If you’re a student or know a student who has an entrepreneurial aptitude have him and her circle March 8 and get to the CQUniversity, North Rockhampton campus. Lucas Patchett will be speaking and answering questions. Lucas who, maybe you’ve heard or even 2 years ago used Orange Sky Laundry, a social enterprise he and good mate Nicholas Marchesi started to provide a free mobile laundry service to the homeless or affected by cyclone.
Why is he coming to the region? – Not to do laundry this time, possibly change a life though. Lucas is just one of the speakers the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Mark Sowerby, has assembled to empower attendees to take the plunge, back themselves and become entrepreneurs.
Queensland needs more; Australia needs more, lots more.
If a past Young Australian of the Year, who in just over 2 years has gone from 1 van to operating in each state in Australia with plans to expand to USA is not enough reason to attend, add former local now TV ‘Shark’ Steve Baxter, (that guy on ‘Shark Tank’ who invests a lot of his own money in other’s ideas). Want to know how it feels when Twitter wants to buy your business, ask Stephen Phillips a co-founder of ‘We Are Hunted’, he is coming too. It’s not all blokes; a local lady who has founded a very successful business that still operates from Rockhampton and 2016 Telstra Business Women’s Queensland Entrepreneur, Patrice Brown will be speaking as well.
As one of the fellow Startup Capricorn committee members said, this is bigger than Ben Hur, (students may need Google to understand that reference).
If you are not a student you can attend the March 7 Meetup in Yeppoon, hosted by Startup Capricorn. A little different to the following morning session with the students; the meetup will feature the same speakers but in a forum to discuss why entrepreneurship can blossom outside capital cities.
I’m excited, excited because 2 markets have been identified and the presentation customised for each; students to hear first hand from those who have done it, one a Uni student who is taking a break, others that attended the same schools some of the students attend now. Then the more mature market, whose entrepreneurial ideas may have dimmed as mortgages and family responsibilities increased. Feeding of the energy this Meetup will generate may re-invigorate those ideas or inspire new ones.
This could be the catalyst to launch the list of 40 under 40 entrepreneurial doers in the region as previously mooted. With a bigger picture in mind, the catalyst to establishing a Youth Entrepreneurial Economic Zone which over the years I’ve championed in this column as a real game changer for the region.
Please tell your friends and kids of this opportunity to hear and ask questions of these entrepreneurs, particularly our youth; we desperately need more entrepreneurs and an education system that fosters them.