The pandemic and the emergence of new technologies has created “fertile ground” for Australian companies to innovate, according to Verizon Asia-Pacific vice-president Rob Le Busque.
There is a growing positive outlook in the local region around the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying change in the focus on technology in everyday life and across business sectors, Mr Le Busque said.
“When you look at Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, there’s a rising sense of optimism,” Mr Le Busque told InnovationAus.
“The other thing I’d use to describe it is this rapid acceleration of capability and investment. If we’ve learnt one thing in the last two years with the pandemic response it’s just how interdependent on technology our societies, our healthcare and our workplaces are. That has changed and shifted the dynamic about how we’ll go forward as societies and nations.”
Verizon is a platinum sponsor of the inaugural InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence. Mr Le Busque said Australia has a long and proud history of innovation and pioneering new technologies, like the electronic pacemaker and the black box flight recorder, and the upheaval of the recent years will provide “fertile ground” for new innovations.
“Australia has a rich history of innovation, particularly in the tech region,” he said.
“The convergence of societal change, new waves of technology, access capability and access to capital markets coming together to provide a really fertile ground for innovation for the Australian business community.”
One significant area for potential new developments is around 5G technology, he said.
“I truly don’t believe that the true killer app or many of the use cases that will accelerate our economy and opportunities on 5G have even been imagined yet,” Mr Le Busque said.
“When we talk about the technology as a platform, there are eight attributes of 5G that are very different to previous wireless networks. Just two of those alone – very high bandwidth and very low latency – are critical when you think about autonomous vehicles, drone control and management.
“Once tech organisations start to really grip up and understand the capability of the network we’re going to see some amazing things.”
The nominees for the InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence represent how Australia’s proud history of innovation is continuing today, he said.
“They’re all fantastic companies and what it really represents and the reason why we’re proud to be associated with it is tapping into the rich legacy of innovation and forward thinking,” Mr Le Busque said.
“Australia has a very rich legacy of more than 100 years of innovation, design and new ideas, and all the organisations we’re looking at in the awards represent that today.”
This content was produced as part of Verizon’s Platinum sponsorship of the InnovationAus 2021 Awards for Excellence. The Awards will be presented at a gala black-tie dinner held on Wednesday 1 December in Sydney.
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