Innovation News

The world is changing faster than most of us can grasp and at an ever-increasing rate. Traditional notions of career pathways and job descriptions are being created almost daily to the point where asking a child what they want to be when they grow up is almost a redundant question. The real question for parents and educators alike is: “how do we give our children the skills they need to not only adapt, but thrive in an increasingly uncertain future?”

Recently Study Gold Coast invited a number of innovators to address the city’s education and training sector to demystify entrepreneurship and why we need to develop enterprise skills within our curriculum to meet the needs of the 21^st century workplace. Leading the discussion was Dr Baden U’Ren, Bond University’s Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leanne Kemp, Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur.

In the lead up to the 2018 Commonwealth Games billions of dollars were invested into the Gold Coast, not only to meet the event’s infrastructure needs, but to ensure the city could leverage its potential in the post Games era. Aside from the physical infrastructure, substantial emphasis was placed on realising the city’s intellectual capital, particularly through entrepreneurial enterprises and innovative start-ups. With the Gold Coast being Australia’s small business capital, the strategy makes perfect sense.

As part of that strategy $5 billion was invested into the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, encompassing Griffith University’s research facilities, the new University Hospital, the Gold Coast Private Hospital, and the G:Link light rail service. The GC2018 Athlete’s Village occupied some 10 hectares within the precinct, a parcel of land now being reimagined as Lumina X - an entrepreneurial nursery for innovative, high technology enterprises, many of which will feed into and form partnerships with Griffith University’s world leading biomedical research facilities.

A tech company based in the heart of Surfers Paradise is winning international accolades for the way its changing agricultural practices across the globe. Social enterprise AgUnity has developed a platform that empowers poor farmers in developing countries by improving their agricultural practices so that they can become profitable.

By using blockchain in the backend of their platform AgUnity are able to guarantee security for farmers and in doing so tackle the issues of graft and corruption which plague farming in those countries.

Saint Stephens College has taken out the top prize in the 2019 Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards. Top Binzzz is an app designed to attract gamers into playing physical sport and athletes to become better at sport by utilising technology.

Saint Stephens students Kaveendra Dissabandara, Zachary Haywood and Samara Lowie developed their idea because they wanted to see obesity rates drop through more physical exercise and to enhance their sporting prowess through the use of the latest technology. When asked what set their idea apart Zac answered: “simplicity of design was the key.” 

Michael Metcalfe is the founder of Kynd, a healthcare app that empowers people to choose the right carer, based on their unique needs. The Southern Cross University alumnus launched his startup two years ago and has since grown rapidly in an industry that is undergoing significant change.  

“For the past 40 years the health care industry has worked a certain way with everything controlled by the traditional provider, but over the last few years the sector has become deregulated and we’ve also seen the introduction of the NDIS scheme,” says Michael.

As the world population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate draining the planet’s limited resources the need to adopt sustainable practices becomes increasingly vital to our future. Envirotech Education on the Gold Coast is an organisation committed to leading from the forefront of globally innovative learning, guided by environmental sustainability with foundations in cutting edge technology.  

One of Envirotech’s program initiatives is the Innovation Hub, where teams of students work together to create sustainable projects. The module covers a range of disciplines from digital media to marketing and is designed to provide solutions to real world problems.  

When Study Gold Coast began to look at how we could make the Hub even more accessible the obvious answer was to make it mobile, and that’s how the Mobile Student Hub as born. The Mobile Student Hub brings support services, workshops and professional development programs directly to students in high schools and campuses on the Gold Coast.

Health and community services is one of the biggest employers in Australia. Currently one in seven Queenslanders is employed in the sector and by 2050 the Gold Coast is projected to have the largest growth in this sector in the country, estimated to be worth $7 billion annually. In short, helping people, particularly the aged and disabled, is big business.

Dian is a Professor with Southern Cross University’s School of Business and Tourism, but his real passion is technology. In 2018 he started the Digital Enterprise Lab, a multi-disciplinary facility designed to service the University’s numerous schools and, more broadly, the Gold Coast community.