SolutionCity ICT Industry Business Luncheon

On Friday 20 August at the Hilton International around 70 of the State’s leading figures in the ICT industry attended a SolutionCity luncheon addressed by Bob Bishop, Chair of Silicon Graphics International (SGI).  Bob spoke about the exciting challenges and opportunities in the ICT arena and mentioned the new high power processing centres that SGI have recently installed at the Adelaide University and encouraged industry to use these computers to work through research problems. He said that ICT is THE enabler for all other industries. He compared it with fire in the Stone Age.

Bob shared his views on the ICT industry, in particular that it is the great enabler for all other industries as they seek to improve their productivity and grow their exports into new markets.  For South Australia, Bob indicated that he believed our ICT industry’s future was in developing niche markets particularly as we seek to secure export growth.  He said that we have "the agility, the flexibility and the collaborative skills necessary to compete on a global basis." To put the world economy in perspective Bob noted that 95% of the world’s GDP is in the northern hemisphere and that we must use technology to create opportunities and gain access to these high value markets.  He said "to out compete we must out compute".  Bob cited examples of niche areas which he felt may be relevant for us to focus our energy, including, bio-innovation; mining and minerals; food; land management and sports.

He believes we should look at other small regions and learn from them. Israel is very small, but very smart. They have 150 ICT companies on the NASDAQ. He believes the SolutionCity Brand can work for the industry and the State.

Finally he believes it is up to the industry and the people in the industry to make the difference.