Microsoft IT-Girls 2012 (formerly known as DigiGirlz) was held to a packed theatre on Monday 2nd April 2012 at the Microsoft offices. Over 150 girls from 16 schools participated in a full (and pretty exhausting) day of workshops, presentations and careers panels, to learn more about the career opportunities for women in ICT. The audience featured a balanced mix of private and public school students across Sydney, with some school groups travelling for over an hour to attend!
Workshops included “The Future of Innovation”, “The Future of Entertainment” and “Experience Windows 8”. It was amazing to hear the laughter and “oohs and aahs” during the workshops, and very encouraging to see a group of girls ambush our Windows 8 workshop presenter after his slot to see more of this new operating system! The girls asked lots of questions during our careers panels and it was great to be able to showcase that there a multiple paths that lead to a career in technology.
So many schools had responded to our invitations that we actually had to turn a few away as we couldn’t overcrowd our venue. Having said that – the theatre was pretty packed, with several students sitting on the floor – learning for next time: book a bigger venue! We are looking forward to turning this into a nationwide event and have already started discussions with other Microsoft state offices so that girls outside of Sydney can participate in this amazing experience.
One of my Favorite responses was:
“Today was a very enjoyable day. I learnt a lot about the technology we have today and the upcoming technology that Microsoft is aiming to make public. The experience has shown me that I can have a career in technology and be successful at it. “
Well done to everyone involved!
Surely with the upcoming Easter Long Weekend you are looking for a nice project to do & what better than one that contributes to the helping scientists unravel some of the underlying causes of today’s greatest diseases. That in itself makes it something I am going to do. What’s even better is that you can do this at no cost to yourself if you use the Windows Azure 90 day free trials as suggested below – or if you are a BizSpark member, just use your existing Azure account allocation that you get as part of MSDN!
So check out the “@home on Windows Azure” project. Via a four-part video series on Channel 9, you can learn how to build applications for the cloud on Windows Azure, and deploy a solution that will contribute to Stanford University’s Folding @home distributed computing project to study protein folding.
By simply running a piece of software, you can help scientists learn more about diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease and many cancers by banding together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every participant takes the project closer to understanding how protein folding is linked to certain diseases.
There are even 4 easy to watch videos to get you started:
@home with Windows Azure – Part 1 of 4: Getting your Windows Azure 90-day Free Trial Account Click To Play
@home with Windows Azure – Part 2 of 4: Setting up the @home App Click To Play
@home with Windows Azure – Part 3 of 4: Configuring Windows Azure Storage Click To Play
@home with Windows Azure – Part 4 of 4: Deploying to Windows Azure Click To Play
In addition to contributing directly to this project, Microsoft will also donate $10 per participant (up to $5,000 maximum) to Stanford University to help the cause. You can learn more about the Folding @home project here.
All video’s & Links reposted from Here:
Am running a bit late on letting you know about this – but hopefully you all know about the Innovys Start program that is kicking off in Adelaide shortly.
Innovyz START is a 3 month ‘accelerator’ program designed to help start ups, existing businesses and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to get started and grow.
Patterned on the world's number one accelerator program Techstars, the ANZ Innovyz START program leverages the expertise of a number of highly experienced experienced mentors from a diverse range of fields.
As Tech Stars is a global BizSpark Plus partner this means that successful applicants can apply for the BizSpark Plus offer of up to 60K of azure of 2 years plus many more benefits.
At the end of the 3 month accelerator program businesses are given the opportunity to pitch to investors and venture capitalists with the chance of receiving financial backing to continue to growing.
More info can be had at www.innovyzstart.com – you will see they have an incredible group of industry, investment and entrepreneurial leaders!
Convict Interactive is an Independent Game Development Studio based in Wollongong, Australia. Each full-time member is either a current student or ex-student of the University of Wollongong (UoW). We are all very passionate about creating video games that concentrate on high quality gameplay.
We are currently working on a title for PC called Triangle Man. Triangle Man is an exciting 2D punishment platformer that challenges the problem solving and multitasking skills of players. The aim is to get the main character (a triangle) to the end of each level without dying. This is made difficult by enemies and obstacles along the way. The twist is that most levels involve you controlling more than one Triangle Man at once!
