Happy Holidays from theSPACE

Happy holidays :) Wishing you a very festive break, hoping Santa brings you want you want and that you come back in 2015 with new ideas and supreme energy, ready to own the new year opportunities.

theSPACE is closed from the 25th Dec - 04th of January, however we will be available on email throughout this period. A special shout out to all our clients, you guys and gals have made 2014 an amazing year and we look forward to taking it to a whole new level in 2015.We've got a massive 2015 planned, here is just a few of the events we've got planned. Startup Weekends A Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event that brings together designers, developers, entrepreneurs and experts from all domains to do amazing things. A Startup Weekend provides an opportunity to learn the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. Through weekend-long, hands-on experiences entrepreneurs can find out if their startup ideas are viable and learn from being immersed in the process of moving an idea to market. Startup & Innovation Expos + Pitch Investor Nights As a key part of developing the TNQ startup/innovation ecosystem, theSPACE is looking to showcase a “Cairns Innovators and Entrepreneurs Expo” biannually, with two primary objectives. To provide a platform for local innovators and entrepreneurs to get exposure for the ideas that they are working on, which effectively assists them to build their network. For those who are investment ready, connect them with investors (local and national). Startup Labs Many startup founders have to maintain a “real” job, whilst business owners tend to get lost in the day-today stuff, which means projects seem to fall by the wayside. On the second Saturday of the month theSPACE Cairns runs an interactive lab from 9.00am–1.00pm where you will have four hours of dedicated time to work on your project, along with access to expert advice and mentoring. Pitch Nights Each month we get together to pitch where we are at with our ventures, answering the following five questions and getting feedback. Who are you (you and your team)? What are you working on (explain the problem you are solving and your solution)? Where are you at with it (progress update from last month if applicable)? What do you need (resources, skills, etc.)? What are you willing to give up in order to get what you need (money, equity, contra)? Workshops & Seminars Workshops and seminars will be delivered throughout the Far North on a range of topics: Starting a global business Writing an agile one-page business plan (Business Model Canvas) The Lean Startup Idea screening Mitigating risk Market validation Capital raising Innovating for growth Here is a little of what happened in 2014 In the media:  ? QLD Government – Wall Of Fame – Innovation Champions December http://www.qld.gov.au/dsitia/initiatives/science-innovation-champions/wall-of-fame/ December https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPLkuwHOFA&feature=youtu.be ? iLab – Brisbane July 24th http://www.ilabaccelerator.com/startup-scene-alive-and-well-in-cairns/ September 26th http://www.ilabaccelerator.com/ilab-currently-seeks-regional-queensland-participants-in-its-nextbusiness-accelerator-program/ ? Silicon Lakes – Gold Coast August 18th http://www.siliconlakes.com.au/index.php/learnt-startup-weekend-cairns/ ? Tech Street Journal August 24th http://tsj.io/2014/08/24/cairns-first-startup-weekend-signals-regional-growth/ November 21st http://tsj.io/2014/11/21/startup-weekend-queensland-connects-three-separate-crash-courses/ ? Startup Queensland July 7th http://startupqld.org/2014/07/07/insights-into-the-queensland-startup-scene-the-space-cairns/ August 8th http://startupqld.org/2014/08/18/first-startup-weekend-cairns-a-huge-success/ ? Startup Smart October 31st http://www.startupsmart.com.au/technology/cairns-links-up-with-startup-weekend-events-intownsville- and-the-gold-coast-as-its-local-entrepreneurs-power-ahead/2014103113537.html ? The Cairns Post September 1st http://www.cairnspost.com.au/business/cairns-newest-hub-builds-capital-for-business-fundraising/ story-fnjpusdv-1227043438695 November 21st http://www.cairnspost.com.au/business/cairns-startup-whizzes-bound-for-google-facebook-andmore- on-trip-of-a-lifetime-to-silicon-valley/story-fnpqqgx0-1227130650373 December 3rd http://www.cairnspost.com.au/business/rent-out-portal-sharemateycom-developed-in-cairns/storyfnjpusdv-1227142409490 December 1st http://www.cairnspost.com.au/business/cairns-based-trade-portal-designed-by-redlynchentrepreneur- adam-williams-is-reshaping-business-in-far-north/story-fnjpusdv-1227140101436 ? Crowdfunding Insider September 2nd http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/09/48275-crowdfunding-trailblazer-assob-launches-firstregional- hub/ ? Warren Entsch – Federal Member for Leichhardt November 11th http://www.warrenentsch.com.au/Media/MediaReleases/tabid/73/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/572/Entrepreneurs-can-make-Cairns-the-Silicon-Valley-of-Australia.aspx ? Gavin King – State Member for Cairns November 20th http://gavinking.com.au/kickstart-for-cairns-startup-community/ ? 4CA - Sound Cloud June 16th https://soundcloud.com/vlasta-eriksson/building-better-business-troy-haines November 3rd https://soundcloud.com/vlasta-eriksson/damian-zammit-the-space-cairns Summary of activities: 2014 

