Hon. G. Combet, Minister for I&I, comments on Aussie brain drain

Last week, in response to the Sydney Morning Herald article and ensuing debate on Australia's 'brain drain' (http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/brain-drain-why-young-entrepreneurs-leave-home-20120517-1ytoo.html),  the CIE invited the Honourable Greg Combet, Minister for Industry and Innovation, to contribute a guest blog post to the discussion.  (Please note that the views expressed below are those of the author and do not reflect an official statement or position of the CIE.)

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Blog contribution for Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
By Greg Combet AM MP
Minister for industry and Innovation
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

The Australian economy is globalising and fast. One facet of this trend is the way Australian entrepreneurs are criss-crossing the world, building experience and networks and selling not just themselves and their products and services, but the view of Australians as global entrepreneurs.

A series of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald has bemoaned this so called “brain drain” as, mostly young, entrepreneurs depart our shores in search of investment and markets for their ideas. The fact is that these journeys are part of the economic and social transformation that shows a path to the future of the Australian economy. This is no “brain drain” but actually a small country finding opportunities in a global market and punching above its weight.

As these entrepreneurs know, a global audience of 7 billion investors, customers and partners brings tremendous opportunity. Closing our borders or limiting our aspirations to the domestic market alone will only limit the entrepreneurs’ growth and our economy’s growth.

We need these entrepreneurs to mentor and introduce local businesses to global networks, to share their experiences and to promote Australia’s strengths around the world. We don’t want to lose them – but we should recognise that they don’t need to be physically here to add value.

Our long-term competitive advantage is in the ideas and energy of our people. The coming century will be shaped by significant geographical, demographic and technological trends.

Two of those technological trends that our entrepreneurs are already tapping into are clean technology and ICT. The Government is making significant investments in infrastructure, skills, research and innovation to support their initiative.

The $36 billion National Broadband Network is the most ambitious investment in infrastructure in our history. The NBN is the cornerstone of our Digital Economy Strategy, which will help Australia become a leading global digital economy by 2020.

The NBN will provide the platform for Australian businesses to develop, distribute and benefit from a wide array of digital applications and services. This opportunity will catalyse local development and take-up but also tell the world that Australians will be players in the global digital economy.

Faster broadband will provide benefits to the Australian economy through digital productivity, cloud computing and virtual collaboration.

The Australian Government’s Clean Energy Future plan will encourage the development of low carbon energy generation technologies. The transformation of the energy sector will drive $100 billion in investment in renewable energy electricity generation over the period to 2050.

We’re also investing almost $9 billion per annum in science, research and innovation, representing a 35 per cent increase on the 2007 figures.

In addition to the digital economy and clean energy strategies, the Government has a comprehensive set of support programs for Australian entrepreneurs to innovate and commercialise new technologies.

The new R&D Tax Incentive which delivers a significant increase in support for entrepreneurs; Commercialisation Australia; Enterprise Connect and the current round of the Innovation Investment Fund where the Government will be committing up to $100m of co-investment.

It is hard to predict the future but two things are certain – we’re going to be more connected and going to be doing more with less from a resource perspective. So, instead of pessimism, we should also be celebrating the increased globalisation of our entrepreneurs. The experiences, networks and success that they are having on a global stage are part of this transformation. Our challenge is to remain connected with our own global citizens and use these Australian links to our advantage.

The Australian Government is making a significant investment in the future and laying the policy foundations that will help our entrepreneurs make their mark in global markets.

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We wish to acknowledge the CIE's sponsors and express our appreciation of their support.  All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

CIE welcomes Frost & Sullivan as their newest sponsor

The Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce Frost & Sullivan as its newest sponsor!

Frost & Sullivan is a global research and consulting firm with presence in 38 countries, providing in-depth research coverage in a wide variety of industries. Frost & Sullivan enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership.

We are excited to announce that through this sponsorship agreement, the CIE is able to offer entrepreneurial UNSW students access to the latest and most comprehensive market intelligence. This will be of tremendous benefit as they develop their new business ideas.


We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowledge the continuing support of the Australian School of Business, Ernst & Young, Frost & Sullivan, and RosesOnly. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

 

            

 

Peter Farrell Cup winning team Pluvision takes 2nd place at Idea2Product Global in Sweden!

This blogpost courtesy of Niklas Olsson, UNSW exchange student from Sweden and founder of The Entrepreneurial Chase.

