes innovation easier. We broker, design and deliver innovation programs for the Australian agrifood industry, ensuring maximum impact for investment. We specialise in using data and digital technology to increase profits and improve sustainability.

The Soil CRC (CRC for High Performance Soils) was established in 2017 to give farmers the knowledge and tools they need to make decisions on extremely complex soil management issues.
By bridging a gap between soil scientists and farmers, we will ensure that soil performance is increased not just in the short term, but in the long term.
Our practical, real-world outputs will allow farmers to optimise their productivity, yield and profitability, and ensure the long-term sustainability of their farming businesses.
Through its soil research and innovation program, the Soil CRC will develop new solutions that will unlock the potential of Australia’s agricultural sector.
It will address the billions of dollars in lost opportunity experienced by farmers and regional communities due to infertile and underperforming soils.
CRCs are led by passionate and motivated industry partners, and draw in the brightest researchers from across Australia to address issues of national significance.
• New mechanisms for financially rewarding management of high performance soils.
• New integrated soil management solutions that provide greater precision for farmers.
• New ways to measure the performance of soils.
• New advanced and innovative products to increase soil fertility and function.

Australia has capabilities along most of the space industry supply chain. By far the strongest areas are in applications where Australia has experience in integrating space sourced data into communications, Earth Observations from Space and Global Navigational Satellite Services (GNSS).

Manufacturing
Australia has no capability in the manufacture of large satellites and limited capability in design and specification of launch vehicles. However it does have capability in the specification and design of communications satellites through Optus and an emerging capability in the design and manufacture of nano- and micro-satellites in universities and emerging start-up companies.
Manufacturing of satellite sub-systems is an emerging capability that has good prospects. This includes high performance optics, radio communications systems, optical communications systems and on-board data handling. Many of these activities build on Australia’s capability in the manufacture of ground-based optical systems for astronomy, satellite laser ranging and space debris tracking.

Agriculture is a key industry in the Murray, both economically and for the unique scenic and environmental qualities of the rural lands.

There is a rich diversity of agricultural commodities and highly innovative in the processing and development of food and beverage products. The area is particularly important for broadacre crops, pigs, beef, dairy and wool production.

The Mediterranean climate, reliable high-quality water supplies, mostly flat ground and well-drained soils provide important agricultural lands suitable for cropping, horticulture and grazing.

Water trading has driven water into higher value irrigated businesses and environmental water recovery has reduced water availability throughout the Murray Darling Basin.

Challenges for agriculture are connected to climate change, commodity prices and in some areas, land use conflict and right to farm.

We want to reduce harm caused by fire and floods by harnessing the collective power of communities, industry, government, philanthropy and the research sector to lift Australia to be the global leader in fire and flood resilience by 2025.

We see ourselves as an enabler, facilitating dialogue, orchestrating and convening groups (people, businesses, government, philanthropy and the research sector), and relying on ground truth from active community-focused programs, to identify the most important resilience-related problems and enable the most effective solutions to be delivered faster.

As a not-for-profit, we go where the evidence takes us. Finally, we are an impact investor. We will make investments when and where they are needed to lift fire and flood resilience. We have a strong balance sheet to ensure the program is a success.

AusAgritech is shaping the future of Agritech in Australia and its contribution to the Australian economy. Agritech is a standalone sector which applies technology to the agri-food supply chain, and contemporaneously crosses over into energy, water, sustainability, environment, climate, industry and emissions reduction.

Our world leading Agritech sector is on the frontline enabling on-farm and supply chain adoption of technology, as well as building a clean, green and sustainable future. It is the cornerstone of transforming the way we farm, how the supply chain operates, drives a world leading export reputation and is a key enabler of sustainability and climate adaptation through the development of commercial and scaled applied technology solutions.

The Agritech industry powers Australia when it strives to reach its national level agricultural productivity, export, sustainability and digitilisation goals.

We exist to bring the Agritech ecosystem to the table to grow a vibrant sector.