Students, innovators and entrepreneurs came together for an opportunity to learn from each other through an exchange of ideas, as well as understanding how the Gold Coast is supporting startups while extending professional networks in an event held at the Gold Coast on 9 July 2019.
Guest speakers included Professor Dian Tjondronegoro, Deputy Head (Research) at the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation, Griffith Business School, Ms Jackie Babbage, Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Gifting Owl, Mr Ben Howe, CEO, CoSPACES and COHORT, and Mr James Gilmour, Director and Co-Founder of Gilmour Space Technologies.
The diverse collective of entrepreneurs and industry professionals shared their experiences with students and aspiring entrenpreneurs to help them understand how to navigate the potential pitfalls as they aspire towards their own enterprising career.
Gilmour space Technologies chose to grow their business at Gold Coast as they believe we have the local talent to send satellites to space and use it for precision agriculture.
“Digital innovation, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI) is needed to enable accurate planning and calculation.”
CoSPACES CEO, Ben Howe, hopes to provide a platform and opportunity for collaborations between entrepreneurs, research experts and interns to flourish.
Professor Tjondronegoro spoke about obstacles like intellectual property and noted that entrepreneurs value collaborations with university research experts, but rather than approaching them for funding, researchers need to build trust as a starting point.
“It starts with trust to build a relationship and mutual win-win collaboration,” Tjondronegoro said.
Griffith Alumnus and Co-Founder of Gifting Owl, Jackie Babbage is also a mentor for students in the Entrepreneurship course convened by Associate Professor Naomi Birdthistle. Jackie said she too would certainly benefit from AI to improve personalisation of gifting.
Following the formal part of the event students had the opportunity to network and engage with industry professionals to explore the pathways for their future careers.