As a finalist in the Idea to Product® Global Competitions (I2P), Pluvision is a truly international team – members are from China, France, Korea and Sweden. Eric Wei, inventor of a new generation of eye drop technology, and Niklas Olsson represented Pluvision in the I2P Global Competition in Sweden. 

Held for the first time outside of Texas, I2P is a competition in the commercialization of innovation aiming to fill the gap between university research and business plan competitions. This year, 18 teams competed in three parallel championships: ICT, Energy and Life Science. 

As the first Australian finalist ever, Pluvision represented UNSW and the Brien Holden Vision Institute. It was with great excitement that we accepted our spot, something that turned around quickly as we were told that the airfare would have to be funded by ourselves. All other teams had won intensive pre-round competitions like I2P Africa or I2P Europe and had been funded by their respective universities. With only two weeks to final acceptance this called for a serious hat round.  

As the University unfortunately did not have such a trip in their budget, we raised the money ourselves. Cold calling soon created quite a long list of “No, I am sorry” and we realized that something different had to be done. By creating media buzz and awareness around this recognition of Australian innovation we managed to get the Brien Holden Vision Institute interested enough to sponsor the trip. Excited as ever, we went to represent the institute, UNSW and Australia in a final competitor field that spread across five continents and nine countries.  

I2P is about remarkable innovation and how it is to be commercialised. So those 10 slides of financials were not really useful, but instead we focused on what is most important in any business: What is the market pain you are solving and how are you doing that better than anyone else? Something that is unfortunately forgotten nowadays in the “back-of-the-credit-card” era of trying to find problems for ideas.  

Stepping out of the airport, trading 33 degree Australia for 3 degree Sweden, turned the system on, almost like boxers smelling ammonium before the big fight. Competition in the Life Science track included a nano-mesh product for surgery, an herb-based soap, a psychology-based make-up treatment and an effects indicator used at the early stages of drug development. Two had working prototypes, all but one multiple patents and one even had four PCTs filed. How on earth, in terms of feasibility, did we stand a chance? Well, we had two things that we were sure of: We knew the pain we were solving and we knew that we were doing so in a fundamentally different way.  

The competition was divided in two rounds, the first giving you feedback and the second being the final you were judged upon. The first pitch was, despite well-rehearsed, not spot-on and some major changes kept us up very late. The judges seemed pleased with the revamped version and did not even use up the full Q&A time. Either a very very good sign or a very very bad sign, our fingers were crossed for the former. Something that didn’t make us less nervous, what a fail to travel all the way and come back empty handed! 

"Second place to another innovation involving the human physical properties, more in the eye area … PLUVISION!”   http://www.ideatoproduct.org/global/

Inner joy and pride straightened our spines. As inaugural ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurs Week in Australia we had put Australian innovation on the global map. A big Thank You to Brien Holden Vision Institute, the CIE, friends and the entrepreneurial community who made us compete with such confidence. We are proud to be a part of something big growing in Australia, something creative and something exciting.


We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Peter Farrell Cup Finals Night recap

Pluvision, developer of a unique eye-wetting solution, took first place at this year’s Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition, held Wednesday 26 October on the UNSW Kensington campus.


Team Pluvision, from L to R: Hye Won Lee, Eric Wei, Noellie Garand,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Niklas Olsson, Maurice Chiarello (lecturer)


In addition to going on to compete in the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge in December, the Pluvision team is heading to Sweden to compete in the I2P Idea2Product® competition in November.

“We’re really excited about getting selected as one of the top 15 finalists,” says student Niklas Olsson of Pluvision. “But I can’t believe we just won the Peter Farrell Cup. When I first started at UNSW I heard about the Cup but I never dreamed we’d win it!”

Of the 17 business plans submitted, eight were selected to present on the finals night. Each finalist is invited to present their enterprise to NewSouth Innovations Concept Development Meeting.

“It’s great to see students across campus identifying and tackling real-world problems. Their energy and passion was clear to see in the final pitches they delivered,” says Dr Steve Brodie of NewSouth Innovations. “I have no doubt that some of these students will go on to become successful entrepreneurs.”

Further commercialisation services are offered to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, and to the teams meriting Honourable Mention from the judges. 

RevoSen, developer of a myocardial ischaemic detection method, and Future Surgical Solutions, who have developed a novel bone-healing technology, won Honourable Mentions from the judging panel.

