Melbourne lands tech world expo

TECH heads are set for digital coup. Melbourne is about to score a world expo and business summit for new technologies.

A WORLD expo and business summit for digital technology will be staged in Melbourne for the first time this year in a coup expected to pour more than $2 million into the Victorian economy.

Magnify World Expo, the Asia-Pacific’s leading ­augmented and digital reality conference, will bring more than 700 of the world’s entrepreneurs and industry experts to Melbourne.

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Leading minds from the world’s of film, TV, advertising, branding, gaming and artificial intelligence will meet at the conference on August 24-25.

The second day of the summit at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre will be open to the public and share never before seen technology from global and Australian companies.

Melbourne Convention Bureau chief executive Karen Bolinger said the Victorian capital was the ideal host city.

“Victoria is renowned as an innovative and creative state, with a local community of talent who are pushing the boundaries in what VR and AR can achieve,’’ she said.

The expo will serve as the flagship event of the Victorian Government Digital Innovation Festival.

A man uses the Samsung Gear VR mobile virtual reality headset at a world tech event in Barcelona. Picture: AFP/Pau Barrena

Magnify World head of innovation Matt Coleman said the new technology “platform’’ was expected to be worth $150 billion in the next two years.

“Bringing the world’s top AR/VR futurists together to Melbourne during the Digital Innovation Festival is a perfect fit,’’ he said.

It is the second major digital conference Melbourne has scored in as many weeks with the Herald Sun last week revealing the world’s biggest online video conference, VidCon, was coming to town til 2019.

Innovation and Digital Economy Minister Philip Dalidakis said the expo would attract ``the world’s best and brightest tech leaders and connect them with Victorian companies and entrepreneurs.’’

“Our reputation as a global tech hub is growing and some of the biggest and brightest global companies including Alibaba, Dialog, Square and Cybergym have recently established regional headquarters in Victoria,” he said.

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