Indo-Pacific Unplugged is a closed-door executive tabletop simulation that treats international digital connectivity—especially undersea cables—as critical infrastructure for the modern economy. The exercise stress-tests scenarios of degraded or disrupted connectivity and the cascading impacts across national security, transport and logistics, communications, utilities, finance and payments, and health services.

Australia is the scenario “home base,” with Western Australia as the live stress-test environment—anchored by Perth, one of the world’s most geographically isolated capital cities, which makes WA a uniquely valuable resilience laboratory for the Indo-Pacific. WA is rapidly strengthening its position as a green digital infrastructure and connectivity hub—linking renewable energy, data centre growth, subsea routes, and sovereign-grade capability. This simulation highlights the benefits of that trajectory while pressure-testing the assumptions it relies on, including degraded-mode operations, cross-sector coordination, and the role of decentralised / distributed networks as additional layers of continuity when “always-on connectivity” cannot be taken for granted.

Participants will stress-test realistic scenarios involving partial degradation or temporary loss of international connectivity, and work through the operational choices that follow—what to prioritise, what to throttle, what to switch to, how to coordinate across sectors, and how to communicate credibly under uncertainty. This simulation prepares leaders for decision-readiness in extreme situations where there is no time to prepare.

Following the precedent of Iceland’s “Unplugged” exercise and similar industry-led resilience simulations, this session is designed to surface hidden dependencies, identify second- and third-order impacts, improve public–private coordination, and generate a short list of practical mitigations that organisations can act on immediately.

This opening sets the Summit’s narrative arc, how the next economy will be defined by resilient infrastructure, trusted financial rails & human-centred outcomes. We zoom out across history, systems & the future to frame why AI, quantum, digital assets & green infrastructure must be built as public-private impact infrastructure, not just technology. Expect a clear “why now” & shared North Star for the entire program.

This session closes Day 1 by reframing the real challenge - not only what we can build, but what we should build, & what must remain deeply human. This fireside dialogue brings together perspectives across science, wisdom traditions & living knowledge to explore how we maintain humanity in the age of machines to grow beyond intelligence defined by language models - how we gain clarity, new perspectives & a stronger internal compass for navigating uncertainty.

As economies digitalise, over-centralised platforms create systemic cyber, operational, and climate risks - while many blockchain experiments remain speculative and poorly governed. This session brings together global research and regional industry perspectives to examine how blockchain can overcome these challenges and serve as the best foundation for organising decentralised mainstream societies.

In the first part, Bill Roscoe, Director of the University College Oxford Blockchain Research Centre, draws on his new book Understanding Decentralised Systems and the work of his Digital Civilisation project. He addresses the inefficiencies and governance challenges that have kept blockchain from mainstream adoption, and makes the case that the very qualities which make it ideal for cryptocurrency also make it the best way to organise decentralised mainstream societies.

The second part, presented by members of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Blockchain Committee, offers a timely snapshot of where blockchain stands today in Australia. The panel explores adoption across finance, supply chains, digital identity, and the creative economy, alongside regulatory developments, ecosystem challenges, and opportunities for innovation and growth.

Together, both parts provide attendees with a practical and forward-looking view of what is needed to strengthen capability, collaboration, and global competitiveness in this rapidly evolving technology sector.

This session provides a fast reset that connects Day 1’s big-picture story on resilience, trust, sovereignty & human purpose to Day 2’s focus on delivery, scaling & real-world implementation. This is the pivot from insight to execution - what gets built, how, who owns it, & how we move from talk to outcomes.

This fireside chat explores Bankwest’s pivot from a traditional bank into a digital banking innovator, how business processes and customer experiences were transformed, and challenges with digital initiatives were met to deliver tangible outcomes.  The discussion will also highlight how their shift toward customer-centric delivery translated tech investments into capabilities that will shape Bankwest’s readiness for further insight-led innovation.

Speed & convenience mean nothing if systems are fragile, surveillant or easy to break. Discussants will explore how to design digital infrastructures that remain secure, resilient & privacy-safe even under pressure, the safeguards that must be built in from Day One & approaches that are mature enough to deploy now. 

Western Australia’s economy is highly export-driven. With exports over $240 Billion, it makes nearly half of the total Australian goods exports. Yet cross-border payments still carry potentially avoidable friction such as settlement delays, layered fees, FX spreads, manual exceptions & compliance overheads, costs that hit SMEs hardest & compound across large trade flows.

This session is a practical, industry-first discussion focused on one question:
How can WA reduce the costs & friction of cross-border export payments & safely adopt modern, regulated digital settlement tools where they deliver clear benefits while maintaining strong compliance, consumer protection, operational resilience & effective supervision?