 

Judges, from L to R: Dr Kevin Cullen (NewSouth Innovations),
Anne-Marie Birkell (OneVentures), Peter Davison (Fishburners),
Simon Pinson (BSF), Bryce Summerell (Posse)

"It's clear to me there is no shortage of innovative research and enterprising individuals across a wide range of disciplines at UNSW,” says Peter Davison, one of the judges and a founder of co-working space and entrepreneur community Fisburners. “It’s tremendous to see students learning the basics of entrepreneurship within the university environment…the teamwork between postgraduates, undergraduates and academics to produce plausible business plans was a feature of the competition - innovative and promising in itself. I hope the University continues to make strides towards fostering student entrepreneurship."
This year’s competition featured a People’s Choice Award which was handily won by BioMark, who also placed 3rd overall.


BioMark team members, from L to R: Hayley Cullen, Arjanna Chitranjan,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Timothy Couttas,
Maurice Chiarello (lecturer), Sasa Mitric.


Professor Greg Whitwell, Deputy Dean of Programs and Students at the Australian School of Business, remarked on the high levels of collaboration evident in presentations.

“And it’s collaboration of different sorts, between disciplines certainly, but also, remarkably, between undergraduate and postgraduate students, which is extremely rare,” he says. “I commend all the teams who made it to the finals and presented some really quality and high-level ideas.”

NMT (Novel Muscle Technologies), presented their business plan for an enterprise utilizing a unique synthetic gel that, when inserted into the body, can temporarily replace muscle tissue and provide a framework for new cells and muscle fibres to grow on.



Novel Muscle Technologies (NMT) team members, from L to R: Shruthi Hariharan,
Dr Wallace Bridge (lecturer), Scott Jamieson, Maurice Chiarello (lecturer), Anishka Tewari

Based on research done by Scott Jamieson, their business plan and presentation impressed the judges enough to award them second place, with remarks about the sophistication of both the idea and its development into a business. Judge Simon Pinson says,“It really is impressive what we’ve seen here this evening!”










We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

How do Entrepreneurs find opportunity? They take a look in the trash can

This blogpost courtesy of Niklas Olsson, UNSW exchange student from Sweden and founder of The Entreprenuerial Chase - Sydney.

Passing security leaving all but pen, notepad and business card in security and finally taking a seat at the U.S. Consulate General felt like preparing for an Obama speech. America is known for high security and just moments after sitting down another notorious reputation was confirmed: they foster high-calibre entrepreneurs. The way I look at trash cans will never be the same after meeting Jim Poss, CTO and Founder at BigBelly Solar.

Jim describes innovators and entrepreneurs as people who connect two, for others, totally unrelated things. There are no new inventions, just new ways of combining the already existing. BigBelly Solar uses solar power to run a smart grid for waste and recycling. The grid is made up of trash cans with a five times greater capacity compared to today’s everyday collectors. But the compacting system isn’t the only innovation that underpins this game changer. The “BigBellies” communicate wirelessly with a command centre enabling the waste collectors to measure the exact level of each and every trash can in real time. The city of Philadelphia has for example utilized this information to get the number of weekly collections down to 2.5 as compared to 17 when it introduced the system.

Entrepreneurs are curious by nature and opportunities often spring from their own experiences. If Jim got his revelation when falling on banana peel remains a rumour, but when you are to see an opportunity, make sure to go for the lowest hanging fruit and one that benefits the most people by using your product/service. The reason is simple; as a far-from-complete start-up, you want to give early adopters a benefit big enough that they will stay with yout through the inevitable mistakes along the way. All are however not as forgiving. Prepare to have your idea struck down by a lot of people, as Jim puts it: “One must almost be a bit delusional to make it through.”

An entrepreneur is someone that challenges the status quo, someone who, unlike companies, are not there to protect their revenues. The difference is quite obvious to Jim. “While Toyota develops a hybrid car, the entrepreneur invents a ride sharing service. Frankly they wouldn’t launch it even if they could. It is against the profitable status quo.” But when they start to notice you, when you start turning things upside down, that is when you know you are on to something.

I have been struck by the same enthusiasm in every true entrepreneur I have met. They are game changers, they are in it for the vision and they all dare to take the risk. So how do they find opportunity? Take a look at something you don’t like, form a vision and answer the following question: “Are you afraid to look stupid?” Did people laugh at Jim Poss when he was to introduce a solar powered, digitalized, multi-compressing trash can? I am not sure, and Jim says he’s looked stupid many a time. But I am sure that it wouldn’t have stopped him from trying again. It is better to have a fair intellect that is well-used than a powerful one that is idle.


