Canberra Gamification Startup Finalist in USA

Canberra start-up Quizling have been chosen to pitch at the SxSWedu Launch Competition in the USA in March. Quizling provide an on-line system for teachers to build educational  app quizzes. They were participants in the GRIFFIN Accelerator at the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). 

ps: The company "Quizling" is not to be confused with "Quisling".

Innovation Workshops

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where I am attending a Product Development Workshop. This is the third of a series of innovation workshops run by the Kiln Incubator for Innovation ANU. The previous two were Customer Validation and Business Models.

I attend a lot of "workshops" and Kiln present some of best. The instructors are skilled in their presentation technique and business experience.

The workshop has short presentations, interspersed with group exercise. The instructors do not make the mistake of many of talking too much, turning a workshop into an old fashioned lecture.

One of the inspiring parts of the workshop is that the materials used are licensed with a creative comments "by Attribution" open access license, so others can use them for free. For the third workshop there was a Product Design Canvas by David Peterson, Petr Adamek and Craig Davis.

In the third workshop the a five step Design Sprint process was used and the book "Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days" by Knapp was recommended.

Incubator Support Programme

The Australian government's Global Innovation Strategy announcement included an $8 million Incubator Support Programme. An incubator is a training and advice program for start-ups. These are usually co-located with a co-working space, where entrepreneurs can get low cost shared office space to get started and an accelerator for seed funding. The best example of this is the Kiln Incubator, alongside the Entry29 Co-working Space and Griffin Accelerator at Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN).

Plan for Australian Tech Startups

The not-for-profit StartupAUS has released "Crossroads 2015: An action plan to develop a vibrant tech startup ecosystem in Australia" (April 2015). What got my attention is that Alan Noble, Engineering Director for Google Australia, is on the StartupAUS board. The Griffin Accelerator in Canberra is mentioned in the report (page 11), but other Canberra based initiatives, such as Innovation ACT and Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) are not mentioned.

... This paper makes the case that as a nation we need to take immediate and far-­‐reaching steps to address market failures that are impeding the maturation and growth of our startup ecosystem. It sets out an action plan based on analysis of the local startup ecosystem and of government policies and programs that have been effective in growing vibrant startup ecosystems in other countries. ...

Contents

Foreword i
What is StartupAUS? 1
Introduction 2
State of the Australian startup ecosystem in 2015 4
What are “startups”? 10
Startups are not small businesses 10
Why are startups important? 11
Disrupt or be disrupted 13
Unicorns matter 14
Australian startups on a global stage 16
The case for an Australian Economy 2.0 18
The case for government intervention 21
International entrepreneurship policy frameworks 23 Conditions for a vibrant startup ecosystem in Australia 28
Action plan summary 29

1. Create a national innovation agency 32
2. Increase the number of entrepreneurs 33
3. Improve the quality and quantity of entrepreneurship education 41
4. Increase the number of people with ICT skills 46
5. Improve access to startup expertise 52
6. Increase availability of early stage capital to startups 59
7. Address legal and regulatory impediments 70
8. Increase collaboration and international connectedness 75

Author and contributors 78

From: Crossroads 2015: An action plan to develop a vibrant tech startup ecosystem in Australia, StartupAUS , p. 9, April 2015.

ps: I will be speaking on "Innovations in teaching innovation", at the CSIRO ICT Centre, Center, Australian National University in Canberra, 4pm, 27 April 2015 (draft presentation available).