Queensland’s innovation agenda is increasingly defined by delivery, not rhetoric- translating policy, investment and ideas into outcomes that drive productivity, resilience and growth across the state.

This session will explore what good looks like in practice, bringing together government and industry leaders to examine how innovation is being enabled, funded and scaled across Queensland.

The Hon. Steven Minnikin, Minister for Customer Services and Open Data and Minister for Small and Family Business, will share the Queensland Government’s perspective on creating the policy, data and digital foundations required to support customer-centric services, regional innovation and economic diversification.

Joining the Minister, Rebecca Iwanuscha, Innovation Incentives Partner at Grant Thornton, will bring a commercial and investment lens, exploring how organisations are translating R&D, emerging technologies and innovation activity into tangible outcomes through effective incentives, capital attraction and cross-sector collaboration.

Dr Sheila Gough Kenyon, Chief Executive Officer of StarBound Solutions, will contribute a deeptech and infrastructure-first perspective, grounded in scaling AI in high-trust, high-stakes environments such as space and defence. Drawing on Starbound’s journey from research partnerships through to institutional investment and global deployment, she will provide a practical lens on what it takes to build, fund and deploy secure, resilient systems at scale.

The discussion will be moderated by Gisele Kapterian, Senior Director, Public Sector Strategy ANZ at Salesforce, who brings deep experience across government, trade and digital policy. Gisele will guide the conversation across policy, capital and execution, drawing out the intersection between government ambition and real-world delivery, and ensuring a candid, cross-sector dialogue grounded in practical outcomes.

Together, the panel will explore:

• moving beyond pilots to innovation at scale, including deeptech and applied AI
• the role of open data, digital infrastructure and secure systems in enabling deployment
• how ecosystems, research, capital, government and industry align to drive outcomes
• building resilience through innovation that delivers measurable economic and societal impact

The session is designed as a practical, off-the-record conversation for senior leaders focused on what’s working, why it’s working, and what it takes to scale it across Queensland.