We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

Announcing the Peter Farrell Cup competition FINALISTS!!

 After a (ahem) slight delay, we are pleased to announced the finalists in the Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition. 

Of the 17 entrants, EVERY team was picked by at least one judge as a being worthy of further interest.  However, the following eight had the highest and most scores, earning them the right to pitch LIVE to the judging team.

These eight teams will be presenting their ideas and enterprises to our five judges on Wednesday evening, 26 October, in the Ritchie Theatre (Scientia Bldg) on the UNSW Kensington campus, beginning at 6 PM.

Come along to hear the newest and best of UNSW innovation and entrepreneurship!  (If you haven't already done so, please register here so we can get the catering numbers right.)

Abracadaver
BetaMed
Biomark
Future Surgical Solutions
Munchable
NMT
Pluvision
RevoSen

Many thanks to our judges for their hard work in reading, evaluating and scoring the business plans.  We look forward to your assessment and feedback on the live pitches!

Bryce Summerell - CEO at The Entourage, founder of DateRate.com.au, founder at Meet Bryce, and president at ACESUTS
Anne-Marie Birkell - General Partner in OneVentures and non-executive director for RedFlow Technologies Ltd
Simon Pinson – co-founder of BSF Group
Kevin Cullen - CEO NewSouth Innovations Pty Limited
Paul Levins - President Australia and New Zealand, Intellectual Ventures
Peter Davison - founder, Fishburners

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact the CIE (cie@unsw.edu.au)

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We are pleased to confirm Ernst & Young and RosesOnly as sponsors of the CIE. We would like to thank the Farrell Family Foundation and Gary Zamel for their generous donations. We also acknowlege the continuing support of the Australian School of Business. All of our sponsors help provide the means to host networking events, award prizes, and reimburse our suppliers and service providers. In exchange, these donors receive good karma and public recognition as supporters of innovation and entrepreneurship. To become a sponsor of CIE and support our community engagement activity, please contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au.

CIE Competition Season - Kick-Off July 28th

As you may have guessed from the previous blog post, the competition season is upon us.

This year in addition to the long-running Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition, the CIE is working in partnership with the Centre for Social Impact to present the Social Entrepreneurship Prize.

The Social Entrepreneurship Prize competition, sponsored by Peter Kazacos, provides university students with the opportunity to bring their social entrepreneurship idea to life by pitching to a panel of experts from the Sydney social entrepreneurship community.

Both competitions are open to all currently-enrolled students at UNSW or other Australian universities, at either the undergraduate or post-graduate level. 

While each competition has a distinct "flavour" and orientation, the CIE assists students to prepare by offering a series of workshops to build contestants' key foundational skills. 

Teams submit a business plan and finalists are selected to pitch their ideas “live” to the judging panel. Finalists will be ranked on the idea and its market viability and also presentation and skill at answering the judges’ questions.

Students entering any of the competitions are encouraged to attend the workshops and learn in a relaxed and encouraging atmosphere.

The first workshop is the Mix n' Match evening, held from 6-9 PM on July 28 in the ASB Lounge.  Food and drink will be served and registration is required.  Click here to register.

Check out the Events page on the CIE website; we'll be posting upates, information, and FAQs as the workshops come up.

Looking foward to an exciting competition season, and we'll see you on the 28th!

Social Innovation Competition

(from our colleagues at the UNSW Co-op Students Charitable Society)

Want to put your skills and creative knowledge to the test and make a real-life impact on the community? Then the Social Innovation Competition is the project for you!

What is the Social Innovation Competition?
The Social Innovation Competition (SIC) aims to connect university students to a variety of charities and not-for-profit organisations with the purpose of creating awareness of the challenges faced by these organisations and to help generate innovative solutions to these challenges. The competition will allow students to gain first hand contact with charity representatives as well as empowering them through specialized CIE workshops to create unique and “outside the box” ideas.

How can you benefit from participating in this competition? 

• Put your skills and knowledge to the test to come up with creative ways of addressing challenges faced by charities;
• Make a meaningful impact on the community that goes far beyond making a simple donation;
• Learn how to develop and structure a business proposal through a range of CIE workshops;
• Win casg prizes for your allocated charity as well as prizes for yourselves;
• Potentially assist your charity to implement your idea if the charity deems it feasible;
• Develop teamwork, leadership, communication, presentation, problem-solving and analytical skills, which all look great on your resume!

