www.sydstart.com - where startups meet talent and change the world. Sydstart is a community run event for startups to hear from successful leaders in the startup commnunity - those who are leading by example with great recent success such as exits or investment or new industry initiatives - as well as hear pitches from variety of new businesses looking for co-founders, staff, awareness, feedback, partners, investment and more.
The event is this Thursday March 31st and registration starts at 12 noon - Federation Conference Centre Surry Hills - very accessible from Central or a longer walk from Town Hall station.
Grab a coffee from single origin across the road and settle in for nearly 30 speakers helping make Sydney the place to be with the best startup ecosystem.
Register here: http://sydstart2011autumn.eventbrite.com/
I’ll be going – be sure to say hello to me as well if you’re going!!
The pinnacle of these startup weekends we run is always the the opportunity for each of the participating teams to present their solution to our Panel of Judges. The panel includes technical experts, business experts and investors. Each judge has different backgrounds & experiences and the feedback they provide to participants is always invaluable.
The participants have each received 2 intensive days of training that covers Phone 7 Development & Microsoft Cloud technologies. After these intensive deep dives, the participants have from 9am Saturday morning until 4:00pm Sunday to build their application!
They each receive 10 minutes to pitch to the Judging panel – 1 mins setup time, 5 mins demo/slides & then 4 minutes for questions from the panel.
Each presentation will be judged on:
The Prize pack includes 3 HTC Mozart Phone 7’s plus 4 x 1 hour mentoring sessions from technology consulting, investing and mentoring company Foundry38 http://www.foundry38.com/. Foundry38 specialise in helping startups turn into Businesses.
Our Panel of Judges for this event includes:
Dr Anna Liu Principal Researcher and Research Group Leader at NICTA,
Roger Kermode Venture Consultant
Angus Kidman Freelance Journalist and Editor for Lifehacker Australia
Gareth Rose Lead Entrepreneur, iPitch.com.au
Steve Nagy Azure MVP and Senior Consultant, Readify
You can see each of their Bio’s below:
Dr Anna Liu is currently a principal researcher and research group leader at NICTA, Australia’s peak research organisation in ICT. She is currently driving the Software Systems research agenda for NICTA and Australia, and leading a team of 80+ people. One current focus for her team is cloud computing - the enterprise consumer perspective. To this end, her team produces technologies and techniques to help enterprise organisations to gain greater visibility and control over their assets running across public and private cloud environments, in order to avoid future silos. Anna also holds an associate professorship at the University of New South Wales. Prior to returning to academia and research, she was the Group Manager of Emerging Technologies at Microsoft Australia, and held Principal Software Architect roles specialising in Service Oriented Architecture, integration and interoperability, Web and Cloud technologies, applied to the financial services domain and government sector. In the more distant past, Dr Liu held visiting Scientist position at the Software Engineering Institute, USA, provided advisory services to the US Department of Defence, and led middleware technology evaluation projects at the CSIRO.
Dr Liu is widely known for her pioneering work in evaluating public cloud environments, her team’s work spotlighted on CNN, ITNews and Slashdot etc. She is a popular speaker on cloud computing including the International SOACloud Symposium and the Cloudcamp series.
Roger is a Director of Alimua (Al-EE_MU-AH) where he consults to technology start-ups. He is also Chairman of Scan2List Shopping List app for Mobile phones and an Advisor to Mobeseek (MO-BE- SEEK) a full service mobile agency. He also runs the MEGA Entrepreneur Course in NSW, and serves as the ANZA Technology Networks's Director of Business Development. Roger holds a Ph.D. and Masters degrees from the MIT Media Lab where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Together with 2 partners, Roger will also shortly be launching PushStart a community focused, mentor driven technology start-up incubator.
Angus Kidman is the editor of Lifehacker Australia, one of Australia’s most popular technology sites which covers how to make your life more productive and efficient. He has been writing about information technology since 1994, covering everything from developer tools to local industry challenges and undertaking such odd assignments as stalking Bill Gates across Australia and testing wireless broadband in a Queensland rainforest.
