Society 5.0 Ethics : A Festival of Ideas

Let’s shape the ethical landscapes of future technologies to foreground human-centred societal concerns.

Mark your calendars for this two-day free event where academics, industry leaders, corporate professionals and students are invited to discuss how new technologies can be used in ethical and human-focused ways to improve society.  

Anticipate an agenda filled with distinguished speakers, interactive workshops, and roundtable discussions, all thoughtfully crafted to foster collaboration and drive meaningful progress in the ethical implementation of technology.

Located at the RMIT City Campus in Melbourne, this event is co-hosted with Utrecht University (Netherlands), and marks the first step of a multi-year initiative dedicated to establishing comprehensive ethical commitments and principles, alongside best practices for the ethical development and utilisation of cutting-edge technologies.

Download the full conference program here

Program Overview

Day One - 17 June

8.20am - 8.50am: Event registration open

9am - 10.30am: Keynote and plenary discussion

11am - 1pm: Multi-track sessions (e.g. workshop, roundtable, and interactive seminar)

1pm - 1.25pm: Lunch (included in registration)

1.30pm - 2.30pm: Keynote  

3pm - 5pm: Multi-track sessions (e.g. Panel discussion and workshops)

5.30pm - 7pm: Keynote and networking reception 

Day Two - 18 June

8.20am - 8.50am: Event registration open

9am - 10.15am:  Keynote

10.45am - 12.45pm: Plenary and Manifesto

12.45pm - 1.25pm: Lunch (included in registration)

1.30pm - 2.30pm: Keynote

3pm - 5pm: Multi-track sessions (e.g. workshop, roundtable and panel discussion)

5.15pm - 6.45pm: Closing plenary session and keynote

Click here for more information about Society 5.0 Ethics: A Festival of Ideas event

Confirmed speakers include:

Professor Payal Arora, Utrecht University

Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures and Co-Founder of FemLab, a feminist futures of work initiative

Payal is a digital anthropologist and author, speaker, and consultant. Her expertise draws from more than two decades of user experiences among diverse marginalised communities worldwide to shape inclusive designs and policies. Forbes named her the “next billion champion” and “the right kind of person to reform tech.” She is the author of award-winning books including ‘The Next Billion Users’ with Harvard Press. Her upcoming book with MIT Press & Harper Collins India, ‘From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech” will be released soon. She sits on several boards for organisations such as the Prosus Centre for Internet and Digital Economy and the World Women Global Council in New York.

Associate Professor Julia Powles, University of Western Australia

Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology

Julia is an expert in privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation and artificial intelligence. She serves on Australian federal and state committees on generative AI in education, privacy and responsible information sharing, responsible AI, and robotics. 

Laureate Professor  Sarah Pink, Monash University

Director of the Emerging Technologies Lab at Monash University

Sarah is a design and futures anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. She is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, and holds honorary doctorates from Malmo and Halmstad Universities. Her most recent publications include her book Emerging Technologies / Life at the Edge of the Future (2023) and her documentaries Digital Energy Futures (2022) and Air Futures (2024).

Professor  Rachel Ankeny, University of Adelaide

Currently Professor of History and Philosophy, but as of July 2024 will be Chair and Professor of the Philosophy Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her research foci include bioethics, history and philosophy of the biological and biomedical sciences, and food and agricultural ethics.

Professor Lisa Given, RMIT University

Social Change Enabling Impact Platform Director and Professor of Information Sciences

Lisa is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a past President of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Lisa’s interdisciplinary research in human information behaviour brings a critical, social research lens to studies of technology use and user-focused design. Her studies embed social change, focusing on diverse settings and populations, and methodological innovations across disciplines.

Professor Annette Markham, Utrecht University

Chair Professor of Future Data Literacies and Public Engagement

Annette is renowned for her expertise in digital ethics and research design. With nearly 30 years of ethnographic research, she examines how digital transformations affect identity and socio-cultural practices. Markham pioneers citizen social science methods to understand how algorithmic and data-driven systems shape daily life and future perspectives, especially among urban youth. She founded the international Future Making Research Consortium and formerly directed the Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT.

Professor Chris Speed, RMIT University

Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures

Chris collaborates with a wide variety of communities and partners to explore how design provides methods to adapt toward becoming a regenerative society. Chris has an established track record in directing large complex grants and educational programmes with academic, industry and third sector partners, that apply design and data methods to complex social, environmental and economic challenges.

This event is co-hosted by RMIT University (Social Change, Enabling Impact Platform) and the University of Utrecht.