Canberra businesses showcase their creativity

What would you do if you had only 5 minutes to ignite the audience? Twelve local Canberra innovators took up that challenge at Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre’s  Festival of Ambitious Ideas.

Held on 6 November 2013, speakers on the night included Ken Kroeger, Managing Director and CEO of Seeing Machines, Denis Jorgensen, CEO of Uber Global and Adrian Faccioni, Managing Director of GPSports. With only 5 minutes to ignite the audience, the speakers shared their story, their highlights and their challenges and left some parting tips for the budding entrepreneurs in the audience.

Anna Pino, Chief Executive of Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre told StartupSmart  the event was launched to combat the idea Canberra wasn’t creative. 

“One of the issues start-ups have in Canberra is people think we’re not a very innovative city, but there is a lot of activity,” Ms Pino says. 

“Events like these are vital for a community like Canberra where even the locals misunderstand what’s going on here and all the incredible activity.”

“We had no idea there were so many great projects going on here that had almost no visibility beyond their own team. We’re hoping to connect people so they can network and set up collaborations,” Ms Pino continued.

One of those showcasing their ideas was Amber Stanley who displayed her ‘Think. Create. Innovate ACT’ augmented reality exhibition.  The exhibition, which uses portrait photos and her new augmented reality app to promote some of her fellow entrepreneurs, debuted to large audiences earlier in the year at the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards and Floriade.

Ms Stanley’s exhibition was made up of ten custom designed, glowing spires, each containing a removable portrait of an entrepreneur. When you download the free app and hover your device's camera over the portrait, a 'hologram- like' of a mini entrepreneur pops up and tells you about their secrets to success. Find out more about the augmented reality tool .

Watch this video to see the augmented reality display in action:

This was the second event of its kind, with the first being held earlier this year. While the Festival of Ambitious Ideas is not an investment pitching competition, Pino says one of the start-ups in the March event has received angel investment from someone who saw them pitch on the day.  

The Canberra start-up community is well-placed to work with one of Australia’s largest clients, the federal government. Pino says the event is designed to encourage this connection.

“We see Canberra as an incubator in itself, with high quality graduates coming out of our institutions and one of the world’s biggest customers right here on your doorstep,” Pino says. 

“If you can sell something to government and make it work, you’re off to an excellent start. Nurturing that relationship is really important for us.” Read more in StartupSmart’s ‘Canberra start-ups to showcase creativity at Festival of Ambitious Ideas’ .