Gareth Rose is now involved in his 4th startup, iPitch.com.au the Australian online community for startup entrepreneurs. Running iPitch, Gareth has unique exposure to the startup space in Australia, working closely with early stage business investors and engaging with literally hundreds of startup founders about the unique aspects of their businesses.
Prior to iPitch, Gareth spent the last few years building up extensive entrepreneurial experience co-founding the digital comic and retail startup Zynasty G and working in two other startups. Before breaking away from the 9-5 life, Gareth had previously worked in B2B sales and consulting in the areas of software and software services.
With this background and skill set Gareth focuses his interests on tech startups. He looks to bring his business strategy, sales and marketing experience to advise (or partner with) tech or creative skilled entrepreneurs trying to startup high potential businesses.
By day, Steven is a Senior Consultant for Readify and a Microsoft MVP in Windows Azure, helping organisations adopt technology and improve processes. By night, he cackles gleefully basking in the glow of his laptop screen as thousands of Azure worker roles carry out his evil bidding.
After an extremely successful afternoon in New South Wales, Funding Connect returns to Victoria on Tuesday 29th March, 2011 at the Royce Hotel in Melbourne. Starting at midday and finishing with drinks at 5.30pm, this is a jam-packed program providing you with relevant information on how to grow your business. The full program is now available.
For more information and to register, visit www.fundingconnect.com.au.
Speakers include:
· Simon Burke - CEO, IPscape
· Dr Michelle Deaker - Managing Partner, OneVentures
· John Dyson - Investment Principal, Starfish Ventures
· Martin Hosking - Managing Director, RedBubble
· David Jones - Founder & Advisor, ThreatMetrix
· Dean McEvoy - CEO / Co-Founder, Spreets.com.au
· Ric Richardson - Inventor & Founder, Uniloc
We hope to see you there!
Dale McCarthy
Domenic Carosa
Dean McEvoy
Mark Bonnar
details
when Tuesday 29th March, 2011
time 12noon - 6.30pm
where Royce Hotel 379 St Kilda Road Melbourne, VIC
cost $220 inc. GST (50% discount for entrepreneurs and employees of public funded research institutions & start-ups)
sponsored by
supported by
Funding Connect 2011 is a SlatteryIT event
I have finally signed off on the last of the updates to the Agenda for this weekends BizSpark Azure & Phone 7 startup BONANZA! I am so excited to bring together such a great range of both Technical & Business sessions for our attendees!
Agenda
Day 1
Thursday 24th – Technical Deep Dive Presented by Microsoft’s Andrew Coates
9:00
Introduction and Cloud Overview,
Windows Azure Overview,
Technical Drill Down - Windows Azure Compute, Management & Diagnostics,
Technical Drill Down - Windows Azure Storage,
Technical Drill Down – SQL Azure and
Technical Drill Down - Windows Azure Platform AppFabric
4:00
Q&A
Day 2
Friday 25th – Technical Deep Dive Presented by Built To Roam’s Nick Randolph
Introduction and Windows Phone User Experience Overview,
Animation, Orientation and Overlays,
Application Lifecycle, Navigation, Application Tiles and Notification
Tasks and Touch
Working with the Accelerometer, Sounds and Location
Connecting and Consuming the Web
Day 3
Saturday 26th
8:45
Doors open
Welcome & Housekeeping
9:05
20 minute session by Dr Avi Ratnanesan on Mobile Screenfest : The birth of a revolution in the world of film and mobile. He will also describe an opportunity for development so if you are undecided what to work on across the weekend this may give you some ideas
9:30
Development Kick off
12:30
Lunch Break
1:00
30 Minute Presentation by Jack Delosa of The Entourage who will outline proven successful PR strategies for startups.
1:30
Development Continues
Larry Gregory, manager of Customer & Partner Innovation team at Microsoft will work with each team on perfecting your Pitch. Each team will be scheduled a practice run through & receive feedback.
7:00
Close of Facilities (sleep for teams is optional!)
Sunday 27th
Kick Off
30 Minute session from the Alex Priouz of RIDC who will share with you what the top 1% are doing to reach their level of success and more importantly how you can adopt the same methodology to produce real life results in your business
Development Finishes - HARD STOP, Order of Presentations to judging panel allocated
4:15
Serial Entrepreneur James McCutcheon of Foundry 38 will entertain us for 15 mins with tales from the trenches before the judging panel kicks off.
