Pause Fest reveals speaker line-up for 2019 and announces first ever Pause Fest Creator Awards

Back for its ninth year, Pause Fest has today revealed its first round of speakers and announced the new Pause Fest Creators Award. Held at Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square, the upcoming festival boasts Google, Amazon, CERN, YouTube, NBC, Cloudflare, NASA, and Airbnb alongside 200 local heroes and innovators.

The world’s leading creativity infused business event for creators, explorers and leaders will run across 6-8 February 2019. The festival’s theme is ‘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.

Says George Hedon, founder, Pause Fest: “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.

“Some of Australia’s greatest companies have launched at Pause, like Canva, Zero Latency, Girls in Tech, AKQA and Matters to name a few. This year, as part of the program launch Pause Fest will 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.”

The event organisers hope this initiative will help companies that are doing well and nudge those that can do better by awarding them group tickets to the event to develop, network and experience the Intimate Future.

Pause Fest is well known for their diverse curation presenting only the very best talent from Australia and abroad. In 2019, for the first time the event is bringing the largest cohort of international speakers in the country. Over thirty leaders from global brands like Google, Amazon, CERN, YouTube, NBC, Cloudflare, NASA, Airbnb along with 200 of local heroes and innovators will come together over the three days.

These guests will engage in workshops, panels across seven stages and 21 content tracks from Design, Future of Work, Ai, Blockchain, Health & Wellbeing, E-sports, Smart Future, Science, Diversity & Inclusion to Education, E-sports and Music. New program additions include Pause Incubator, Inner Circle and the next iteration of the Pause Retreat.

Says Hedon: “We are thrilled to introduce the new Creator ticket exclusive to founders, students, artists, entrepreneurs and anyone with an idea who wants to commercialise it, at a very affordable rate by application.”

Tickets are now on sale with a new ticketing experience, available now to the public in partnership with Universe, a Live Nation company.

Prices are set to increase every month. Pause Fest 2018 sold out so make sure you get yours early via www.pausefest.com.au.