Northland Inc's Sophie Wiltshier: TechWeek Mobile 4.0 showcase coming to Northland

A businessman using VR glasses for virtual reality and robot welding machines, an example of the fourth industrial revolution. Photo / Getty Images

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TechWeek is on the horizon! Get excited because Callaghan Innovation has a Mobile Industry 4.0 showcase and Northland Inc has made sure it is coming to Tai Tokerau.

Beginning Monday May 24, Northland will be home to a week of events where you will have the chance to network, listen to tech experts and learn about the latest technology trends.

Have you heard about the fourth industrial revolution? We are experiencing it right now. Dubbed, "Industry 4.0", this revolution is characterised by mixing physical, digital, and cyber-physical technologies.

It harkens back to a time more than 150 years ago when business had to adapt to the use of electricity in enabling mass production.

Today, enterprises face a similar challenge with the mass emergence of smart technologies (e.g, robotics, artificial intelligence, data management).

For business owners 4.0 begs many questions: which technology is the best? How does one implement it? Will it date and be superseded by the next generation of tech in a few months? Is it really a good investment considering the usual significant upfront costs? Is it a false economy to ignore 4.0 integration in any business model now that we are squarely in 2021?

Think deeply about how big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence, and robotics impact our physical world at this very moment; reading this right now on your smartphone in your hot hand which has more power than a supercomputer from the 60s.

It is through harnessing these technological leaps that we get a feel for why it is important to pay attention to this 4.0 revolution and integrate it to our collective advantage in business.

Being a business owner means making big decisions daily, and small business owners must feel like this happens every hour, or minute! So, knowing when to adopt the latest technology to enhance your day-to-day operations and overall business model can be a daunting task.

Callaghan Innovation has prioritised helping businesses adapt to Industry 4.0 with connections, capability, co-funding, and networks.

Callaghan's Industry 4.0 showcase will star Coco the Co-bot and will demonstrate what Co-bots (collaborative robots that work with you!), and augmented reality (AR) can do to revolutionise business.

AR can be utilised to make health and safety inductions more effective, sometimes even bringing the most mundane but necessary tasks to life.

The Mobile 4.0 showcase has real examples that you can participate in to better understand what this technology can do in real and in practical terms. It is about time we talked about the 4.0 revolution and optimisation of these tasks and over business models. Besides, why not have it in our little slice of paradise with our amazing inventors and entrepreneurs?

For more information and to sign up to meet Coco the Co-Bot, experience the AR for yourself and discuss how Industry 4.0 can be implemented into your business today, contact your Callaghan Innovation specialist in the Business Innovation and Growth Team at Northland Inc: growth@northlandnz.com and sign up for TechWeek events at www.techweek.co.nz for Te Tai Tokerau, Northland.

• Sophie Wiltshier is an innovation specialist and head of the growth adviser team at Northland Inc, the regional economic development agency.