In what has been called "Australiasia's SXSW", Pause Fest will return for its ninth year in 2019 and has just revealed the first round of speakers so you can press play on your passion for the creative tech industry. 

Held at Melbourne's iconic Federation Square early February, next year the festival theme will be 'Intimate Future' and "will focus on the topics that analyse human interaction with technology, how it's challenging our social fabric and the possible consequences of this future". 

Leaders from some brands you might have heard of like Google, Amazon, YouTube, NASA, Airbnb and a bunch of local innovators and creatives will come together to engage in a number of workshops and panels on various themes, one of which is music. 

Speaking about the event, Pause Fest founder, George Hedon said, “We live in a world where anything is possible." 

"The digital revolution has sparked the new gold rush, where entrepreneurs have the ability to rewrite how we live. All you need is an internet connection and a phone to access tools that are more powerful than those that put a man on the moon.

“Australia is known as ‘the lucky country’ - globally envied as one of the most liveable places in the world. So, why are we moving slower than the rest of the world when it comes to innovation? Pause Fest is on a mission to help Australia think big and think global, and I am proud to say we have been doing this now for nine years."

As part of the 2019 event, the festival is also set to announce the first winners of the Pause Creators Award, "given to the companies who are building the Australian tech ecosystem and leading the charge when it comes to thinking big and global". 

"The winners of each of the seven categories will be announced tonight at the launch event at ACMI X," Hedon said.

Tickets for Pause Fest 2019 are on sale now. Check out the first release speakers list below.

Pause Fest 2019 First Speaker Announcement

Google - Rachael O'Meara (Sales Executive and Author of Pause) 

Cisco - Kate O'Keefe (Founder and Senior Director, Cisco CHILL) 

J. Walter Thompson's Innovation Group - Emma Chiu (Creative innovation director)

Amazon - Cecilia Ambros (Head of Generative Research & Data Science) 

Discovery Network - Shawn Johnson (Global VP of Product & Design for Discovery Communications) 

InVision - Stephen Gates (Head of Design Transformation) 

YouTube - Paolo Malabuyo (UX Director)

Airbnb - Julia Khusainova (Experience Design Manager)

Cloudfare - Junade Ali (Manager of Engineering Operations)

Atlassian - Dominic Price (Head of R&D - Futurist)



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