BARRY JONES Hon. Dr. Barry Jones, AO, FAA, FAHA, FTSE, FASSA, FRSA, FRSV, FACE, FAIM is a writer, broadcaster and former Labor Minister.

A Member of the House of Representatives for the Victorian Electorate of Lalor 1977-98, in the first three Hawke Governments he became Australia’s longest serving Science Minister 1983-90. He was a Victorian State MP 1972-77. He served as National President of the Australian Labor Party 1992-2000 and 2005-06. In 1985 he became the only Australian Minister invited to address a Summit meeting of the ‘Group of Seven’ northern industrial powers, in Ottawa. In 1987 he chaired OECD’s review of the Yugoslavian economy. He is the only person to have been elected as a Fellow of all four Australian learned Academies: Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) in 1992, the Humanities (FAHA) in 1993, Science (FAA) in 1996, and Social Sciences (FASSA) in 2003. His book Sleepers, Wake!: Technology and the Future of Work (Oxford University Press, 1982), having been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish and braille, ran to 26 impressions. Other books include the Dictionary of World Biography (1994), a best seller, most recently revised in 1998. His autobiography, A Thinking Reed (Allen & Unwin) was published in 2006. In June 1990 he took part in an international think tank invited to investigate ‘perestroika’ in the USSR and make recommendations to Mikhail Gorbachev. He served on the Executive Board of UNESCO in Paris 1991-95, as Vice President of the World Heritage Committee 1995-96 and a consultant to OECD. In 1999 he was appointed an Adjunct Professor at Monash University and elected as a Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became Chair of the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority PAHSMA) in 2000, a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne 2005-07 and a Professorial Fellow from 2007.

PAUL GRADY

Paul joined Microsoft over 2 years ago after a long career at NEC, his role at Microsoft as Regional Director for Unified Communications covers APGCRJ.  Microsoft unified communications technologies use the power of software to deliver complete communications - messaging, voice and video - across the applications and devices that people use everyday. Integrating the experiences you associate with the telephone - phone calls, voice mail and conferencing - the work you do on the computer - documents, spreadsheets, instant messaging, email and calendars - has the power to fundamentally change the way people work. Paul will share with you Microsoft's belief as to how unified communications will transform business in the coming decade in the same way email changed the business landscape in the 1990s. When phone services become software, are managed by a server and are delivered to desktop applications, many interesting things happen.

DR DAVID WARNER Principal Eltham College of Education

Dr David Warner has been Principal of ELTHAM College of Education since 2000. David is an innovator and change leader. He has worked as teacher and principal in the public and independent school sectors, and as a researcher and labour market analyst, in TAFE and higher education throughout Australia and internationally. David is the author of Schooling for the Knowledge Era (ACER 2006). It challenges people to re-think the role of schools in a global knowledge society. The book is a story about young people. It reveals how they relate to their world and how we can transform education to enable them to be leaders in it. It also shows society and schools how to be courageous in allowing them to be explorers and innovators.