How does the competition work?

The competition will run for 6 weeks. Students compete in teams of 4 for the chance to win prize money for their charity. 

 

Student teams will register their team and outline why they should be chosen to participate in the competition. Selected teams will participate in the information night where charities and students will be given the opportunity to meet and brainstorm with their host charity. 6 weeks later all teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges who will select the prizewinners. 

 

Interested?

Then stay tuned for further updates! For more information, email us on SIC.Project2011@gmail.com

 

The Innovator's Challenge!

Student Entrepreneurs: Agents of Change are launching The Innovators Challenge on August, to be run simultaneously in Melbourne and at UNSW.

The event is based on Stanford's competition of the same name, and it's had great success for a number of years as part of Entrepreneurs Week (http://www.eweek.org.au/).

There will be a launch event on the 11th of August with a keynote speaker and the announcement of a bunch of in-kind and experiential prizes for which students will compete.

The finals and judging takes place on the 19th of August. Both the launch and the finals will occur simultaneously in Melbourne and Sydney.

More information and website coming soon!!

Final pitches for STRE2010/5607 this Tuesday

Come one, come all. This Tuesday we are having the final pitches for the students of STRE2010 and STRE5607. Earlier versions of many of the pitches can be seen on youtube, by searching for the course code:  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stre2010&aq=f

Last minute changes may apply. With 28 teams, there is only enough time for 3-minute pitches and 2 minutes of Q&A.

Session 1: 1200-1330 in Biomedical Theatre D (just to the right of the entrance off Botany St)

Starting time Randomized Team Order   

12:10 Intro

12:15 Team 8 - Fill N Go    

12:18 Q&A    

12:20 Team 9 - Schmextbooks (Teebii)    

12:23 Q&A    

12:25 Team 11 - Ignite Health    

12:28 Q&A    

12:30 Team 1 - Batter Up!    

12:33 Q&A    

12:35 Team 21 - Etext    

12:38 Q&A    

12:40 Team 7 - Fit Buddy    

12:43 Q&A    

12:45 Team 5 - Social Scene (Easy Shopper)    

12:48 Q&A    

12:50 Team 26 - Q-Hop    

12:53 Q&A    

12:55 Team 20 - Prestige Worldwide    

12:58 Q&A    

13:00 Team 14 - HD    

13:03 Q&A    

13:05 Team 15 - Tramble    

13:08 Q&A    

13:10 Team 27 - SydneyCycle    

13:13 Q&A    

13:15 Team 12 - Headfirst (Smartmouth)    

13:18 Q&A    

13:20 Team 28 - Togethr    

13:23 Q&A    

13:25 Wrap-up Session 1  

Session 2: 1700-1830 in Biomedical Theatre D (just to the right of the entrance off Botany St)

Starting time Randomized Team Order   

17:10 Intro    

17:15 Team 3 - Gamma (Maptic)    

17:18 Q&A    

17:20 Team 18 - Paradigm Breakers    

17:23 Q&A    

17:25 Team 22 - Influx    

17:28 Q&A    

17:30 Team 6 - Blitz Solutions    

17:33 Q&A    

17:35 Team 23 - SocialEyes    

17:37 Q&A    

17:39 Team 25 - Designerama    

17:41 Q&A    

17:43 Team 2 - UniBoard    

17:45 Q&A    

17:47 Team 4 - RayAura    

17:49 Q&A    

17:51 Team 17 - Easy Translator    

17:53 Q&A    

17:55 Team 24 - BarFly    

17:57 Q&A    

17:59 Team 19 - SuperParkTeamWinners    

18:01 Q&A    

18:03 Team 13 - Sleepod    

18:05 Q&A    

18:07 Team 16 - Infinite Loyality Solutions    

18:09 Q&A    

18:11 Team 10 - Glu10 Free    

18:13 Q&A    

18:11 Wrap-up  

Disclaimer:

Most of these students are working on ideas that are only for course credit. However, that shouldn't stop anyone from providing solid business advice that they can learn from to apply to whichever idea they are working on.

