We recently took part in the 2024 Humanitech Summit, hosted by the Australian Red Cross, this week.

Now in its fourth year, the Summit explores how technology innovation can enhance humanitarian impact.

The Australian Red Cross aims to combine 110 years of community expertise with cutting-edge technology to find national-level solutions.

Over 2 days, we joined debates and conversations to explore the Summit's 3 key themes:

• scaling through innovation collaboration
• models and money to enable scale
• community-centred approaches for scale.

The event featured masterclasses and hands-on workshops designed to equip attendees with practical skills to address these themes.

Our Coordinator-General, Brendan Moon, was a keynote speaker. He spoke about innovation opportunities, our operating context and urged collaboration, communication and coordination.

"The evidence is clear; we should be designing our capabilities, systems, warning systems, and where and how we live, with the future in mind," said Coordinator-General Moon.

"As the scale and intensity of events get more extreme, the tools we currently use lose their effectiveness."

"But one tool will always be critical, like it always has been, that is our people."

"But they need best equipment, planning, and knowledge to stay ahead of the curve."

Coordinator-General Moon's speech was followed by a panel discussion. Panellists from leading organisations, including Loam Bio, Boundless, QBE Ventures, and Dalberg, discussed innovative models and funding opportunities in the face of increasing need.

We would like to thank the Australian Red Cross for inviting us to attend. Learn more about the importance of the Humanitech Summit.