The first presentation after lunch was from Agworld, a cloud-based platform for the agriculture industry. The Agworld platform uses zero-typing data capture in the form of the pen and replaced this with a digital pen, connected to a data capture system, to store data.

The second presentation was from Scott Frew (someone I have known for about 15 years since he ran the value-added distributor LAN Systems) from iAsset. Frew’s new company provides a platform for managing channel-based sales. The company already has customers around the planet, including Telstra and NetApp, and can be integrated with ERP tools and even Google Earth to visually represent assets. The system can also manage training to ensure that channel partners are skilled up appropriately.

The third presentation was from Dr Ashod Donikian from Navisens, which uses personal sensors to monitor the location of people in environments where methods such as GPS don’t work, such as underground. The technology can provide the location and status of personnel to prevent overcrowding in certain sections of a mine, or to determine the locations of workers in emergency situations. The technology is also suitable for use in battlefield situations. The wearer carries a device with a range of sensors, including inertial sensors, which offloads its data whenever it is connected to a network, and the output can be connected to whatever transmitter is appropriate.

The final presentation was from The Early Warning Network, which provides an early warning service for severe disturbances and disasters in real time. People receive notifications through multiple media to an accuracy of about 10 metres in real time. The company has multiple users already, with hundreds of thousands of alerts issued in Australia every month.