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What can virtual reality do for Australian agriculture?

Sheep Central, May 8, 2019

Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud, left, samples some virtual reality at the MLA annual general meeting last year.

THE potential for augmented and virtual reality to transform agricultural supply chains will be explored at a Melbourne conference in July.

The inaugural Australian Ag Immersive Technology Conference 2019 will be held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre from 10-11 July 2019.

The new event is being hosted by Meat & Livestock Australia in collaboration with other Australian rural research and development corporations.

The two-day conference, trade show and think tank, is designed to investigate augmented and virtual reality, known as mixed reality, for all agriculture sectors and along their supply chains.

MLA general manager – MDC, research, development and innovation, Sean Starling, said with mixed reality predicted to be the next disruptive technology and as common as smartphones in five to 10 years, it was critical all sectors of Australian agriculture explored its potential.

“Although Australian agriculture is lagging with the deployment of this evolving technology, its sectors can look towards other industries that have implemented it in operations to see how they’re using it now and envisioning its future applications.

“The conference will have a combination of presentations from end users of the technology, most from outside of agriculture, and an immersive trade show,” Mr Starling said.

“The program will enable solution providers to demonstrate what is possible today and what might be possible in the future.

“It will culminate with a working session to solicit ideas from the audience on how mixed reality solutions can apply now to our agricultural supply chains and into the future.”

The conference will include more than 40 presentations demonstrating end‐use applications of various mixed reality deployments from both agriculture and non‐agriculture sectors under the following six theme streams:

Theme 1 – Marketing and Consumer messaging

Theme 2 – Engaging with consumers at retail (making choices easier)

Theme 3 – Education and Training

Theme 4 – Manufacturing Operations (and auditing)

Theme 5 – Engineering, Maintenance and Safety

Theme 6 – On‐farm (operations)

End users, hardware providers, developers and integrators, and universities and students are encouraged to attend the conference, trade show and think tank.

The conference is being presented by MLA, with support from other RDCs including, AgriFutures Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Pork, Australian Wool Innovation, Cotton Research & Development Corporation, Dairy Australia, Forest & Wood Products Australia, Grains Research & Development Corporation, Hort Innovation, Sugar Research Australia and Wine Australia.

Tickets to the conference are $100 and registration is essential.

For more information and to register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/australian-agriculture-immersive-technology-conference-registration-61016309424?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Source: MLA.

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