ORGANISERS of the inaugural Orana to the Digital Economy Conference and Texpo have hailed the event as a roaring success, particularly on social media.
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Hundreds of attendees took to tweeting their thoughts on the benefits of the National Broadband Network (NBN), which is expected in Dubbo by 2015.
The first Texpo was introduced to a small but interested audience, open to the possibilities of the NBN when work in Dubbo begins in June.
The event, organised by Regional Development Australia (RDA) Orana, was streamed live to Bourke and Mudgee, simulating the faster streaming speeds that higher broadband will bring to the region.
The feed started in Dubbo on an optic fibre line which was only running at 18 per cent, so as not to overload the old copper lines still in Bourke and Mudgee.
This showed that the NBN's minimum speed would still be around five times that of current broadband speeds.
The live streaming component was designed to give attendees a taste of what the new network's faster broadband speeds would mean for businesses and the community in terms of connectivity.
RDA chair John Walkom said that a number of next steps had already begun to emerge as an outcome of the Texpo, particularly for an initiative to create an entrepreneurial hub in Dubbo.
"Entrepreneurship takes vision and courage," he said.
"RDA is well placed to facilitate this to bring opportunity and creativity together, which will become contagious with those that can see the opportunity that others are not seeing."
An entrepreneurial hub would, he said, allow creative commerce utilising IT across the region, country and world.
"It levels the playing field for regional and remote communities.
"It is not limited to age or background. Generation Y, X, Z or the new generation C (meaning connected no matter what generation) could really make this an exciting concept, based in Dubbo and reaching out to the world.
"We already have had approaches from key note speakers and delegates to progress this idea.
"RDA is critically placed to lead and facilitate this to grow economic development and sustainable communities across the region," he said.
The Mudgee hub of the conference had a band of early adopters who agreed that the Texpo was definitely worthwhile.
Key note speaker Brad Howarth's Welcome to the middle of everywhere talk explained that fast broadband speeds opened up "endless possibilities" for business growth.
