Pivot Summit preps for launch

IN ITS fourth year, Pivot Summit will look at the balance between technology and humanity.

The annual business, entrepreneurship and tech conference is expanding to a two-day format this year, and will be held on Friday May 3 and Saturday May 4.

The event, to be held at Deakin University’s Waterfront campus, will present the best and brightest people in their fields, to discuss key aspects of how we relate to technology – and how sometimes we are at odds with it.

As humanity advances and technology evolves, we do not fully understand the impacts of the technologies we are creating.

Increasingly we are handing control to machines and sometimes it leaves us outside our comfort zone.

Pivot Summit will host open discussions about the implications of allowing AI to make decisions for us, think carefully about the impact of accepting news chosen for us by algorithms and look closer at the dangers of device addiction. Discussion around these issues has never been more critical.

Technology is more exciting and engaging than ever. We are finding new and more costeffective ways to explore outer space, while the exploration of inner space through fully immersive gaming and eSport has become our preferred entertainment.

Pivot Summit’s headline speaker will be Torquay-born Dr Elizabeth Jens, a propulsion scientist who works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Other speakers include futurist and tech commentator Steve Sammartino; Professor Michael Berk, the Alfred Deakin Chair of Psychiatry at Deakin University; Launchvic chief executive officer Dr Kate Cornick; and Girl Geek Academy co-founder and chief executive officer Sarah Moran.

The event’s co-masters of ceremonies will be TV presenter and video game critic Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen and actor Francis Greenslade.