4:30
Presentations to Judging Panel begins 10 mins per team - 2 mins setup, 5 mins pitch, 3 mins questions
6:30
Judges Break to decide on the winners.
Successful Entrepreneur Bart Jellema of ZeroMail will happily distract everyone while the Judges Adjudicate by sharing the lessons learnt building & selling a startup in Australia.
Winners Announced, Networking commences
The Bio’s for each of our Speakers are below:
Andrew Coates Developer Evangelist, Developer and Platform Evangelism Team, Microsoft Australia
Andrew is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft in Australia. Before joining Microsoft, Andrew was an independent consultant specialising in database applications using Microsoft technologies including SQL Server, Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Office.
Andrew's wide range of experience includes telecommunications, SMB inventory, dispatch and accounting systems, using both web and rich client front ends. He has developed and delivered class room training and has mentored a number of developers.
Andrew has spoken at international conferences on Geographical Information Systems, health statistics and database maintenance and is a regular presenter at TechEd both locally and internationally. An MCPD, MCTS and MCSD, Andrew also holds a Masters degree in Civil Engineering. Andrew blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat
Nick Randolph Founder Built to Roam, Mobile MVP
Nick currently runs Built To Roam which focuses on building rich mobile applications. Previously Nick was co-founder and Development Manager for nsquared solutions where he lead a team of developers to build inspirational software using next wave technology. Prior to nsquared, Nick was the lead developer at Intilecta Corporation where he was integrally involved in designing and building their application framework.
After graduating from a combined Engineering (Information Technology)/Commerce degree, Nick went on to be nominated as a Microsoft MVP in recognition of his work with the Perth .NET user group and his focus on mobile devices. He is still an active contributor in the device application development space via his blog at http://community.softteq.com/blogs/nick/ and via the Professional Visual Studio website, http://www.professionalvisualstudio.com/.
Nick has been invited to present at a variety of events including Tech Ed Australia, MEDC and Code camp. He has also authored articles for MSDN Magazine (ANZ edition), two books entitled Professional Visual Studio 2005 and Professional Visual Studio 2008, and helped judge the 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 world finals for the Imagine Cup.
Dr Avi Ratnanesan Chief Executive Officer & Producer, ARAYA PICTURES, Festival Director, MOBILE SCREENFEST
Dr Avnesh Ratnanesan (Avi) is founder of ARAYA PICTURES, an innovator company in film and new media entertainment. In 2010, it created Australia’s 1st Mobile Screenfest, the first mobile phone film and photo festival of its kind in Australia, which revolutionised the film, mobile and digital media industries. The festival was a big success, exceeding international benchmarks and unprecedented engagement, sending a message that in today’s world of technology, anyone can be a filmmaker. Araya Pictures’ vision and mission is to become one of the top 5 mobile filmmaking companies in the world by 2014 and is exploring ‘ground-breaking’ extensions for Mobile Screenfest International 2011, such as an mobile app for Windows Phone 7.
Avi initially qualified as a medical doctor in 2000 with experience in the UK and Australia. He also achieved an MBA with Honours in 2004 and ventured into the biopharmaceutical industry. Responsibilities included R&D as well implementation of Corporate Strategy and Innovation with the CEO of the largest pharma company, Pfizer Australia. He subsequently founded Araya Pictures with his passion for film and creativity and desire to revolutionise the industry with technology. For his talents, he has also received a Directorial Debut award at an LA film festival and has spoken at a number of Innovation forums on the integration of Strategy and Innovation.
Jack Delosa Executive Director, The Entourage
With a career spanning business, media and politics, Jack has been named in Australian Anthill’s 30Under30 publication as well as Dynamic Business Magazine’s Australia’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30. Jack headed up MBE Education through rapid growth, building it into one of the fastest 50 start-ups in Australia as noted by SmartCompany.
