The result was an awe-inspiring afternoon of thoughtful pitches, life-changing feedback, and genuine collaboration and connections.
On Wednesday 4 May, at Caboolture Hub, the region’s epicentre for creative businesses, Moreton Bay Regional Council and Innovate Moreton Bay hosted the inaugural Creative Industries Demo Day, setting the bar high for future events
With an aim to unearth Moreton Bay businesses working in the creative industries sector, looking to grow, and access new markets and customers, the event featured six business owners, from a total pool of 17 applicants, pitching in front of a room of industry-leading judges and invited guests.
If you'd like to see other entries in this event series, click here.
Here's a recap of the day...
After much deliberation by the judges, Pia Robinson from The Culture Crusader and her project Martin and Friends: Enabling through Augmented Reality, was announced the overall winner of the day.
Martin and Friends is the evolution of many months of ideation and aspires to be an inclusive tourism exhibition and engagement program, aiming to transform 2D artwork into engaging AR that can be accessed anywhere, enabling a national reach and an inclusive cultural experience for young people on the spectrum or with sensory processing sensitivities.
To support the success of the project, the judges awarded her a 1:1 mentoring session with a matched Queensland AI Hub expert in residence along with a 12-month QLD AI Hub membership.
To our participants, congratulations! I think we speak for everyone in the room when we say that you blew us away with your thought-provoking business ideas and your pitches were all outstanding. We look forward to watching as you continue to achieve big things in the future.
Meet our 2022 participants:
Greg Dodge from Walk in 3 Worlds
Fiona & Michael Holmstrom from STEM Punks TV
Jeff Hughes from This Story Australia
Pearly Tasker from Pearly Sprinkles
Julia Lewis from Lewis Media
We look forward to watching your successful ventures into the future.
To our esteemed panel of powerhouse judges, we’re very humbled and appreciative to each of you for donating your time and helping open doors, sharing industry insights, and encouraging participants to think outside the box.
The wealth of talent, experience and networks from the judges and invited guests in the room was incredibly powerful.
Let's get to know our 2022 Judges a little better...
Invested in or started over 30 companies in his venture portfolio
Works across three continents
65 staff in Australia in the parent company alone
Three major exits with global tech giants including Twitter and Microsoft
Working with high profile people like Scarlett Johansen, Pharrell, and Val Kilmer
Group CEO of Josephmark, a venture studio that works with entrepreneurs and enterprises to define and redefine brands, products, and entirely new businesses.
“Creativity is the key to high performance”
34 years with Woodfordia (producers of iconic Woodford Folk Festival and Festival of Small Halls)
It is the largest gallery of artists of its kind in Australia with 130,000+ attendance at events each year
With over 7000 team members delivering a series of activations (including volunteers)
Former CEO of Creative Enterprises Australia, where they made over 30 investments in creative businesses during that time
Partner in a venture capital firm with $60m in capital, making 6-10 deals per annum
Managing Director of Innovation Architects, designing and delivering accelerator, incubator, and investment programs (including pre-seed, seed, and syndicated Series-A funds)
Former head of content at Screen Qld, where she and the team supported over 100 new talent development opportunities
Orange Entertainment and their sister company The Post Lounge working on a range of television and film projects including ABC comedy series, Channel 9 documentary series, and a Baz Luhrum movie
Current Associate Producer of Nine Network's documentary series, Missing Persons Investigations
The judges had the difficult job of matching participants with relevant prizes that would help them succeed in their ventures. A big thank you to the following businesses and organisations for donating incredible prizes.
Awarded to: The Culture Crusader
Awarded to: Pearly Sprinkles
Awarded to: The Story Australia
Awarded to STEM Punks TV
Before stepping on stage to pitch to an audience and judges, the finalists participated in a pre-event workshop hosted by world-class trainer and workshop facilitator Jacqueline Nagle of Any Given Tuesday.
This half-day workshop helped finalists fine-tune their skills and unlock the elements of influence to provide them with pitching, story-telling, speaking, positioning, business model analysis, and strategy skills.
The six creative businesses who took to the stage absolutely blew the audience away with their passion, and thought-provoking business ideas, and the caliber of their presentations were outstanding.
Many of the businesses accredited their refined pitches to the support and advice offered by Jacqueline in the Demo Day Prep Workshop.
The Creative Industries Demo Day is part of a suite of innovative programs being delivered via Innovate Moreton Bay, as part of the Council’s commitment to the Regional Economic Development Strategy (REDS) which includes the objective of becoming a top ten regional innovation hub.
For more information about Council’s innovation programs, see www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/innvoation