? Cairns Innovation Hub Pty Ltd

Damian Zammit becomes a partner in theSPACE Cairns and we incorporate a company Cairns Innovation Hub Pty Ltd. We establish 2 trading arms to CIH, theSPACE and Cairns Regional Investment Group.In an effort to best facilitate the successful development of this entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem in Far North QLD, we engaged the help of several regional business leaders. To date, the following people have agreed to join the board (in a non-executive volunteer/mentor position) of the Cairns Innovation Hub Pty Ltd (trading as two separate businesses, theSPACE Cairns and Cairns Regional Investment Group). • Troy Haines (Executive Director) • Damian Zammit (Executive Director) • Debbie Hancock – CEO, Cairns Chamber of Commerce • David Low – Dean, College of Business Law and Governance, James Cook University • Kevin Brown – CEO NQA Airports, CIAF (Cairns Indigenous Art Fair), Advance Cairns, TTNQ ? Norweld Australia Winner, Turnaround Award 2014 We’ve been working with Norweld over the past two years to assist them to become less reliant on the local market and innovate new products that can be sold throughout Australia. Norweld now ships heavy duty aluminium ute trays and custom canopies throughout Australia, and in July won the “Turnaround Award” at the TNQ20 Awards - http://www.tnq20.com.au/tnq20-awards/tnq20- awards-2014-winners ? Catch’n’Release – Anchor Release System Finalist in Australian Innovation Challenge We’ve been working with Catch’n’Release over the past 12 months to assist them in the commercialisation of their patented Anchor Release System. As part of this they have sold numerous units throughout Queensland, were finalists in the TNQ20 “Tropical Innovation in Energy & Water” - http://www.tnq20.com.au/tnq20-awards/tnq20-awards-2014-winners and are finalists in the Backyard Australian Innovation Challenge - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/innovationchallenge/skipping-children-gave-inventor-the-idea-to-take-danger-aweigh-from-hauling-in-anchor/storyfnj8dsuo-1227108673583 ? Startup Weekend – August 2014 theSPACE recently held Cairns’ first ever Startup Weekend - http://www.up.co/communities/ australia/queensland/startup-weekend/4285 for details. 32 entrepreneurs, 5 mentors, 3 judges, 20 observers, 5 teams formed Video testimonial of the event - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx0LqECzglo Tech Street Journal follow up - http://tsj.io/2014/08/24/cairns-first-startup-weekend-signals-regionalgrowth/ Graeme Wood (founder of Wotif) officially opened the event. ? Startup Weekend – November 2014 (Part of Global Entrepreneuship Week and Global Startup Battle) Startup Weekend 2 was a huge success with 30 entrepreneurs, 3 mentors, 3 judges, 22 observers and 5 teams formed. We had 5 indigenous participants. 3 cities connected via live streaming. Sponsors included: Cairns Chamber of Commerce, Advance Cairns (BEC), Cairns Regional Council, James Cook University http://www.up.co/communities/australia/cairns/startup-weekend/4724 Checkout what Startup Smart says - http://www.startupsmart.com.au/technology/cairns-linksup-with-startup-weekend-events-in-townsville-and-the-gold-coast-as-its-local-entrepreneurs-powerahead/2014103113537.htmlGraeme Wood (founder of Wotif) officially opened the event. ? Global Startup Battle – Nov 2014 – Hashtag Battle As part of Startup Weekend Global, 30 Cairns entrepreneurs put Cairns on the global stage, ranking 18th in the world (1st in Australia & 3rd in Asia Pacific) in a hashtag battle (4,672 tweets in 54 hours) as part of Startup Weekend Global. That’s pretty epic given the size of our team compared to hundreds of people which attended other events in other cities - http://www.globalstartupbattle.co/hashtagbattle#/all-cities ? iLAB – Winter 2014 theSPACE via iAMconnected was one of the first two teams from outside of Brisbane (winter 2014 intake) to ever participate in the iLab Germinate program (http://www.ilabaccelerator.com/programs/). Part of theSPACE’s participation in the program was to work with iLab to trial offer their accelerator program remotely. This opens up the possibility of the