Actual projects include:

• Togethr (http://togethr.at/): final pitch in Tuesday evening
• Schmextbooks / Teebii (http://bit.ly/kaOlIH): Pitch #2 in the first session
• Eye dropper (http://bit.ly/lSeWO3): Student in the course, but working on a different idea with his team
• The Entrepreneurial Chase (http://bit.ly/lg9NJ7): Student in the course, but working on a different idea with his team

Other notable outcomes:

• TaxiApps: Winners of the Peter Farrell Cup and JHEC (http://bit.ly/l0vTjn), now looking for beta users (http://bit.ly/kEnHKD)
• Mijura: Presenter at CIE’s 2010 PitchFest, now live (https://mijura.com/company/index)

Coming soon: an update on mentoring and an update on innovative work placements (internships) for Diploma in Innovation Management students

Entrepreneurial Internship Program wrap-up and poster session

Last Wednesday the Design @ Eng exhibition space (5^th floor, Mechanical Engineering Bldg on UNSW Kensington campus) saw the Poster Presentation and wrap-up of the CIE’s Entrepreneurial Internship Program, the culmination of an exciting half-year for both interns and sponsors.

14 students exchanged their summer holidays for work experience at some of Australia’s leading innovative companies. 

Here’s a sampling of the projects on which the interns worked (check reports)

• Disaster response procedures, which unexpectedly got a field-test  during the Queensland floods
• Voice-based psychometric analysis technology
• Video analytics for retail applications
• Software product management
• CRM system development
• Comprehensive communication strategy development for internal and external stakeholders

For the event, students prepared posters detailing the company and the project(s) with which they were involved.

 

After their stint in the world of work, interns also submitted a written report and an evaluation of their experience at the sponsoring organization.  Companies submitted an evaluation of the student and their project, all of which were highly complementary.

“Much higher calibre than expected of one so young,” raved one company representative.

“This is the second intern I have had in 3 years and I continue to derive value for our business [with] this program,” declared another.

Company reviewers were asked for an dollar estimate for the value of the work performed by the intern.  Amounts ranged from $5,000 to $20,000; one interned performed so well that their sponsoring company estimated the value of their work at over $50,000!

During the evening, students presented their poster to their fellow cohort members and to company representatives.  All were impressed at the scope of the students' achievements.

Other comments from the representatives of the sponsoring organizations:

“A great experience overall.  A fresh mind willing to commit to challenging business problems always gives us some surprises, positive ones…the flexibility and commitment demonstrated by the intern greatly helped the team to address some of the burning business challenges in a relatively short time frame.”

“[We] enjoyed working with the 2 interns from the CIE Internship Program and found their contributions to be very helpful and positive for us and the interns.”

The CIE's Director, Dr Martin Bliemel was on hand to present both the students and the company representatives with their certificates of achievement and recognition.

Students were also enthusiastic about their experiences:

“The internship with [company] was an eye opener in terms of learning how professionals in the [industry] think and act.  Its considerably different from any university experience I’ve had previously and it is well worth the experience.”

“Invaluable – an opportunity to be placed in a business [that] is really excited to have you and teach as much as possible.  Gives you an opportunity to work somewhere a student would usually have difficulty finding themselves.”

“It has been the best place I’ve ever worked.  Honestly, I didn’t know that such workplaces even existed…the organisational culture here is brilliant, and it’s a very exciting industry to be in at present.”

All the interns will receive recognition of their successful completion of the program with a statement on their testamur acknowledging their achievement.

Although the CIE is reluctantly discontinuing this highly successful program, a new internship program will be offered in Semester 2 to students and sponsoring companies.  Under the new scheme, students enrolled in the elective INOV4101 class will receive course credit for their work.  We are grateful to the University for supporting valuable experiential learning opportunities for these ambitious students.

We would also like to thank the UNSW Co-op Office for their generous assistance and support.

Finally, many thanks to our industry partners; we very much appreciate your continuing involvement and support, and look forward future opportunities for both students and sponsoring companies.

 

-          Atlassian

-          Homestar Finance

-          Petbarn

-          Medical Australia

-          IP Scape

-          Telcoinabox

-          NICTA

-          ResMed

Mentoring

There is a lot of interest in mentoring these days, both from people who want to be mentored and those who want to give back and be mentors. Mentoring isn’t exactly new, though. UNSW’s Chancellor, David Gonski, was mentored by the late Kim Santow in the 70’s. We should be able to learn lessons about mentoring from our past before reinventing the wheel.