In 2009, the University of Wollongong sponsored 6 of its students to go to a 48-Hour Game Making Challenge in Brisbane. The 48-Hour Game Making Challenge (making-games.net/48/) is a competition where teams are ‘locked’ in a room for 48 hours and challenged to make a game based on 3 key words. For 2009, those words were: Storm, Giant, and Love.
Using these 3 words we came up with a game that we named High Hopes. The story revolves around two girls racing and competing to save their (cheating) boyfriend who was taken high up into the lair of a giant. Each player must navigate their way up clouds and avoid the giant’s falling cooking utensils in order to save the boy they love. The players are also able to fight by slapping and throwing shoes at each other in order to slow the other players progress.
When the 48 hours were up we were very happy with the game that we had produced. Apparently the judges were impressed too as they decided to give us the Grand Prize for the event! When we got back to Wollongong we were approached by several individuals who told us that we should start our own business developing video games. And so Convict Interactive was born.
We all love the area - it is a beautiful place to live and work and (importantly) expenses are much lower than in Sydney. The University of Wollongong is located quite close by and produces talented graduates who we can recruit if we need to expand.
Wollongong is called “The City of Innovation” which is perfect for a startup tech company. We are only an hour and a half from Sydney so we can travel there easily for events and other engagements.
In 2009, after forming the company, we began to develop a title called Planetarians for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. Planetarians is a fast-paced 2D side-shooter played in a 3D environment where players can shoot down other aliens around a series of planets. The game is both single-player and multiplayer (local only). The game world incorporates a real-time physics system, allowing the player to orbit rockets around a planet or even put themselves into orbit around a moon.
Planetarians was ultimately shelved as we decided that the projected revenue for the game would not come close to covering the development costs. This was mainly due to the platform we targeted and the large scope of the game. Perhaps one day when the time is right we can pick the project up again.
At the end of 2011, we released a title for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel called Convict Minigames. This title was a collection of 5 small games which were designed to give the player an enjoyable casual experience. We thought the idea was solid and playtesting with our friends yielded positive results.
Unfortunately, Convict Minigames was not very well received for several reasons, the most important of which was that it was priced too high. Based on feedback from our playtesters, we decided to price the title at $3. Upon release of the game, all reviewers indicated that they would only be inclined to buy the game if it cost $1. Once the price is set for an XBLIG game then it cannot be changed for 90, so we were forced to allow the price to remain at $3 until it was far too late to be able to capitalize on the title being ‘new’. This meant that the game sold poorly and was not able to recover once the price was lowered.
But was the title a failure? In terms of sales it was a failure. In terms of experience the title was a major success. From this title we learnt a lot about self publishing, marketing, how to better structure our playtesting, what our strengths & weaknesses are, and how to better prepare ourselves for our next project.
The Entrepreneurs Club is a part of the University of Wollongong and was part of an initiative to help startups based in the Wollongong area. Through the eClub we have been accepted into a local incubator aimed at tech startups.
Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2011 was an amazing experience. It is a conference that is run annually and is primarily aimed towards Australian Game Developers. During the 2011 conference it focused heavily on Independent Games Developers within Australia - particularly startups like ourselves.
The conference was an amazing experience that helped us out in a lot of ways. The sessions we attended were informative and covered a wide range of game development and publishing topics; we made a large number of contacts within the industry and we introduced our brand quite successfully.
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is a yearly event targeted to game developers throughout the world. It is a bigger, international version of GCAP. This was a great opportunity to make ourselves known outside Australia - as well as to learn from the best in the industry.
Networking is really important. You won’t get anywhere if no one knows about you or your product. Through our networking endeavours we have made valuable contacts with most of the Australian games industry due to our heavy involvement with the IGDA (International Game Developers Association).
We’ve also discovered that help is everywhere, all you need to do is ask for it. There are people out there who want to help out startups such as yourself - however they need to know that you exist! You need to put yourself out there and let them know who you are. Tell them the areas that you are good at and the areas you need help with. You may find that they offer to help you out before you even ask.
