About the Event

Australia's Premier Connected Technology Conference

Driving practical outcomes in trustworthiness, security, digital governance, and industry transformation.

About the Connecting Technology Summit

This event brings together Australia's technology leaders, practitioners, and policy makers to tackle the critical challenges facing connected systems today. Over three days, you’ll engage and network with the people building Australia's trusted technology infrastructure, defining best practice, and transforming industries and government through secure, connected systems.

What makes this event valuable:

• A focus on practical outcomes, not theoretical discussions
• Direct access to technology developers and policy makers
• Real-world case studies from organisations solving today's challenges
• Business development opportunities with demand-side stakeholders
• Government engagement on policy shaping Australia's trusted digital future.

SUMMIT PROGRAM

Tuesday 1 September

5:30-7:30pm. Welcome Reception

Wednesday 2 September: Plenary Day

9:00am. Welcome

9:15am. Opening Keynote

Hon Tony Burke MP | Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security

The Minister will open the Summit with the Government's position on securing Australia's connected technology landscape. Horizon 2 of the Cyber Security Strategy will be featured, the legislative and regulatory settings now in play, and what industry will be expected to deliver over the next two years.

9:35am. Trusted by Design: How Australia Is Securing Its Connected Device Marketplace

Moderator: Frank Zeichner | Program Director, Security Labelling Scheme for Smart Devices, Connected Technology Alliance

Guests:

• Ciara Spencer | Deputy Secretary of National Security, Department of Home Affairs
• Anthony Barnes | CEO, Viden
• Grace Burkard | Director of Operations, ioXt

Australia's Security Labelling Scheme for Smart Devices moves from design into delivery. The team building it, the department backing it and the industry implementing it discuss scheme architecture, conformance pathways, alignment with the EU Cyber Resilience Act and UK PSTI, and what manufacturers should be preparing for now.

10:30am. Networking Break

11:00am. Sensors to Sense: Connected Technology Scaled for Good

Guests:

• Darren Hungerford | Executive General Manager, xDNA
• Sam Sneddon | Co-Founder, SumClimate
• David Wright | Co-CEO, CIM

Deployment detail from industry leaders running connected technology at scale across energy networks, climate measurement and urban systems. The session covers what the data is actually used for, where value sits between sensing and decision-making, and the integration work that determines whether a deployment generates value.

12:30pm. Networking Lunch

1:30pm. Bringing Intelligence into the Real World: Australia's Physical AI Future

Moderator: Kriv Naicker | Board Co-Chair, IoT Forum New Zealand | Board Member, Connected Technology Alliance | Managing Director, Synaptic

Guests:

• Cori Stewart | Chair, ARM Hub 
• Representative | Robotics Australia Group
• Adam Beck | CEO, Connected Technology Alliance

Robotics, advanced manufacturing and industrial automation leaders assess Australia's position in physical AI. The discussion covers sovereign capability, the workforce and infrastructure gaps constraining adoption, and where local industry can realistically compete rather than import. Practical constraints get equal weight with the opportunity.

This session will include an overview of the Alliance's proposition for a Physical AI Trustworthiness Framework co-designed with government and industry, to enable the advancement of structured disclosure that can build confidence and unlock Australia's Physical AI opportunity.

3:30pm. Networking Break

4:00pm. Closing: Connecting the Threads - Leading voices on What's Next

• Roy Green | Emeritus Professor, University of Technology Sydney
• Judy Anderson | Board Chair, Connected Technology Alliance

5:00pm. Networking Drinks

Thursday 3 September: Roundtable Day

9:00am-12:00pm. Roundtable 1: What Trust Requires - Horizon 2 and Industry Readiness

Co-hosted with the Department of Home Affairs

Australia's Cyber Security Strategy has moved into its second horizon, and Action 2.1 sets a clear commitment: Australians should be able to trust their digital products and platforms.

Turning that commitment into a working regime is the harder problem, and it is the problem this roundtable takes on. Co-hosted with the Department of Home Affairs, the session works through the questions the sector still has to resolve, including scope and product coverage, conformance and evidence, enforcement, and how Australia's approach sits alongside the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the UK PSTI regime. The Security Labelling Scheme for Smart Devices provides the practical reference point throughout.

This is a working session built on contribution rather than presentation. Participants bring their own view of what implementation requires from where they sit, whether that is a manufacturer weighing conformance costs, a policy team sequencing obligations, or an operator specifying assured devices in procurement.

The session suits technologists, policy leads, regulatory and compliance specialists, standards practitioners, and product security teams working on connected device assurance.

9:00am-12:00pm. Roundtable 2: AI at the Edge - Building Physical AI Opportunities in Australia

Physical AI systems are already sensing, deciding and acting across Australia, on roads, in mines, on farms and increasingly in aged care and disability services. We tend to talk about Physical AI as a single thing, but it is a layered stack of sensors, perception and models, control and actuation, and edge and cloud compute.

Trust, risk and accountability sit differently at each layer. In July the Alliance brought industry, government and research together to ask whether Australia needs a voluntary Physical AI Disclosure Scheme. The room supported the idea, and this roundtable takes the next step and dives into the tech stack and the discusses the relevant domains for building trust.

The morning runs in three parts. Participants work through the technical stack together, layer by layer, asking what can go wrong, what can realistically be known, and who holds that knowledge. Participants will then map where trust is genuinely at risk and where the benefits of adoption are strongest. The final session opens the Alliance's draft Physical AI Trustworthiness Framework to challenge, with its thirteen domains and five level disclosure maturity scale. 

If you build, integrate, operate, specify, buy or regulate connected technology with a view to embedding AI, this is the roundtable to be at.

Event Speakers

Event Sponsors