Today I’ll be (almost) live-blogging from the Digital Directions 2011 conference in Sydney. An initiative of Fairfax Media and X Media Lab, Digital Directions gathers some of the world’s foremost media speakers to present on the evolution of the global media industry.

After an introduction from Fairfax’s Jack Matthews the day was kicked off by recently-appointed Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, who stated that Fairfax has to be immersed and has to contribute to the digital transformation of media. Fairfax Digital will soon to be the second largest revenue earner in Fairfax Media.  The company has more than 1 million apps downloaded, 200 websites, and twice the mobile traffic of its largest competitor, News Limited. He also reiterated Fairfax’s commitment to quality journalism.

Most media companies are exploring the concepts of audience, a few like Fairfax, are taking that one step further and thinkingg about audience in terms of experience,” he said. “We have an understand of what is driving people to access news, views and content, and why and when they are using the various devices they are using. The key to this is high quality content.”

He also talked about art, with the meeting of science and art being where the giant leaps are made.

“In the media landscape we must embrace left and right brain thinking” Hywood said.