There are incubator programs all over the world which are designed to help entrepreneurs, many of them providing a number of services either for free or at a discounted rate. For example, we’re part of an incubator program called StartPad which is based in Wollongong, NSW Australia. They’ve helped us out with office space, getting into contact with law firms, accountants, etc. They even set up discounts with some of these services, and it all only costs $30 per desk. It’s an unbelievable deal that has already helped us out immensely in the two months that we’ve been a part of the program.
But of course, that isn’t enough. You have to be incredibly motivated and passionate about what you want to start up. Whether you want to make video games, develop a new type of solar panel, etc. you must be willing to put in at least 110% of your time to accomplish your goal. In our experience so far, there is nothing harder than trying to start up your own company, but there also isn’t anything as exciting and rewarding.
You also need to develop a 5 year plan. Determine where you want to take the company in those five years and what stages you want the company to be at the end of each year. This is a very important step to take as it not only gives you focus, but it makes it clearer to others where you plan on taking the company. This is especially important if you plan on trying to find investors.
If you have a project that you believe is going to fail, then find a new project. Quite often, it’s better to find a new project than to try and continue on with a project that is unlikely to live up to your initial expectations. We learnt this the hard way when we were working on Planetarians. Planetarians is a good game, however the idea is far too large for our current resources and as such we spent too much time developing it which delayed our advancement as a company.
Today in Australia is Anzac Day. Lest We Forget. ANZAC day is where we all take time out of our day to day lives of work, school and all the things that we are lucky enough to have the freedom to enjoy because of those who fought for our freedom in years gone past. We take time to to thank all those who served and died in military operations for our Country as well as think of the bravery, support and camaraderie that the Australian & New Zealand forces were renown for.
Keeping in mind that Australians are known for this kind of support, it seemed somewhat relevant to have this guest post today, a request for help from a fellow Aussie.
Today Nicola puts a call out for a “comrade” to help her with her new startup, FitIntegrate. She has been successful in applying for Melbourne based Incubator Angel Cube and now needs a technical co founder to help her create the technology to bring her company vision to life. If the below sounds like you – feel free to reach out to her via the details below.
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Seeking ROR Technical Cofounder Based in Melbourne for SAAS, Catering to the Fitness Industry
Hi. I’m Nicola. I am the founder of FitIntegrate. FitIntegrate is essentially an automated temp agency for the fitness industry. More specifically, FitIntegrate matches relevant instructors to gym classes.
Where FitIntegrate is at:
-Launched Private Beta in Feb 2012
-Currently120 users signed up (a mix of instructors and gyms)
-It’s built in Ruby (to date the development has been outsourced)
-FitIntegrate secured a spot in the AngelCube 2012 accelerator program
-Has first “big” deal/customer in the pipeline
Going forward...
I am looking to bring on a ROR technical cofounder to take FitIntegrate to the next level. The next iteration involves text message integration, payment gateway integration and a new UX/UI implementation. The design component is being outsourced at present. Backend development will be where this cofounders talents lie.
Ideally, I am looking for someone who:
-Enjoys the gym/fitness space
-Has startup experience and/or is SUPER passionate about getting involved
-Loves Ruby
-Is available full time to participate in the AngelCube program (some flexibility here)
-Gets sh*t done (no flexibility here)
So, what’s on the table?
Equity… And a little cash (if necessary).
A bit about me…
The idea came about as a frustrated instructor myself. I’ve had over 6 years experience in the fitness industry in a variety of roles, ranging from instructing to gym management. This means I know customers well, and have also built up a strong network. FitIntegrate is my first start up; however, I have had experience working with startups through my internship at Adventure Capital. Currently, I am one subject off achieving a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Business + fitness is pretty much me in a nutshell.
