New platform for Cardinia tech-heads

TechX Cardinia founder Mayur Meshram with TechX sponsor Shadab Anwar from Sharptalk Consulting Pty. Ltd.

By Danielle Kutchel

Sitting on trains heading into the city, a group of Cardinia-based IT professionals found themselves wondering why there is so little professional development for their industry at this end of the tracks.

Having provided mentoring in the industry for a long time, Mayur Meshram decided to take the initiative to be creative and set something up – and thus, TechX Cardinia was born.

TechX is designed to be a forum to share tech-related ideas and knowledge, a platform for networking, and a place for like-minded individuals to meet and speak with each other.

It’s also designed to be a more convenient source of professional learning for people living in the outer south east.

“One of the pain points, especially for people travelling from Pakenham and Cranbourne, is that the Melbourne CBD has heaps of Ted talks and professional development – but it’s all in the CBD which disrupts family time at home and it’s not a convenient venue which we can reach,” Mr Meshram explained.

After nearly two years of incubation, the TechX Cardinia launch event will be held on Thursday 27 June at Toomah Community Centre.

Mr Meshram said this was just the beginning of a series of events that would help generate awareness of issues within the IT and related industries.

“We are getting professionals to come and speak with like-minded others about the cool innovations happening in the industry.

“We will have speakers talking about conversational AI , chatbots, and what to do with the data we’ve gathered over the years. A speaker from the City of Casey will be talking about how we can best understand that data and a gentleman from EY will be talking about customer experience and digital trust,” the TechX founder and moderator said.

The theme for the first event is XaaS, an industry buzzword meaning ‘everything as a service’.

It is expected that similar events will be held each month following the launch, exploring different themes from the tech sector.

He said the events would potentially encourage economic growth in the region, while also providing a platform for young budding tech enthusiasts and engineers to reach out and find somewhere – or someone – that they could lend their skills to.

“If they can find their forte, it can encourage them. Let them see where they can help,” he said.

Tickets to the event are available on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/techx-cardinia-tickets-63377977236.