Before looking at different types of mentors, let’s take a step back and compare mentoring to coaching. If you think of a coach, you probably get the image of a sports coach, running up and down the side-lines, yelling very specific instructions to the players about where they should be and what they should do, or who they should keep an eye on. Mentoring, on the other hand, isn’t so much about providing specific instructions, as it is about asking the right questions to get the mentee to draw their on conclusion about what course of action is best. For years I volunteered with the NVBC, and co-mentored start-ups in the competition alongside Peter Parrish. Back then there was not much structure to the program other than us asking the entrepreneurs a million questions and getting them to think about what they would say to judges in the competition who might ask the same questions. These days, the NVBC mentoring program is complemented by a very structured mentoring program, operated by the regional innovation council (NVBC's title sponsor), for which Peter is now training to be a “lead mentor”.

Even though some people prefer being part of a structured program and being assigned mentors, the reality is that you (yes, you) can go out and find your own mentors, too. Having one mentor doesn’t mean you can’t have another. You don’t even need to let the person know you consider them your mentor. David Lerner’s blog has an interesting post describing varying degrees of formality to mentorship, from free and informal, through to very structured for-fee programs. Another excellent source for what it means to have or be a mentor is Nature’s guide for mentors, which even includes a self-assessment tool, to see how good a mentor you are.

This past semester, I created the opportunity for 15 teams of 5-6 students to be mentored for their business idea as part of a course I teach, STRE2010. Part way through the course, students created short youtube clips of their business pitches (e.g. Detect to Protect, much like the recent TED talk on concussions), which I then sent out to about 30 entrepreneurs who had previously expressed interest in mentoring. Within a few short days (over a weekend!), mentors had signed up to all of the teams. Teams were mentored for another 5-6 weeks through to the final pitch, done in front of a live panel of judges, consisting of entrepreneurs and investors. The feedback from the mentoring program was great. Both students and mentors really enjoyed the opportunity and engagement.

This term, we are tweaking the mentoring program and probably increasing it, due to the fantastic uptake of the revised Diploma in Innovation Management and increased enrolment in my course. Rather than pairing teams up with mentors, we will get teams to find their own mentors. This will help students learn to step outside their comfort zone, network, and pitch their business ideas to real people outside the classroom. We will of course have our own list of people we miiiiiiiight be able to put them in touch with if they really are stuggling to find mentors on their own (please let us know if you want to be added to our list). And, there are also related organizations like TiE Sydney, through which students may find mentors. (SME mentors may be found through Enterprise Connect's ELM program)

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to read our recent B-HERT article on teaching innovation and entrepreneurship in high-school, subscribe to our news and events, and follow us on Twitter.

Dr. Martin Bliemel
Director, Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
School of Strategy & Entrepreneurship
Australian School of Business, UNSW

Peter Farrell Cup competition RESULTS!!

Mobile phone-based taxi booking and payments platform developer TaxiApps took first place in the 10th annual Peter Farrell Cup Business Plan Competition last Thursday. The event was hosted by the Centre of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) in the School of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the Australian School of Business (ASB). 

The competition offers teams of students the opportunity to create and develop an innovative business idea,  then present it to a panel of five judges comprising business founders and venture capitalists.

“The whole process, from coming up with idea and then thinking through what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it – the whole thing just gathered momentum and then I started thinking `Hey, we could really do this’ and now it’s just really exciting that we’re going ahead with this,” said TaxiApps team member Ned Moorfield, a student of the AGSM. “The contest really gets you going.”


Dr Peter C Farrell with 1st place winning team, TaxiApps. From L to R:
Trung Nghi Tiet, Ned Moorfield, Dr Farrell and Andrew Campbell

Other winning ideas were: on-site toxic halogenated waste recycling, hangover and osteoporosis medications, and an online social network for casual workplaces.
“I was really impressed at the sophistication of not only the presentations but the ideas themselves,” commented Axelle Marjolin, UNSW student and spectator, at the evening’s events. “I certainly wasn’t expecting so many technical ideas with that much development behind them.”

Judge Gareth Dando, founding Managing Director of Southern Cross Venture Partners, also expressed surprise at the ideas presented, saying, “I’m quite impressed with the calibre of the ideas and businesses [the teams] put together. There are some quite good ideas here, and not just for students.”

Teams were judged not only on their written business plan – which determined, from the initial 25 applicants, who would go on to win one of the ten spots in the finals presentation roster – but also on live presentation and their ability to field questions from a tough judging panel.

