The Digital Futures Summit is an opportunity for leaders, educators and policymakers in the Australian and international screen and audio industries to discuss the impact, challenges and possibilities of technological change on labour, training and creativity.
The next summit – Regenerate: To Restore, To Renew, To Reimagine – begins Thursday 25 June 2026 and invites participants to rethink the screen and audio industries as living ecosystems, focusing not only on sustainability, but on active restoration, renewal and systemic transformation. Learn more and register below.
PAST EVENTS
Find more about previous Digital Futures Summits below.
2025 - Anticipation: Imagining the Screen and Audio Industry in 2030
The fifth summit, Anticipation: Imagining the Screen and Audio Industry in 2030, brought together some of the brightest minds and those at the forefront of innovative practice and policy for a thought-provoking exercise in forward-thinking and collective imagining on the future of the screen and audio industry and creative education sector.
Session 1 – The Next Disruption of Media: In Conversation with Doug Shapiro
The Summit opened with Doug Shapiro, author of The Mediator, independent advisor, strategist and media analyst. In an in-depth conversation with Australian media leader and communicator Paula Kruger, Shapiro reflected on where we are today in the media and screen industry, how we anticipate emerging disruptions and better prepare for them, and an opportunity to imagine where we want the industry to go. This session included an opening address from AFTRS’ CEO, Dr Nell Greenwood.
Speaker:
- Doug Shapiro, Founder, Doug Shapiro Media
Moderator:
- Paula Kruger, CEO, Media Diversity Australia
Session 2 – Ingenuity and Imagination: The Future of Creative Education
How will creative education evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing industrial and cultural landscape and be able to thrive? This panel brought together thought leaders in education, industry and research to explore and envision the future of learning environments, training and the role of technology in shaping tomorrow’s learners.
Speakers:
- Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Standing Acting Vice Chancellor, University of South Australia
- Jakob Kirstein Høgel, Head of Education and Research, National Film School of Denmark
- Judy Atkinson, Emeritus Professor, We Al-li
Moderator:
- Dr Nell Greenwood, CEO, Australian Film Television and Radio School
Session 3 – Producing 2030
What skills and business models will producers need to develop or hone to thrive in the future? In this session, experienced producers were invited to anticipate what producing could look like in 2030, in a landscape that may be vastly different to the ecosystem in which they built their careers. New skills will be essential to create original content, finance productions, integrate new technologies, connect with audiences and embed sustainability, inclusivity and wellbeing into our practice.
Speakers:
- Grainne Brunsdon, Chief Operating Officer, Screen Australia
- Michael Tear, CEO, WildBear Entertainment
- Emile Sherman, Joint Founder/CEO, See-Saw Films
- Yingna Lu, AFTRS Tutor & Co-founder, Spaceboy Studios
Moderator:
- Robbie Miles, Head of Industry & Alumni Engagement, Australian Film Television and Radio School
Session 4 – Hear-Say: Exploring the Future of Listening
Radio isn’t dead, but it’s no longer alone. It’s just one part of a burgeoning, disrupted, rapidly evolving audio industry, where competition is fierce and revenue is in flux, yet opportunities are great. Join distinguished broadcasters and industry leaders as we imagine for the future of radio and audio and how we might continue this transformation.
Speakers:
- Dre Ngatokorua, Broadcaster, Umeewarra Aboriginal Media Association
- Suman Basnet, Regional Director, AMARC Asia-Pacific
- Rachel Fountain, Executive Producer / Deputy Head of Vision, News Corp Australia
Moderator:
- Andrea Ho, Discipline Lead, Radio & Podcasting, Australian Film Television and Radio School
Session 5 – Closing Keynote Address by Lynette Wallworth
What new narratives can ignite our way forward? Which voices, narratives and methods of storytelling can connect us beyond the challenges of our everyday realities? In this session, Australian artist and filmmaker Lynette Wallworth reflects on the role and importance of stories, storytelling and storytellers, and articulates ideas that can propel us into the future. This session includes an introduction from AFTRS’ Head of Research, Dr Alejandra Canales.
Keynote Speaker:
- Lynette Wallworth, Australian Artist & Filmmaker
2024 - AI and the Creative Horizon
The fourth summit delivered a range of conversations around creativity, pedagogy, ethics, Indigenous sovereignty and inclusion in the emerging age of AI. The live and interactive online event included some of Australia’s and the world’s foremost AI experts from a range of different companies, universities and institutes.
If you are interested in the ideas discussed, please enjoy the AFTRS Digital Future Summit: AI and the Creative Horizon e-book.
Session 1 – Learning with AISpeakers:
At the foundation of AI is a relationship between artificiality and intelligence, which raises compelling questions about cognitive processes, creative intelligence, and the development of technological behaviours. This session introduced the Digital Futures Summit with a panel focused on interactions between the brain, literacy, and pedagogy in the use of AI in creative industries education, especially as it relates to screen and audio practice. |
Session 2 – Critical Making: AI in Screen and Audio EducationSpeakers:
AI in the classroom is a challenge for the education sector. For screen and audio education, navigating this challenge involved being open to how AI can enhance opportunities for creative, critical making in the learning journey while also being attuned to how such technologies can influence the nature of imagination and play in creative practice education. This panel discussed case studies on how AI can be used in the space. These case studies provoked questions about creative practice-based learning, innovation in education, and consequences on access and inclusion to respond to the impact of rapid technological change in the classroom. |
Session 3 – Augmented Creativity: AI in the Creative IndustriesSpeakers:
The increasing sophistication of AI means that tools for generative creation are more widely adopted by industry professionals in the screen and audio sectors. This panel convened screen and audio industry leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges of experimenting with AI at the professional level and how adopting these tools might reshape professional production processes and workflows. Underpinning this discussion was the question of whether AI is just another tool to optimise professional practice or whether there are inherent limitations facing its standardised use in the screen and audio industries. |
Session 4 – Indigenous Sovereignty and AI: Storing Cultural Practices and Reclaiming Narratives through AI, Film, Radio and BeyondSpeakers:
The session explored how AI can be used as a tool in Film, Radio, Television and beyond to support our already existing Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems. Looking at ways Indigenous Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Sovereignty can support the flourishing of future generations and to optimise for abundance rather than scarcity. |
Session 5 – The Politics of AI: Navigating Ethics, Inclusion and Job Disruption in the Creative IndustriesSpeakers: This session explored some of the complexities surrounding AI and its use in the creative industries, from artists’ labour rights and ownership protection to the risk of embedded biases in the development of AI tools. With the widespread use and normalisation of AI in society and, particularly, the screen and audio sectors, these issues raise concerns about the inclusivity of voices, diversity of knowledge, and future workforce development. |
2022 – Audio: Connectivity, Community and Audience
In our third edition of AFTRS’ Digital Futures Summit series, Audio: Community, Connectivity and Audience, we brought together the big brains in audio to talk about the intersection of sound, radio, and podcasting and the possibilities for connecting with audiences, old and new, in this world of digital disruption.
Visionaries and leaders from industry, education, and government sectors came together to discuss big questions facing Australia’s screen and broadcast industries in a global context.
2022 – The Business of Australia’s Digital Future
This summit focused on the future of business in the Australian screen and broadcast sector, zeroing in on business models and leadership to capitalise on the innovations and growth of the digital age.
2021 – Virtual Production
Held online, the first summit in AFTRS’ Digital Futures series looked at current and future practices and the opportunities that virtual production brings to the local industry. The summit explored how the industry can leverage digital technologies to “leapfrog” through change to accelerate growth opportunities.