An explosion of successful digital technology hubs is leading to the replacement of large corporations as the launchpad for new innovations.

Digital technology hubs were increasingly successful as they spawned the creativity, skills development and required incubation and support for the stimulation of innovative ideas, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Joburg Centre for Software Engineering director Professor Barry Dwolatzky said on Thursday.

“Technology hubs are where [innovation] is happening,” he told delegates at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s fifth yearly conference, in Pretoria.

Increasingly, what was needed was an environment to encourage innovation and a platform to develop the skills needed in a digital world, along with a centre at which to meet like-minded entrepreneurs, brainstorm, work – together or alone – and create concepts and ideas, Dwolatzky noted.

With the rise of successful digital technology hubs worldwide, Wits now aimed to facilitate the establishment of such an environment with its linking of the university and the Tshimologong Precinct digital technology hub, in Braamfontein.

The digital innovation zone, which was under development two blocks from the university’s main campus, would also straddle IBM’s new IBM Research laboratory and was aligned to other critical success factors, including its proximity to potential customers, youth, workplaces and good universities, in addition to physical and digital infrastructure.

Wits was currently converting a number of old buildings, including a former nightclub, into a hub comprising meeting spaces, server rooms, computer labs and retail outlets, besides others.

Microsoft, IBM, Telkom, Barclays Africa, the City of Johannesburg and the Technology Innovation Agency had partnered with Wits to develop the new innovation hub.