The Precinct: Too Many Events!

So I went to The Precinct today because I had signed up for Ignite Ideas Information Session happening in River City Labs. But the packed elevator was full of people who indicated we should get off on level 2, instead of going to level 3 were River City Labs is located. There did seem to be an event in level 2, so I assumed it was the information session. It was not; it was a talk on Quantum Computing!

After thinking about it for a while and consuming copious amounts of cheese, I decided to stick around for the Introduction to Quantum Computing (and where AI fits) by Dr Adam Makarucha. I have a rudimentary understanding of Quantum Computing, but I do not watch the field as much as I probably should. So the talk was fascinating, and I enjoyed hearing about the tools IBM has available. I want to try some of them out and will try to find some time to do so.

As I was sitting there listening to him, I realised that three events were taking place in level 3 of the Precinct, including the Ignite Ideas Information Session! The saturation of events is why we couldn’t make Dev Start Meetup work.. There are just too many meetups, talks and events in Brisbane.

After Dr Makarucha’s talk, I did duck out and listen to what EY representative had to say about the Ignite Ideas grant. It’s interesting. I think I will suggest it to both Abide and Josari, and we can explore the possibility of applying for it.

Eventbrite QUT bluebox Accelerator 2019 Demo Night

So yesterday, I found myself in P Block just the QUT Bluebox Accelerator 2019 Demo Night was kicking off. So even though I didn’t have tickets, I crashed the party! Well, at least for a little while. I was feeling pretty sick, so I couldn’t hang around for the pitches. Still, I got a chance to chat with some of the participants. There were familiar faces like Bertonni, who were one of the graduates of last years Impact Boom Elevate+ program. There was also Excise Cloud who are in QUT Foundry with Abide and beat Abide to come second during the QUT Foundry IDEAS Launched Showcase: Pitch 'n' Party.

In addition, I got to speak with Gigshake, who are a digital platform connecting university students to career-relevant paid employment. I remember the terrible job boards from when I was a student. So if they can improve the experience just a little, they would have made a huge difference. But one thing I would like to see on their platform is some way for the students to share their experience with employers. We are too much on the side of employers. But bad bosses can be hugely damaging to young people and a university job board should have emphasis protecting students and teaching them their rights, as much as they should be able helping students gain experience and earn money.

I also spoke a little to Cardlify, who are a digital gift card solution and Software-as-a-Service marketing tool for businesses. I didn’t quite get how they were different from Rewardle. But I wasn’t at the pitch. They probably addressed how they were different. I didn’t get a chance to speak with them a lot.

The last startup I spoke to was Tokens for Humanity, who are a charity using blockchain technology to deliver efficient fundraising and governance applications for not-for-profits. I asked them if their Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash, but they were Ethereum, I was secretly hoping they were paying in Doge coins!

The three startups I didn’t get a chance to speak to where Digital Surge  who are a cryptocurrency exchange platform, specialising in bitcoin trading that is accessible to all Australians. Vanguard Defence Systems who are a defence research and development startup, focusing on creating technology to improve defence force capabilities. Finally, SensaWeb who provide a real-time environmental monitoring solution with an initial focus on radiation area monitoring.

I learnt this morning that Bertonni was the winner of the demo night! That’s impressive returns for Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort from 2018. Because Chatloop, who were also alumni of cohort 2018 won UQ iLabs Germinate 12 Pitch Night. Let’s hope Abide is as successful post-Elevate+ as much as Bertonni and Chatloop!

Fishburners Pitch Night: Health Tech

I am writing this on a Sunday night, and it’s been a very long week from last Sunday to today. This time last week, I was at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital emergency room with my three-year-old niece. At the time, she wasn’t admitted into the hospital, and we thought it was all done and dusted. We were wrong. She was admitted on Thursday, had surgery on her knees on Friday, and she’s still there! My brother and his family live in Townsville. So they don’t have their cars here, so I have had to help out with logistics, so a lot of late night driving to pick-up or drop-off my sister-in-law. So it was fitting that my first ever attendance at the Fishburners Pitch Night was themed Health Tech!