Larry Gregory Customer and Partner Evangelism Manager for Microsoft Australia
Larry Gregory manages Customer and Partner Evangelism for Microsoft Australia. This group of advisors and architects help software companies and enterprise customers deliver compelling solutions using Microsoft technologies.
Until recently, Larry was Senior Director of Partner Evangelism for the US and a member of the US Developer & Platform Evangelism Leadership team. This national team was responsible for driving adoption of Microsoft technologies through partners building the next generation of software and web solutions.
Previously, Larry managed a US national team of evangelists working with startups and investors, representing the potential of startup ISVs to Microsoft product groups and acting as an advisor to venture capital firms.
Larry originally joined Microsoft in 1991 in the Enterprise & Partner Group. Prior to Microsoft, Larry worked for Accenture /Andersen Consulting as a Senior Consultant. He holds BS and MBA degrees from the University of Connecticut
Alex Pirouz Sales Advisor RIDC
Alex Pirouz is best known for producing sales results within projects he is involved with, as well as his continued commitment to social causes which have seen him nominated as Australian of the Year in 2007 & 2008.
In less than 9 months Alex has produced over $4.13 million in sales within his business and sales advisory firm. He is a regular contributor for 3 business magazines and website’s and has been featured in many more.
His ability to increase revenue, surge sales and produce compelling sales teams have made him one of the “go to” guys in Australia when organisations look to increase sales within any sector or market
Alex has recently spend most of his time conducting Interviews with the top 1% of the largest and fastest growing companies in Australia to discover the core reasons for their success and growth.
James McCutcheon Founder Foundry 38
James McCutcheon is a leader in Microsoft development community with a passion for windows mobile. He is a serial entrepreneur with investing and developing several leading web properties.
Bart Jellema Founder ZeroMail
Bart is a born computer wizard: at age 6 he started with computer programming on a Commodore 64. At the age of 14 he developed and implemented a complete CRM system for a large company, and ever since he’s been developing new software applications and websites. Bart was always determined to become an innovative entrepreneur and focused his career as technologist, developer, IT manager and leader to develop essential skills and experience to become a leading entrepreneur.
In 2007 Bart co-founded his first company: Tjoos (pronounced ‘choose’). The website Tjoos.com started as price comparison engine, but then specialised in online discount coupons. The site grew by 400 percent year on year to well over 1 million unique visitors in February 2010; offering over 500,000 coupons from more than 180,000 merchants. In March 2010 Tjoos.com was acquired by US based Internet Brands (NASDAQ: INET).
In January 2011 Bart founded ZEROmail taking on Outlook and GMail by creating an email client for this day and age.
Bart is also the founder of Startup Australia, which organises StartupCamps to inspire and support more people to start their own tech venture.
Asia Pacific Pitch Fest!
Hear governments from around the region with tips on market opportunity and access!
Hear local BizSpark companies pitch their start-up to corporate and regional Microsoft executives!
Connect with peer start-ups form around Asia Pacific!
See top start-ups pitch from around the region!
Hear from industry luminaries!
On the 22nd & 23rd of March, the top BizSpark Startups from countries across the APAC region go head to head to showcase the growing ecosystem we have here to a global audience, government trade representatives and investors. The event will be streamed live across the region, but we will be having an in person event here at Microsoft that will feature 3 of our top BizSpark Startups:
http://99dresses.com/
www.gradconnection.com.au
www.zeromail.com
We will also have a special guest keynote session presented by Jack Delosa (Executive Director, The Entourage, Australian Anthill’s 30Under30 publication as well as Dynamic Business Magazine’s Australia’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30) who will be presenting on raising capital for early stage ventures.
From The Virtual Event will take place from 12pm – 4pm on the 22nd & the 23rd of March. There will be an hour of networking taking place from 4-5pm on the 22nd.
Venue:
Theatre 1, Microsoft Sydney
1 Epping Rd
North Ryde 2113
If you would like to attend, please RSVP your details & the number of attendees from your company as soon as possible as places are limited.
Register Here>
I have once again had the pleasure of being part of the Frankly Speaking Experience. While I was at WebCamp I had the very important job or “Roving Reporter” for Frankly Speaking. After a few technical challenges, I was able to interview a few of the participants & speakers.
