Cutting Edge Conservation

Cutting Edge Conservation – an innovation event at the Cairns Aquarium in support of Great Barrier Reef Legacy’s Living Coral Biobank

Catalysed by ACTAI in collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Legacy, Cutting Edge Conservation will bring together Australian and International investors and innovators for a night of conversations, networking and entertainment while previewing the Living Coral Biobank Project and enjoying the wonder that is the Cairns Aquarium.

This exclusive event has a limited number of tickets available to enable local leaders, investors, and innovators to:

• learn about and preview the Living Coral Biobank Project prior to the official launch in early 2023
• hear from world-leading investors, conservationists, and innovators
• network with the ACTAI community,
• enjoy food and drinks while being entertained by surprise VIP performers
• raise funds for the Great Barrier Reef Legacy prior to the official launch in early 2023 through adopting your own piece of coral and the silent auction to raise funds for future coral collections

Event Details

Date:                    Saturday 3rd December, 2022

Time:           5:30pm for 6pm start – 9pm

Location:            Cairns Aquarium, 5 Florence Street, Cairns.

Inclusions:          Food, beverage package, tour and entertainment included

Dress Code:       Tropical Formal 

Featured Speakers and Panelists

Dr Dean Miller: Dr Dean Miller is a scientist, multimedia professional, international television presenter, Australian Geographic sponsored explorer, creator and lead scientist of the world's only Living Coral Biobank Project, and a highly respected voice and conservationist for all things Great Barrier Reef

Dr Charlie Veron was the first full-time researcher on the Great Barrier Reef and the first scientist employed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia where he became Chief Scientist. Charlie has over 100 publications on corals and has published widely on other subjects including evolution, mass extinctions and climate change. His work has covered almost all major coral reef regions of the world.

Bill Tai: Bill Tai has been funding startups as a Venture Capitalist since 1991 and has had 23 of his startups become listed companies. Originally trained as a chip designer, he joined LSI Logic, a seminal Silicon Valley startup. After an MBA at Harvard he was issued Badge #A001 during the formation of TSMC (NYSE:TSM), now among the world’s 20 most valuable companies (~$520 Billion market value as of 2022). He co-founded Treasure Data (acquired by ARM/Softbank) as Chairman and is among the first investors in Canva, Color Genomics, Dapper Labs (originator of Cryptokitties and NBA Topshot), Safety Culture, Tweetdeck/Twitter, Wish.com and Zoom Video, where he was the first backer to commit at the company's formation. He is Board Chairman of Hut8 Mining (NASDAQ: HUT), one of North America's largest publicly listed Bitcoin mining operation.

Amanda Terry: Amanda Terry is a Co-Founder of Metagood which strives to build a better future for Web3 while doing good along the way. Through its first NFT project OnChainMonkey (www.onchainmonkey.com), Metagood has simultaneously created value for its community members and made real world impact. She is the Managing Partner of ACTAI Ventures with over 20 years of digital media sales and business development leadership experience from Twitter, NBC, Zagat (acquired by Google), 5min (acquired by AOL), TARGUSinfo (acquired by Neustar,) and Acxiom (acquired by IPG.)

Monica Rucki: Monica Rucki is a Senior Product Manager at YouTube and TEDx speaker who chases impact and focusses her work on building products that tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Her work at extends to the YouTube initiative for misinformation in the climate space and their Internal Incubator

Lisa Andrews: Lisa Andrews is a professional investor working on solving the Global Grand Challenges by encouraging businesses and other entrepreneurs to think bigger in having a positive impact on the world. Lisa is driven by empowering people with technology to have a positive impact on humanity. Lisa is the CEO of WAVIA, a Venture Capital Fund investing in global impact and sustainable startups, the Co-CEO of SingularityU Australia.

Sponsors and Supporters

ACTAI Global is a community of Athletes, Conservationists, Technologists, Artists & Innovators supporting 1) environmental conservation and 2) economic empowerment via entrepreneurship.

Great Barrier Reef Legacy is a Non-Profit Organisation created to address the urgent need to secure the long-term survival of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs world-wide. The Living Coral Biobank was featured on ABCs Australian Story, in an episode dedicated to honouring the life and career of Dr Charlie Veron, a legendary marine biologist known as the ‘godfather’ of coral and a key component to the success of the Biobank project.

WAVIA Global is a community that brings together change-makers, leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, government, and all who seek to create impact for good. Along with being active investors, WAVIA offers impact programs and consulting support to those that are using technology to solve pressing global challenges

Cairns Aquarium has been developed to provide a world-class venue for seeing and interacting with the incredible plants, animals, and habitats found only in Australia’s Wet Tropics, a region which borders two World Heritage Sites: The Daintree Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef.