Freight transport is an important driver for regional development. According to current estimates the Australian freight task is expected to double by 2020, a tendency that poses as challenge to existing road, rail and port infrastructure. Strategic investments and upgrades in regional transport infrastructure are pivotal in order to ensure the future prosperity and progress in regional centres.

Australia’s population is expected to reach 35 million by 2050 and the nation’s regional towns will play an important role in supporting sustainable growth and connecting people with employment hubs. With the second phase of the federally funded High Speed Rail study currently under way, it is time to assess the opportunities Very Fast Trains could bring for regional centres in the proximity of the rail corridor.

Moreover, developing an integrated transport plan for the regional hubs surrounding our capital cities has become a major focus across all levels of government. South East Queensland and within that the Gold Coast are currently leading the way in local governance, providing first class modern passenger transport and planning for predicted population growth. With stage one of the construction for Gold Coast Rapid Transit due for completion in 2014 and the successful bid for the Commonwealth Games 2018 expected to further boost the advancement of the city’s integrated transport plan, the Gold Coast provides the ideal setting to discuss the future transport needs for Australia’s regions.

The AJM Global Iron Ore & Steel Forecast Conference is back in 2012!

WHAT’S ON THE 2012 AGENDA?

• Comprehensive industry reviews and market forecasts
• Will iron ore supply not match the pace of demand growth keeping prices high?
• Has China’s consumption of steel peaked?
• Meeting demand – The push to expedited timetables for new projects and expansions
• Will Africa overcome the challenges of political risk and infrastructure to be the next great frontier in the iron ore market?
• Investment consideration for funding new iron ore projects
• Strategic Chinese & Indian investment in the Australian iron ore sector set to increase?
• Update on partnerships, consolidation and takeovers
• The continuing evolution of the pricing system
• What role will the introduction of a China iron ore price index play? How will this affect domestic and imported ore pricing?
• How will iron ore miners expand output with increasing development costs, poor access to infrastructure, rising finance costs and tightening labour markets?
• What effect will transhipment hubs in Asia have on Vale’s penetration in Asia and supply from Australia?
• Australia’s new iron ore provinces in South Australia, Mid West & Northern territory – What role will they play?

If you’d like more information on the conference, you can download the brochure here (filling in a form required).

The questions we asked were:
1. Stuxnet hit the headlines in 2010 and altered SCADA security across the globe. What key lessons were learned?
2. What are the key emerging issues facing SCADA teams for 2011 and beyond?
3. What benefits are achieved from attending this event? Is face to face networking lessened with internet communication?
4. Commonwealth countries, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand co-operate and share resources to increase SCADA resilience via CyberStorm exercises. Will these exercises need to occur more frequently with emerging platforms such as SmartGrid?

If you’d like more information, go to the SCADA Conference official website.

The Social Media in Government Conferenceseeks to provide local, state and federal government agencies with a series of case studies that demonstrate best practice in the implementation of social media in government context. It will also cover some of the issues surrounding social media, including formulating internal and external social media policies, privacy issues, and ethics issues. Topics that will be discussed include:

• Developing the Communications strategy and budget – Budgeting for social media & the importance of identifying your objective
• Social Media for improving service delivery
• Rationalising records: Using recordkeeping to manage your risk, reputation and ROI in the web 2.0 world
• Working with M-Sites, Smartphone Apps & Tablets
• CASE STUDY: From Jedi Knights to John Farnham – Social media and the 2011 Census
• CASE STUDY: ACT Government – Community Cabinet via Twitter
• CASE STUDY: Targeting for open government – Building a social media strategy for the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence

Click here if you’d like a copy of the brochure (filling in a form required).

The 7th annual AIMIA Digital Media Summit gathered the leading experts in digital industry and forward-thinking executives wishing to stay up to date with the latest trends in the digital world, and heard the most insightful case studies across Australia.

We were fortunate to get a few minutes of exclusive time with TigerSpike’s Alex Burke, BlueChilli’s Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, Lenovo’s Amanda Suefong and Amnesia Razorfish’s Ben Hourahine.

Enjoy the video!

We had the chance to speak with Andrew Davis, Agency Director of Tapit, who will be speaking at the 7th Annual AIMIA Digital Summit on the 24th-26th of October in Sydney.

Questions:
1. You’re speaking on day 2 of our 7th Annual AIMIA Digital Summit. Can you give us a brief overview about Tapit and your work on Near Field Communication?
2. Where do you see this technology being applied the most and what can digital consumers expect from this technology?
3. How can digital experts use NFC in their campaigns now and what advice would you give digital strategists looking to integrate NFC into their digital strategy?
4. As a start up, how important is it to be seen at industry events such as the AIMIA Digital Summit and what can we expect from your presentation on day 2 of the conference?
5. Finally, what do you hope to get out the conference and what are you looking forward to the most?

For more information, please click here or contact +61 2 9080 4307.
Follow us on Twitter @aimiasummit or the hashtag #AIMIASummit!

Suicide Prevention Policy in Australia 2011

The Inaugural Forum for Suicide Prevention Policy in Australia will answer questions based on the effectiveness of various suicide prevention strategies, unveiling the latest developments and addressing concerns related to the prevention of suicide in Australia such as outpatient management of a highly suicidal patient, the provision of ongoing support to caregivers, understanding the challenges of physical and mental illness in suicidal behaviour, the impact of alcohol and substance abuse, assessing why younger, older and Indigenous males are at greater risk of suicide and more importantly, what suicide prevention strategies need to be in place?

