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2016 Registrars of Title conference

Disruption: Evolution or Revolution?

Some of the world’s most knowledgeable land titling professionals gathered in Perth for the 43rd International Registrars of Titles conference.

Delegates included Registrars of Title, Valuers-General, as well as members of PSMA, ICSM, and ANZLIC, and were from Canada, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Ireland, as well as all Australian jurisdictions.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Disruption: Evolution or Revolution?’ and kicked off with two very thought-provoking keynote speakers: futurist Shara Evans and social researcher Claire Madden

Ms Evans gave conference delegates a peek at the advances high-technology is offering a whole range of industries, while Ms Madden explored the way in which the next generations are equipped to handle a vastly different social and economic environment.

Ms Evans’ research delves into the world of machine learning, artificial intelligence and software bots analysing enormous amounts of data to inform human decisions.

Take for example IBM’s Watson project, which has software bots looking at the vast troves of data about cancer research, then correlating that with detailed personal information about specific patients, and offering oncologists insights to guide their decisions on the best course of treatment.

Consider the same approach with a complex legal case on discovery of documents – rather than have one lawyer, assisted by, say, an articled clerk and a legal secretary reading huge files, and compiling a case with a limited timeframe, the bots can greatly increase analytical capacity and free up human time for creative problem-solving.

Ms Madden, founder and director of Hello Clarity, introduced the world according to Gen Z (born 1995 to 2009) and Gen Alpha (born 2010 to 2024).

It’s a world of morphing language (YOLO, FOMO, cray cray), increased life expectancy, artificial intelligence, global connectivity and digital disruption.

Where once people had one or two jobs throughout their adult life, Gen Z and Alpha can expect upwards of 17 jobs in five different careers, with many of those jobs not only not yet existing, but not yet thought of.

With unprecedented levels of upheaval and flexibility, the approaches to life of these generations are quite different from those who’ve come before, and there are lessons, too, for the Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers.

These themes carried over to the panel discussion, which included Chief Executive Mike Bradford, GM SPUR Jodi Cant and PEXA CEO Marcus Price.