Over to you…
If you are interested, check out the site http://www.fitintegrate.com/users/sign_up
Drop me an email at nicola@fitintegrate.com with some feedback on the site - anything - and a bit about who you are and what you have done. Links to recent work would be awesome.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Nicola
A few weekends ago (it feel like longer because of the Easter Break) I was invited to head to Adelaide to be a judge on the Adelaide Startup Weekend event. I missed my flight but fortunately made it onto the next one, lierally landing, rushing to the judging sessions and then flying back out. But boy am I glad I could get on the next flight! The 15 teams that pitched were amazing – and as much as I could write a great long post about how wonderful it was – I am going to defer to the great summary that David Truong put together that sums it all up nicely. I look forward to working with many of the teams in future and also want to thank the South Australian Microsoft State Manager Dean Swan for allowing the Startup Weekend teams to take over the entire office from Friday till Sunday nights
The Sell Out:
30/3/2012 -1/4/2012
54 hours
$23,500+ prizes
70 attendees
42 non-technical attendees
21 developer attendees
7 design attendees
17 sponsors and supporters
24 mentors
4 speakers
5 judges
2 organizers
5 volunteers
46 innovative ideas pitched
19 teams selected
15 teams formed
5 winning teams and
A LOT of talent!
The Coverage:
The Supporters:
The Accolades:
"BDO was proud to participate in Adelaide Startup Weekend and delighted to see the buzz and ideas flowing. The event was very well run, providing an opportunity for BDO to leverage our sponsorship through your event promotions, media and web communications. During the event, we also had the opportunity to meet both the participants, mentors and other sponsors. As a professional services firm, being involved in the event ‘community’ is an important way we can develop relationships beyond brand association. Congratulations to you and the event team. I look forward to it next year!" KishenVijayadass, Sponsor, Partner for Private Clients – BDO.
“I would like to congratulate the entire Startup Weekend Adelaide team on such a successful event! The 15 pitches we judged were of a very high calibre and I can see the ongoing business viability of many of them. I am sure directly related to the quality of the companies was the fantastic mentors that donated their time to help each of the companies across the weekend. All in all the bringing together of smart mentors with eager startups looking to learn is a fantastic opportunity I recommend anyone with a business idea, or anyone wanting to experience this kind of energy and passion should absolutely get involved in the next event you run.” Catherine Eibner, Judge & Sponsor, Developer Evangelist - Microsoft Bizspark Australia.
"I attended the final pitch session at the Adelaide Startup Weekend and was amazed at what the teams managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. Most had even tested concepts on their target markets and built an application or prototype. All pitches were great and some were outstanding. Well done to Orren and David for pulling everything together to make Adelaide’s Startup Weekend such a success." PetaPash, Sponsor, Senior Policy Officer - Digital Economy & Technology Directorate, MEGA Project Manager, DFEEST.
“I was very, very impressed. In fact, I was impressed with so many aspects of it that I don’t know where to start! But perhaps the key thing to say is that it clearly is a fantastic event for promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial activity. The enthusiasm and at times sheer brilliance and skill of the participants, especially the very large number of younger participants, was “awesome” to observe. In light of the weekend I have no hesitation in recommending to the “powers that be” at Flinders that the University become an avid supporter of this event in future years.” Kevin Kirchner, Observer, Discipline Leader, Entrepreneurship, Flinders Business School - Flinders University.
“Congratulations to the inaugural Startup Weekend Adelaide team for organising an outstanding event. Lead by David Truong and Orren Prunckun, they created an edgy, dynamic and high energy environment that attracted some high calibre individuals from around Australia, hungry to create and make an impact. The event produced some truly innovative businesses and confirmed once again that Adelaide is emerging as one of best places in the world to build a company.” Ken Saman, Mentor, VP Operations - YourAmigo Ltd.
"It was very valuable to jump into a mix of energised individuals from very different backgrounds, behaviours and thinking styles. Ideas morph due the synergy of inputs from team mates. " Rob Gordon, Participant - 3rdPlace Winner.
“One of the best things you will do. We had questions answered that we had been asking for almost a year.” Vinh Giang, Participant - Winning Team.
“It's awesome, come along. It will change your life.” Michael Kubler, Participant.
“It is definitely something that is very worthwhile if not to progress your career, but for a learning experiences. The amount of learning that you do in a place like this, and the people that you meet are invaluable.” William Revill, Participant.
The Organisers:
OrrenPrunckun – David Truong (0443-550-002)
– david@feedmybrain.info– adelaide@startupweekend.org
http://adelaide.startupweekend.org