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technical evangelist Robert Scoble has told a conference of entrepreneurs they must get used to the idea that there is no such thing as privacy anymore.
“Privacy is dead,” Scoble declared at the SouthStart Conference held in Adelaide, South Australia this week.
He was speaking on the advances of augmented reality, especially wearables, at the conference organized as part of South Australia’s Entrepreneur’s Week.
Scoble said he had stopped in Israel on the way to Adelaide and had seen first hand how surveillance could be used not only to track people for security but also to make life easier for consumers.
“Technology allows us to look for patterns in people’s lives and then reward customers by using these patterns by saving them ‘clicks’ and therefore increasing sales,” said Scoble, giving the example of being able to order a coffee, pick it up and pay for it all with one click instead of three.
Scoble was one of eight keynote speakers at SouthStart, which also featured workshops and panel discussions on subjects from fintech to disruption to Adelaide’s advantages as a startup hub.
SouthStart Managing Director Chhai Thach said SouthStart had put Adelaide on the map as one of Australia’s leading cities for entrepreneurial thinking.
“We’re hoping the ideas and technical knowledge shared at SouthStart will inspire the next generation of start-ups, and also help established businesses to stay motivated and well connected with peers, investors, and mentors to help them succeed,” Thach said.
The SouthStart Conference was one of 40 events held during Entrepreneur’s Week 2016, a big increase on the 16 events held last year.
Paul Daly, an entrepreneurship and innovation consultant with Invest Adelaide – a department tasked with bringing investment into the City of Adelaide – said the program expanded so quickly that the ‘week’ had to be extended over 10 days to fit it all in.
“We contemplated calling it Entrepreneur’s Month when it grew so big, but the bulk of events are one during the week so we kept with the original name,” he said.
Daly has also pulled together a map (below) of all the hundreds of opportunities and help available to entrepreneurs in South Australia and, in conjunction with tech hub Majoran, will release the interactive map in the coming weeks.
The final event of Entrepreneur’s Week will be Disrupters and the eNVIes awards from graduates of the New Venture Institute at Flinders University on June 23.
Disrupters will feature a panel discussion by Vinomofo co-founder and CEO Andre Eikmeier, Expr3ss! joint founder and managing director Dr Glyn Brokensha, Joust co-founder Mark Bevan, Blue Sky Venture Capital investment director Elaine Stead; and Uber General Manager Australia and New Zealand, David Rohrsheim.
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