The New Entrepreneurs

The Gold Coast is a city of opportunity, one that openly and actively encourages an entrepreneurial spirit, and it begins from an early age. There are a number of programs and initiatives designed to nurture that spirit, including the Mayor’s Technology and Innovation Awards.

The competition is open to high school students from years 8 to 12, who work in teams of either two or three to collaborate on an idea that utilises technology to solve a real-world problem that impacts on the local community. There’s no limit on the number of teams that can enter from each school.

A world of possibilities...

Concepts

Some of the concepts for this year’s awards include an app that maps the location of the city’s defibrillators to make them more accessible and save more lives, while another is a sustainability initiative designed to reduce our carbon footprint by awarding points for groceries and products that are sourced locally and ecologically, operating in a similar way to consumer rewards schemes.

The ten finalist teams for the 2022 Awards were provided by seven Gold Coast high schools – Emmanuel College, The Southport School, Helensvale State High School, Saint Stephen’s College, Queensland Academies for Health Sciences, St Hilda’s School and Merrimac State High School.

Vishal Mehrotra gets animated

Mentoring

As the teams progress through the Awards program they develop their ideas further through workshops and mentoring provided by some of the leading entrepreneurial minds on the Gold Coast. Last week they attended an all day boot camp which covered everything from turning their idea into an actual business model to creating a brand strategy and pitching their concept to potential stakeholders and investors.

Leading the charge into the entrepreneurial world was Bond University’s Vishal Mehrotra, a creative and inspirational business strategist who has previously headed digital initiatives like Think Tank Games and Mind Challenge Ltd. Vishal challenged the teams to think about what they were doing and why they were doing it, emphasising the need to create a business model that delivers value, which doesn’t always equate to money.

“If you’re not creating value you’re never going to survive in the long term,” he said. “Create value first, the money will come later. It took Amazon 12 years to make money, now they’re a global giant!”

Kate Morgan finds inspiration from the students

Inspiration

As a recent startup founder Kate Morgan shared the journey of how she and her partner Kirk Reynoldson developed their life admin app Eggy, which was born as a result of trying to juggle the many competing demands within their personal and professional lives.

“We had a deep and real understanding of what our problem was and we wanted to solve it and we knew that by solving that problem we could create a better life for ourselves and others who were experiencing the challenges of their hectic lives,” Kate explained.    

What really impressed Kate by working with the students at the bootcamp was that she saw the same type of motivation from the ideas the teams presented.

“I could see that a lot of the ideas had come from personal experience and that solving that problem really meant something to them,” she enthused. “I sometimes wonder whether I get as much, if not more, out of this experience than the students do!”

Pitching like a pro with Scott Millar

It would appear Kate wasn’t alone with her sentiments. Scott Millar, the energetic young entrepreneur and founder of BOP Industries says it was an immense pleasure to be able to share his favourite tips and tricks for pitching a concept.

“This is such an awesome program for students on the Gold Coast,” he said. “I had so much fun today. Building and delivering a great pitch is half the battle when it comes to launching any innovation. I can’t wait to see these students bring their ideas to life!”