Entrepreneurial sparks fly at Deakin

Cheering at mistakes, coming up with crazy solutions to problems and capturing the creative energy of teamwork were just some of the strategies taught to Geelong’s budding entrepreneurs at an innovative two-day course, organised by Deakin University last week.

The Spark@Deakin program brought together over 80 Deakin staff, students and Geelong secondary school students for a two-day intensive, hands-on program designed by Henrik Scheel, a high flying entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, who made the trip to Australia to run the course.

Since he founded the company, Startup Experience, in 2012, Henrik Scheel has taken his program to 22 countries, with the mission of reaching one million people over the next three years. He argues that most traditional entrepreneurial programs tend to miss their mark.

“Being taught how to create a 100-page business plan or develop advanced financial projections without ever having gone out and talked to potential customers or really having understood the problem is not the way to build entrepreneurship,” he said.

“That approach is completely impossible for an early stage company because entrepreneurialism has to be done in a different way. It has to be experiential. Successful entrepreneurialism is about being proactive and having the confidence to turn big problems into new opportunities.

“It’s about developing a new mindset - constantly looking for things to change for the better and having a tangible methodology about what you need to do. There is a science to starting up a business that people can learn.”

The Spark@Deakin program is an initiative of Alfred Deakin Professor Svetha Venkatesh, Director of Deakin’s Centre for Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics (PRaDA), who explained that the program will now be available to students and staff from all faculties and a small group of Geelong secondary students annually.

“Entrepreneurial skills will be really important for Geelong and Australia as some industries decline and new ones are needed to take their place,” she said.

“At Deakin we are being entrepreneurial ourselves by trying different approaches to building these skills in our students and staff. The workshop was awesome because it provided an immersive experience that was delivered by highly successful entrepreneurs. It was like learning a new language.”

The workshop focused on processes such as identifying user problems, different user segments, the latest technological trends, and creative brainstorming strategies. Participants also learnt about visual communication, prototyping and presentation techniques, with each team presenting their solution to a specific problem to a professional jury at the end of the workshop.

Professor Venkatesh said that entrepreneurialism is an important way of bringing Deakin innovations to the wider world. “As one example, PRaDA researchers used smart technologies to develop the TOBY Playpad app, an early intervention program that is now making a difference for children with autism around the world,” she said.

The Spark@Deakin program has also provided a series of guest lectures, to help demystify entrepreneurship. Speakers have included Geelong entrepreneurs like Dr Matthew Dingle, who founded Carbon Revolution, and Murray Height, Chief Technology Officer at HeiQ Materials.

Co-organiser Bretlyn Bailey, Deakin’s Business Analysis and Performance Manager, added that Spark@Deakin reflected Deakin’s commitment to fostering innovation in the region – an important goal of Deakin’s new Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET), where primary, high school and VET students can access programs.

“There is a growing focus in Geelong on promoting entrepreneurialism,” he said. “For instance, the Upstart Challenge has been a great project introducing Geelong secondary students to entrepreneurialism. The eight finalists attended the Deakin workshop, to take their skills to the next level.”

Upstart finalist Nathan McGlynn, a Year 10 student from St Ignatius College, said it was terrific to interact with Deakin staff and students in a forum “where everybody could make an equal contribution.”