This forum will focus on practicalities and direct intervention techniques, with real-life case studies, two panel discussions on whether Euthanasia should be legalised and whether the government should invest more funds on early intervention or on the prevention of suicides.

Confirmed speakers to-date include:

• Professor David Horgan, Founder, Director, Australian Suicide Prevention Foundation
• Nick Maise, Founder and Director, Befriend
• Peter Ryan, Diocesan President, St Vincent De Paul Society, South Australia

Get the latest program:
To download the program for this Forum, please go here.

Getting involved with the Forum:
We are currently in the process of developing the conference program. If you are interested in speaking at this event, please contact Mita Narottam on (+61 2) 9080 4119, or email mita.narottam@informa.com.au.

For sponsorship/exhibition opportunities, please contact Samuel Wilson on on (+61 2) 9080 4371 or email samuel.wilson@informa.com.au.

We had a chance to interview Mark Fabro at SCADA Conference 2010 and asked him these questions.

1. Stuxnet hit the headlines in 2010 and altered SCADA security across the globe. What key lessons were learned?

2. What are the key emerging issues facing SCADA teams for 2011 and beyond?

3. What benefits are achieved from attending this event? Is face to face networking lessened with internet communication?

4. Commonwealth countries, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand co-operate and share resources to increase SCADA resilience via CyberStorm exercises. Will these exercises need to occur more frequently with emerging platforms such as SmartGrid?

Keep up to date with the latest in the program and connect to the speakers before the Summit – get the App here.

Download your AIMIA Digital Summit brochure here.

Looking forward to seeing you guys in Sydney on the 24-26 October at the Sydney Harbour Marriott !

The Digital Money Summit happening on the 28-29 Nov 2011 in Sydney will explore the existing pros and cons for Australia developing its contactless payment methods.
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Australia went from lagging to leading the worldwide smartphone revolution in just one year, a major study by Google has revealed.

But about four out of five Australian websites are not optimised for smartphones.

Mobile internet usage by Australians now rivals that of PCs for activities like social networking and, soon, shopping, Google found.

Behind Singapore, Australia has the highest smartphone penetration in the world at 37 per cent and we’re also consuming more apps, the research revealed. Australians have on average 25 apps on their phone (eight of which are paid), versus 23 for the US and Britain.

Google teamed up with IPSOS Research to interview 30,000 people in 30 countries about how they use their smartphones. A total of 2000 Australians were included.

Australians are increasingly buying stuff via their mobiles with almost a quarter of us having done so in the past. Even with the lack of mobile support from Australian businesses, PayPal Australia reports that throughout 2010 mobile transactions increased by 25 per cent every month.

“The rise of smartphones is dramatically increasing the use of the internet overall in Australia and … we’re seeing mobile usage and smartphone usage starting to approach or even match PC usage,” said Ryan Hayward, Google’s mobile product marketing manager for the Asia-Pacific region.

Australians are 33 per cent more likely than those in the US and Britain to do mobile real estate searches and we’re also leading the way in mobile banking, with Australians 65 per cent more likely than the British and 14 per cent more likely than Americans to conduct banking on our phones.

Hayward believes mobile internet usage could soon eclipse PC internet usage as 36 per cent of respondents said they expected to use the web more on the smartphone in the future compared to 28 per cent for the PC.

“We found that with Google Maps, which is one of our marquee products, usage on the mobile phone has already exceeded the desktop globally,” he said.

“The smartphone is not a toy, it’s extremely fundamental and Google is adjusting to it very quickly.”

Hayward said social networking was one category where the gap between mobile and PC usage had closed the most. Sharing of photos and other updates using our phones is now virtually equal to the level of sharing we do from our PCs.

Searches are one of the most popular uses of the mobile internet. Two in five Australians search on their smartphones daily as opposed to three in five on their PC.

Australians are also using their smartphones to find local businesses and a third of Australian smartphone users have made a web-based purchased after conducting a local search.

PayPal Australia said its own experience also showed that Australians were increasingly buying things using their smartphones. Throughout 2010 mobile transactions for PayPal in Australia increased by 25 per cent month on month.

“More than 10 per cent of PayPal Australia’s four million active account holders have transacted on mobile,” said PayPal spokesman Adrian Christie.

“In the last six months over 2000 Australian online merchants have accepted their first mobile payment with PayPal.”

Recent figures from Nielsen put the total volume for the Australian mobile payments market for 2010 at $155 million.

But Google’s research found that in addition to buying things with our phones we’re also using them to compare prices of products before buying and one in five of us have changed our mind about buying something while inside the store.

The rise of smartphones in Australia is a relatively new phenomenon. The research found that four out of five respondents who had a smartphone said it was their first one and one in three bought their smarpthone in the last six months.

“These numbers show that Australia went from lagging to leading the worldwide smartphone revolution in just one year,” Google said.

The growth in mobile internet use is being driven by the iPhone with Apple the smartphone brand used by 46 per cent of respondents, followed by Nokia (19 per cent), Samsung (nine per cent) and HTC (nine per cent).

Hayward said it made sense for Singapore to have a higher smartphone penetration than Australia but some may consider us the true number one.

“Singapore is quite small, it’s less than 10 million people, it’s a city state, there’s a tonne of expats,” he said.

Hayward described the study as the first of its kind worldwide (“it’s the most countries and the most people with the same questions”), and Google plans to release the full report for free in a month on a website called “our mobile planet”.