Recent Federal and State Government investments into High Performance Computing (HPC), Quantum computing, Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope in Perth to process and analyse data been the talk of the town this year. The development of these cutting-edge compute infrastructures and technological advancements in the fields of data science and machine learning has coincided with the largest biodiversity crisis of our times.

It is estimated that ~10 000 species go extinct every year. This increases the importance of further application of these technologies not just in business, but also in biodiversity conservation.

Given the increasing demands on protecting biodiversity, it seems a fair time for us to pause and ask what could be the best way to use technological innovations and to stimulate a closer collaboration among conservation practitioners, animal behaviourists, biologists, computer and system scientists, and engineers, to mention but a few.

In this session, our local leaders from these fields will join a conversation to answer questions and discuss topics including:

• How will climate change, together with other environmental stressors, alter the distribution and prevalence of diseases of wild species?
• Do critical thresholds exist at which the loss of species diversity, or the loss of particular species, disrupts ecosystem functions and services, and how can these thresholds be predicted?
• What strategies are effectively used for distributing the material benefits derived from biodiversity most effectively foster environmental stewardship and biodiversity conservation in WA?
• How might technological advancement on the data process, storage and movements have positive impacts on biodiversity conservation?
• What the key the benefits of the use of technology to animal ecology and conservation?
• What are the impacts on biodiversity of shifting patterns and trends in human demography, economic activity, consumption, and technology in WA?
• Is WA government and industry connecting the dots for two big next opportunities where our state can make a mark at the global level?
• What are the coolest technological innovations that are changing conservation?
• What factors shape individual and state compliance with local, national, and international conservation regimes?
• What are the most cost-effective means of encouraging broad, long-lasting, and active societal support and action for conservation in different contexts and among different actors?
• What mechanisms best promote the use of local ideas and knowledge in conservation programs in ways that enhance biodiversity and technology deployment outcomes?

A full speaker list will be announced soon.