A festival of innovation and thought leadership

Invitation

I am pleased to invite you to AMPLIFY09 – the 3rd iteration of AMP’s bi-annual Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival.

From a humble experiment in knowledge exchange in 2005, to the week-long 2007 Festival attended by more than 1000 employees, leaders, board members and invited guests, this unique learning event has become a powerful amplifier of our organisational thinking, learning and culture. This is one of the reasons why the AMP Leadership Team decided to continue to back this event in 2009, despite the challenging economic environment.

For our people, AMPLIFY creates a powerful ‘knowledge market’ where we can openly exchange ideas with the foremost thinkers in the world, dabble with futuristic concepts and experiences way beyond our comfort zones, and experiment with emerging technologies to understand how these could add value for our customers and our business.

Following on from our 2007 theme of Collaboration, we have chosen Convergence and Emergence as the theme for AMPLIFY09. The exponential increases in computing power commonly referred to as Moore’s Law, is accelerating the pace of research and development across a range of disciplines and sciences. The resultant transformation from the convergence of these disciplines with technology is transforming virtually every aspect of human interaction, and new opportunities and threats emerge daily for business and society at large. AMPLIFY09 will be exploring these through the lens of our business.

We are excited to welcome to AMPLIFY09 an international brainstrust of experts across a range of disciplines to share with us the cutting edge of research and technological evolution, and explore the implications for financial services. Beyond the keynote presentations, we also offer a number of workshops for those wanting a deeper learning experience, and the popular EXPO on Friday 26 June will again buzz with the excitement of playing with emerging technologies and face-to-face experimentation.

We are converging both the physical and the virtual AMPLIFY09 through this website where you can subscribe to and participate in blogs, video content and twitter conversations from today until after the Festival, no matter where you are.

Finally, please plan ahead and register early!

Lee Barnett
CIO

Overview

What is AMPLIFY?
AMPLIFY is AMP’s bi-annual Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival- a market for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences. Where employees, partners, vendors and guests collaborate, work on ideas, experiment with technology, innovate, share insights and images of the future among each other and with international thought leaders and experts.

When and where is it happening?
From 24-26 June, the festival’s speaker stream and EXPO will run in 3 locations in Sydney, Australia at AMP’s offices at Circular Quay, AMP Capital Building and Parramatta office and with an online component at http://www.amplify.amp.com.au

A number of workshops and skills development sessions will run on 17 April, 15 May, 5 June and 23-25 June. See The Hub, AMP’s intranet, and detailed programme on this website, for more information.

What’s happening? Theme and programme of events
Themed Convergence and Emergence, AMPLIFY09 will explore how computational advances and emerging technologies accelerate the pace of research and development across a range of disciplines and sciences, transforming virtually every aspect of human life.

From these convergences, AMPLIFY09 will also explore new opportunities and threats emerging for society at large and financial services, and what the implications are for our business, our customers and stakeholders and our own skills and capabilities.

The programme is designed to engage both heart and mind, logic and emotion, theory and practice, serious learning and fun. Here is what you can enjoy:
• The Creativity Tapas offers 3 hands-on learning workshops on Friday afternoons looking at cultural trends, creative skills enabled by mass collaboration technologies and offering hands-on learning in music creation and recording, cupcake baking and sculpting and story crafting and performance.
• The specialist workshops during festival week will offer deep learning in selected areas.
• The Technology on Tap pub night offers after-hours infotainment as Australia’s leading PhD researchers explain what they’re studying, why anyone should care and how it will help make the world a better place- in 2 minutes! Audience votes determine a cash prize to help fund ongoing research.
• The Speaker Stream offers 55-minute keynote presentations that can be booked as individual sessions, with some repeats in alternate venues to allow maximum participation.
• The EXPO transforms AMP Circular Quay’s Level 1 area into a vibrant market of ideas and emerging technologies for you to try out – presented by employee teams, partners, vendors, entrepreneurs and R&D institutions.

Who will attend?
AMPLIFY offers this rich land immersive earning opportunity to everyone of AMP’s employees, not just a privileged few. Anyone can register, and sessions run throughout the day- from pre-work hours through lunch times till after hours –providing freedom of choice and flexibility, with some repeats. Planning ahead is key to ensure you don’t miss out.

A limited number of tickets will be available for a small fee to help defray costs to non-AMP parties who want to attend. Contact amplify@amp.com.au if interested.

Where will it take place?
Physically: AMP’s offices at Circular Quay, AMP Bridge Street Building and subject to a minimum of 25 registrations per session, at AMP Parramatta office.
Virtually: Participate online and subscribe to the RSS and @amplify09 twitter feed for instant updates.

How to book?
All registrations can be made by clicking the Register Now link above.

Due to the size limitations of our internal venues, seating is very limited and will be allocated on a first-in-best-dressed basis. Please be courteous to our guest presenters by honouring your commitment and arriving in good time for a punctual start.

Questions?
The Hub, AMP’s intranet, and this website will be your primary news sources for what’s coming up at AMPLIFY09. AMP’s leaders are also informed about AMPLIFY09 and the opportunities for employees to participate.

If you cannot find the answers through these channels, please write to amplify@amp.com.au or contact the AMPLIFY09 team at (02) 92576034 or @amplify09 on Twitter.

I hope you will enjoy AMPLIFY09 as much as we do in creating it for you.

Annalie Killian
Producer AMPLIFY