state-funded iLab offering its programs throughout regional Queensland. Note: the second team to participate (Why Not Tours http://www.whynottours.com.au) has been receiving long-term support from theSPACE, which resulted in their successful Germinate application. ? Mentor Blaze – Sep 2014 theSPACE recently held a FREE Cairns Mentor Blaze in conjunction with iLab. This provided regional entrepreneurs with the ability to Skype with Brisbane-based mentors and consult face-toface with Cairns-based mentors for free - http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ilab-mentor-blaze-in-cairns-registration-12773464777. ? iLAB – Summer 2014 – 2015 The current intake for iLab saw seven teams from theSPACE submit an application. Of these seven teams, two were selected for boot camp in Brisbane. This is a 350% increase (in just one intake) from the Germinate winter intake as a direct result of the community activities that we’ve been conducting. ? ASSOB Regional Funding Hub In August 2014, theSPACE was successful in securing Australia’s FIRST ASSOB Regional Funding Hub licence agreement (http://assob.com.au/about.asp?page=1). Our region is Cardwell to Torres Strait. This provides us with a tool to connect entrepreneurs to an equity-funding platform, which currently hosts over 25,000 investors. The ASSOB platform can facilitate equity fundraises of up to $5 million dollars. This addresses one of the biggest issues for getting ideas to market – the lack of seed capital opportunities for new businesses. The additional benefit of equity funding is that it means the entity is not subject to crippling interest repayments during their infancy stages of business. ? Cairns Entrepreneurial Society (Pty Ltd) James Cook University Cairns Roy Wybrow, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at JCU Cairns (see profile http://www.up.co/communities/ australia/cairns/startup-weekend/4724), has established the FIRST entrepreneurial society across all faculties on the Cairns campus. It supports students in testing the commercial viability of their ideas, using “Lean” principles. From this group, Roy will feed the best ideas into theSPACE for the purpose of getting their idea to market. Roy advised theSPACE and JCU that he was inspired to create this entity after attending Cairns’ first Startup Weekend. In his words, this event: “reignited his flame”. Roy is the first person to appear in the testimonial video for Startup Weekend, as above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx0LqECzglo See excerpt from a recent email (where I asked Roy if he would be a referee for theSPACE). “Hi. Have just scraped together enough souls to meet University policy. Getting paperwork done and the Cairns Entrepreneurial Society will be up and going soon. On your other matter, it would be an honour and pleasure to be able to assist so please use me as referee or however I can assist in ensuring your great endeavour flourishes. It’s needed in FNQ. Regards, Roy” ? Cairns Regional Investment Group Launched in Dec 2014 (http://cairnsregionalinvestment.com/) The weakness that we have identified is the lack of funding available to startups and innovators (due to the constraints of traditional lending). The purpose of this entity is to match entrepreneurs with investors ? Troy Haines & Damian Zammit - November 2014 - Innovation Champions Acknowledged by the State Government as Innovation Champions and added to the Wall of Fame Minister of Science & Innovation, Ian Walker, recognised the work Troy and Damian have been doing in developing a grassroots startup ecosystem in FNQ, awarding both Troy and Damian an Innovation Champion Award and placing them on the Science & Innovation Wall of Fame. Troy founded TheSPACE to bring together budding entrepreneurs and innovators throughout the Far North Queensland region. Together Troy and Damian, have developed an entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem to address the lack of funding available to startups and innovators. Their work at theSPACE assists entrepreneurs and businesses to scale ideas for a global market. http://www.qld.gov.au/dsitia/initiatives/science-innovation-champions/wall-of-fame/ Cairns Regional Investment Group launches its first capital raise – December 2014 Cairns Regional Investment Group’s first capital raise launches. Annie Stone, a well-known resident and businessperson of Thursday Island for the past 13 years who owns Torres Property Services, Property Management & Maintenance specialists, is the developer behind the Island Villas development on Thursday Island. That's about it for now... wishing you all a very safe and happy holiday period and look forward to seeing you in the new year. Get in the Game Troy Haines & Damian Zammit Cairns Innovation Hub Pty Ltd