“The Peter Farrell Cup is about articulating a business idea, and doing that through a brief written plan and verbal pitch. It provides an opportunity to experience what it’s like to actually have an idea, develop a business model around it, and then solicit interest and feedback about the opportunity from real investors - people who know what they’re talking about and evaluate such opportunities on a professional basis,” said Dr Martin Bliemel, CIE’s Director. 

“Sure, the judges are looking for a unique selling proposition, a clear market and risk analysis, and investment attractiveness, but what else they really want to see is that spark in the eye of the person telling them about it, they want to see that passion for the idea,” he explained.

Dr Peter C Farrell, AM, Founder and Executive Chairman of ResMed Inc, sponsor of the competition, was on-hand to announce the winners and present awards.

Ernst & Young and TiE also sponsored the event by offering full membership with the TiE and attendance at Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year ™ awards dinner to the winners.

A special addition to this year’s competition was the unveiling of the new Peter Farrell Cup competition trophy. Jointly designed by Selena Griffith, Lecturer at UNSW’s College of Fine Arts (COFA), Dr Miles Park, Senior Lecturer in UNSW’s Faculty of the Built Environment (FBE), and Industrial Designer Hugh Worthington (BSc. Design UNSW) of Vert Design in Redfern, the uniquely stylized cup is representative of the “crucible” effect of the competition on rough business ideas that are distilled and concentrated through participation in such competitions.

New Peter Farrell Cup trophies by UNSW's COFA and FBE, and Vert Design


Made from recycled aluminium bicycle tire rims, the outside of the hollowed half-sphere has a roughly mottled surface created by a process called lost-foam casting. As the surface turns the edge from the outside, the level of polish increases until it reaches the centre of the hollow, which is almost a mirror. 

“We wanted it to represent the ideas [in the competition] needing to be polished, and be something of value to hold. The polished texture changes the form, and it looks different and feels lighter as the texture changes,” said Andrew Simpson, Principal Industrial Designer at Vert.

First, second, and third place winners each receive a smaller replica of the Cup engraved with their team name to take home. The original Cup will remain on display at the CIE with the first-place team’s name engraved on the highly polished steel plate on which the trophy rests.  

“Although it’s a long evening with ten 15-minute presentations, the level of activity and networking at the event was tremendous,” stated Dr Bliemel. 

“One participant, Sampath from Solbij, which is a provider of solar chargers for mobile devices, did not make the finals but still came to the event and guerrilla-pitched the judges in their break to demonstrate the massive progress he made since his initial submission. Now that’s taking initiative and being entrepreneurial!” said Dr Bliemel with a laugh.

In addition to the prizes initially offered, the winning teams have also been invited to pitch to more investors at Seed Accelerator’s upcoming Sydney Startup Networking event on 9 December. TaxiApps is also going on to compete in the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge in Adelaide, and Solbij has received further advice from one of the founders of Sydney Angels. 

Winners were:

1st place - TaxiApps (mobile phone based taxi booking and fare payment platform)
2nd place - ACIRO (on-site toxic halogenated waste recycling) 
3rd place - OsteoPlus (osteoporosis medication)
4th place - Resaca de Borrachera (hangover cure at the molecular level)
5th place - Shiftr (online social network for casual workplaces)

Winning teams of the 10th annual Peter Farrell Cup Entrepreneurship Competition

For more information please contact the CIE at +61 2 9385 9730.

Peter Farrell Cup Competition - NEW DATES!!

REGISTER HERE!

Bootstrapping your business? Get great deals on market research

At the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), we are still looking for a few good companies who are interested in entrepreneurial interns for this summer. In brief, YOU get access to a pre-screened selection of some of Australia's highest achieving and motivated undergraduates who have a keen interest in entrepreneurship. THEY get experience on a project related to business development (e.g., market research, product design or launch, sales and marketing, etc.) and make a living wage.

While the internships are designed to happen for 10-12 weeks over the (Australian) summer, we are aiming for commitment from companies by mid-July, in time for an exclusive match-making session in August.

All you have to do to take advantage of this unique opportunity is contact us at cie@unsw.edu.au for a copy of the latest guidelines, let us know how many interns you would like, and pdf back a signed copy of the agreement (Appendix 1 of the guidelines).

Great TED talk on raising kids to recognize opportunities and think entrepreneurially

TEDxEdmonton, Filmed Mar 2010; Posted Jun 2010