The future is digital for mining: Beyond Digital Transformation conference talks innovation, safety, collaboration as the wave of the future.

• Position: Mining - Conference news

The mining industry is experiencing rapid change on all levels, and much of that is being driven by the rapid evolution of technology.

Digital technology is quickly being adapted in mining, and its impact was on full display when several companies came together to discuss how to make it work to their advantage.

The United Steelworkers Hall in Sudbury was packed with hundreds of people form major companies, service providers, and the curious about mining's future at the inaugural beyond Digital Transformation on Feb. 1.

Hosted and organized by Partners in Achieving Change Excellence (PACE), the hall was a hive of activity as people networked, checked out various displays, participated in games and listened to several keynote addresses by speakers throughout the day.

Neha Singh, one of the organizers at PACE, said she was very pleasantly surprised by the reception and number of people that came out to attend the conference.

"This has been an amazing event for us, to see so many people and have so many experienced and knowledgeable people come to talk," she said. "I love how these companies are finally realizing that change management is an important thing."

Change management, she said, is having a company realize change is a good thing, and anticipating that people are going to expect change, instead of resist it and fight it.

While many of the vendors, attendees and speakers were there to talk about their operations, goods and services, the theme remained the same: Digital is driving the change, and adapting it has become critical for the companies' and industry's survival.

Many of the speakers agreed that people can be resistant to change, mainly due to fear of unknown factors and fear of failure.

They stressed the key to a successful adaption is to make sure the programs are user-friendly, reliable at all stages of mining, and at any depth, especially as mines go deeper and the cost of operations increases.

The inspiration for Beyond Digital Transformation was to showcase the ever-growing influence of digital technology on the mining industry. Singh said there are so many companies providing products and services, but no one was talking about how it was influencing the industry as a whole. That led her company to host a conference just for the digital side of mining.

One major cultural change in mining that has happened is technical support going from being a watchdog to a leader. Singh said she agreed with those who were talking about...