Then, last week I jumped into the recording booth to chat with Andrew Coates & Michael Kordahi about the Sydney WebCamp, and we also chat with Karo Esmali about imagine cup! The resulting recording (and all the other Frankly speaking podcasts) can be found here: http://www.noisetosignal.com.au/franklyspeaking/?p=334
Actually, while you are there – check out the new NoiseToSignal home page: http://noisetosignal.com.au/ and also worth having a good look at is the http://www.9by9.tv/ where 9 of the top web thinkers are asked 9 tough questions about the web!
We ran our first Azure BizSpark event in Sydney in April last year. Since then we have had Phone 7 ones in Melbourne and Brisbane as well as 2 more Azure Startup camps in Perth & Melbourne. Each one has been bigger than the previous one, and as we get feedback from each one, we take that on board to improve future events.
This time we have decided to combine the idea of the Phone 7 & the Azure Startup weekends into ONE MASSIVE BIZSPARK BONANZA!!!
Why? because each time we run a Phone 7 event, we find people want to have an Azure back end so want to learn about Azure as well. And the same happens with the Azure events – more and more people are interested in having a mobile front end for the application. So… after seeing this pattern start to emerge we have decided to create something new & completely un heard of - the Biggest BizSpark camp yet!
A 4 day BizSpark Bonanza!
Attendees will learn about Phone 7 development with the in depth training provided by Nick Randolph (Mobile MVP) then Day 2 they get to enjoy the Intensive Deep Dive in Azure thanks to Andrew Coates from the DPE team in Microsoft Australia.
Day 3 & 4 are all about building your application. By the end of Day 3 we do a test run through of your business pitch, then you have Day 4 to finalise the application & pitch before pitching to a panel of Judges and investors to win some awesome prizes that include HTC Mozart Phone 7’s, Xbox Kinect packs and the winning team receives an editorial PR piece.
Throughout the weekend, the Microsoft Marketing team will be involved in helping you mould & define a marketing plan around your product and as you work towards your final pitch on Sunday evening. there will also be business tips & tricks sessions and technical experts on hand to help you really get your application humming along!
So, if you are interested in getting 2 days of intensive training for Azure & phone 7, then taking advantage of the technical, business and marketing experts on hand throughout the weekend to build a proof of concept and prove your business idea – This event is for you!
Day 1 & 2 are being held in the Cliftons training venue in Sydney City:
The Weekend event is being held at:
We look forward to seeing you there!
Register Now >
If you would like to volunteer to be involved in the weekend event or present a business session – please email your details to Catherine Eibner
PS – please register soon as places are limited
On the 4-6th of February, in tumultuous flooding rains, Melbourne was host to their first Azure BizSpark camp. This was the most successful BizSpark camp we have run to date. Not only did we have 11 teams present their solutions at the end of the event, but the noise & excitement generated by the event was amazing. One of the largest global gaming websites (ign.com), did a blog post on what Bizspark and the Bizspark camp were http://www.ign.com/blogs/kiera2/2011/02/05/whats-a-bizspark/, teams used social networking tools to generate almost 700 tweets with the #WABizSpark hashtag, over 100 photos have been uploaded to flickr, the facebook group started the conversation between previous Azure BizSpark contenders and the current ones, as well as one team setting up a Fan page with over 60 likes and interaction with people around the globe. Rome 2 Rio’s blog post on the event has had over 1000 hits (http://blog.rome2rio.com/42235022) and David Burela’s summary is already getting much interest: http://davidburela.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/community-report-melbourne-azure-bizspark-camp-2011/
The inclusion of business sessions by experts outside the normal Microsoft community such as Ross Hill (co-founded one of the most successful entrepreneurial networking events The Hive which runs in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) Jack Delosa (Executive Director, The Entourage, Australian Anthill’s 30Under30 publication as well as Dynamic Business Magazine’s Australia’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30) and having the judging panel include Jordan Green (President, Melbourne Angels Inc. Co-founder and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Association of Angel Investors and also the founder and lead Angel investor of Melbourne Angels Inc.) really added to the value of the event for all attendees. Having 3 Microsoft staff members on the judging panel including Director of Server & Tools, Phil Goldie involved exemplified Microsoft’s strong commitment for the Startup community.