Friday is my day at JOSARI HQ, so I wasn’t planning on attending. But everybody at Josari was keen to see what the Pitch Night was about and were looking forward to the food and drink, so we went together as a team. Fishburners Pitch Night is very different from River City Labs pitch events. River City Labs allows anyone to pitch. But you have to pitch without any visual aid, and you only have two minutes. River City Labs is about promotion, and there is no judgement. The Fishburners’ events did have judges, the startups pitching are drawing from Fishburners members, you do get to have pitch decks, plus the pitch is for five minutes. So it was very much a formal event, while the River City Labs events tend to be more informal.

The first pitcher was Sortal: Legacy, who were an offshoot of Sortal, and use the machine learning technology of Sortal to create memory banks for patients suffering dementia. It’s a great concept, but it’s only starting, the technology works but whether families will use it for people with dementia needs to be seen.

The next pitch was from Our Care Journal, and it interested me a lot because it’s almost beat for beat the same as Carers Connect/Caremate, which is a startup I am helping set up. But Our Care Journal is ready to download, while we are still building our app. But I am not worried because the market we are targeting is huge, so there should be enough pie for all of us to have a piece.

The third pitch was from Hearos App, which is a serious game that helps people with Cochlear implant to learn or relearn sounds. It was by the far the easiest understand in terms of what problem they were addressing, and what their solution offers.

I can’t remember the name of the last startup that pitched. But it was a meal prep startup and was an example of why I am not worried about Our Care Journal. They have a lot of competition, as do all diet and food-related startups. But no single one of them has been able to corner the market. My brother and I went in for the Prepd Colors Lunchboxes, which comes with a recipe app. We are waiting for the boxes but keen to try the Prepd system. I also use Noom, for which I recently bought a subscription for a recipe module. So there are a lot of competitions, but the market is so big, that there is always room for someone to try and take a slice of the piece for themselves.

Overall, I enjoyed the pitch night. I will consider attending again!

Women Who Code Meetup: Networking for the Socially Awkward

I made it! Seriously, after a year of flaking, either because I had last minute work come up or just being too tired to make it, I was finally about to attend a Women Who Code meetup! One New Year’s Resolution down, several more to go. As it happens, I choose a great meetup to break my “non-show” streak because Trish Khoo gave a great talk about networking for the socially awkward.

Trish is someone I have to know for a while now. She’s a talented software consultant and trainer specialising for software testing. She’s also an artist and designer. In short, she’s multi-talented, and one of her talents is being able to, in her own words, delivery a “stand-up comedy masquerading as a tech talk”!

In all seriousness, social awkwardness can hold people back. I have a strict “people” quota and have done or said stupid things once I am “peopled out”. I also have a good memory, and while a lot of people probably remember that embarrassing thing they did from five years ago, my memory itself has led to awkward situations where I remember conversations other people do not. So I can give the wrong impression just because I remember conversations from years ago that the other person has long forgotten.

However, as they say, practice makes perfect and also, you will never win a debate against yourself. The world revolves around connections, so socialising is important. So Trish’s talk that encouraged practice and to embrace awkwardness was something worth listening too. The fact that she made fun and not a serious talk, as a lot of self-help talks tend to be, will probably make it stick!

Brisbane Women in Blockchain: First meetup for me but not for most of the women there!

Quite randomly, I ran across the Brisbane Women in Blockchain meetup announcement. So I tagged along since the topic of the discussion was AI. It was an interesting discussion coming from the panel consisting of Katrina Donaghy of Civic Ledger and Tracy Kay of Axalon. I was especially intrigued by the idea that AI-powered tasks that did something, like decode images, would be harnessed to write blocks.

Right now, writing new blocks on a blockchain is mostly a “make work” function. Algorithms solve a computational puzzle, and the fastest to solve is the one given the right to add a block to the blockchain. The idea is that the “proof of work”, instead of being something a make-work task like solving a puzzle, can be something useful like analysing a medical image. At least that’s how I understood the concept.

Overall, the discussion was too high level. I was hoping for a more a more of a deep dive into the topic of AI. But the discussion was kept at a higher concept level. But I think that was more because I happen to pick a meetup that was doubling as new member recruitment and a retrospective.

Indeed, I gathered this is a close-knit meetup with a fair few women being regular attendees. Given my terrible track record for Women Who Code, I am not sure if I’ll be able to become one of the regulars. But this meetup did intrigue me and reminded me that I wanted to explore blockchain and their application more. So maybe I should spend some time developing a blockchain powered idea and get around building it!