Attendees spent Friday being educated by Graham Elliott & Mitch Denny as to how to get up & running on Azure. The content included Windows Azure Compute, Management, Diagnostics, Storage, SQL Azure, App Fabric. Most having not worked with Azure previously. The event wrapped up at 5 on Friday and many teams took the opportunity & fresh ideas to come up with some great business ideas to build over the weekend.
9am Monday morning we kicked off – with just under 30 avid BizSpark members nutting out their business ideas in teams. Between then and the 4pm Sunday cut off, not much sleep was had!
We had 3 fantastic guest speakers throughout the weekend giving attendees additional Business value to take on board while thinking in terms of building a business:
What's happening in the Melbourne Entrepreneur Community by Ross Hill, founder of The Hive
Jack Delosa of The Entourage who will outline how to become investor ready and raise capital for an early stage venture.
David Sajfar from Microsoft will cover some of the Government funding options available for Technology innovation
All sessions were great – but the feedback in regards to Jack Delosa’s presentation has been phenomenal and I have received many requests to have the recorded session made available. Luckily Dave Burela did record the sessions & it is available online here: http://vimeo.com/19892066.
Throughout the weekend, David Burela, Steve Nagy & Mitch Denny (when he wasn’t flooded in) were on hand to help the teams with questions around Azure, Silverlight, TFS, Phone 7 and the multitude of other questions they had. A big thanks to these guys for giving up their weekends to help out! Also Thanks to David Burela for the photos included in this post.
The integral part of our weekend Start up camps is the opportunity for each of the participating teams to present their solution to our Panel of Judges. The panel includes technical experts, business experts and investors. Each judge has different backgrounds & experiences and the feedback they provide to participants is always invaluable. They each receive 10 minutes to pitch to the Judging panel – 2 mins setup time, 5 mins demo/slides & then 2-3 minutes for questions from the panel.
The judging panel was made up of a select group of elite business experts, technical experts & Investors:
Jack Delosa Executive Director, The Entourage, Australian Anthill’s 30Under30 publication as well as Dynamic Business Magazine’s Australia’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30
Graham Elliott Azure Platform Strategy Advisor, Microsoft Australia
Phil Goldie Director, Server & Tools Business Group, Microsoft Australia
Jordan Green President, Melbourne Angels Inc. Co-founder and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Association of Angel Investors and also the founder and lead Angel investor of Melbourne Angels Inc.
Nigel Watson Platform Strategy Advisor, Microsoft Australia
In the end, 11 teams presented their solutions – the competition was tough, and the overall winners of the event are:
1. http://Rome2Rio.com
2. http://blog.mapdojo.com/ & http://www.TrendFrendz.com
Congratulations to the Winning teams!
Some follow up posts of Interest you may like to read:
· http://blog.rome2rio.com/42235022
· http://blog.mapdojo.com/2011/02/melbourne-azure-bizspark-startup-camp.html
· http://www.ign.com/blogs/kiera2/2011/02/05/whats-a-bizspark/
Again, these events run on a shoestring budget (much like a startup!) so a big thanks to everyone that donated their time and was involved in making it such a huge success!
Australia & New Zealand BizSpark partners! I am busily finalising the details for the upcoming Asia Pacific Startup summit. As part of this event we will be showcasing the top 2 startups in BizSpark Australia and New Zealand to an audience that covers the Asia Pacific region and representatives from the US. The event will be over the 22nd & 23rd of March and will be held in the Microsoft Australia Sydney office. The event aims to bring together startups, government and business advisors from across the entire region.
The event aims to put the growing startup community here in our region on the global startup map! There will be more details coming soon on how you can register to attend but at this stage:
If you answered YES to all these questions then you need to be quick! Create a 5 minute video pitch and get it to me (Catherine Eibner) by Monday the 14th of March. Its probably easiest to upload your video to either youtube or vimeo then email me the link: .
If you are new to pitching I strongly suggest you take a look at the post by Jason Cohen on what NOT TO DO: http://blog.asmartbear.com/startup-lesson.html