Under the banner of ‘SMART Innovation’, the fifth annual Hunter Central Coast Innovation Festival, (HCCIF) brings together the region’s leading creative and innovative businesses to promote smarter, more innovative ways of doing business.

With events ranging from trade shows, seminars, expos and open days, the Festival is a unique opportunity to focus on new technologies, sustainability and innovative work practices.

I am especially delighted to announce The Lunaticks Society of Newcastle will be hosting four free events:

Cloud Computing: Designing A Modern Business – Friday, 11th May 2012

LinkedIn: It’s About You – Friday, 18th May 2012

Getting The Most Out Of Twitter – Friday, 25th May 2012

Think like a TECH START-UP – Tuesday, 29th May 2012

I’d like to invite you all. Enjoy

Ever wondered what makes a Tech Start-up tick? If they think differently than other businesses? How they go about Funding? How they pick business partners? Ever wondered if Tech Start-Ups are actually different than any other business?

The Lunaticks Society of Newcastle has enticed some of the leading names in the Tech Start-Up Industry to share their wisdom and reveal their secrets for the Think Like a Tech Start-Up event.

Whether you’re in senior management wanting to know the start-up secrets, a small business owner, in marketing and advertising, a new start-up or in the technology sector, this will be an event you won’t want to miss.

We will have some Q&A sessions with the likes of Rod Drury whose resume includes Co-Founder of Xero, Key Player in the Pacific Fibre Project and winner of the NZ Hi-Tech Entrepreneur of the year award in 2006 + 2007 to name a few, Stuart McLeod Co-Founder of Paycycle and current mentor with Innovyz Start an accelorator program, Marc Lehmann CEO and founder of Saasu + some of our newcastle home grown talent.

We are also giving you the chance to ask some questions of the presenters prior to the event. Just head on over to our LinkedIn page. The Lunaticks Society

Registration. Kicks off at 6.30 with the main event starting at 7pm.

The Venue. Upstairs at the Delany Hotel

Entry Fee. Its Free!

Public servants and their government organisations often find themselves under attack for lack of innovation or not being open to new ideas. But despite all such accusations, public sector innovation will be on show during next months Innovation Week 2012.

Innovation Week 2012 have announced three events focused on openness, collaboration and innovation of government. All three events will be hosted by the University of Canberra INSPIRE Learning Centre.

GovHack 2012 – June 1st to 3rd

Firstly to kick off the week, GovHack will bring together people from government, industry and academia to hack on government data, design better interfaces, and mashup all of the above to find better ways to encourage open government.

The GovHack event has major grants and prizes for the best work undertaken with government data. That data includes science data from Bureau of Meteorology, digital humanities data from the National Archives of Australia, and of course data sets from data.gov.au. More data sets are also being lined up.

GovCamp 2012 – June 15th

Next is a one day GovCamp and Academic Forum to bring together thought leaders and experts across the public sector, academia, industry and civil society to talk about innovation in government. The day will explore where we are at and where we are going in public sector innovation.

A GovCamp is an event for people from government and people interested in government to get together to share knowledge, learn, develop skills, network and find new opportunities to collaborate. It involves both structured and unstructured scheduling to get a good mix of current thought leaders and stories from the trenches.

GovJam 2012 – June 6th & 7th

Finally, there will be a GovJam, a two day event run through the week for people in the public service to learn and apply their skills and experience in designing better service delivery.

A GovJam is about jamming ideas with other folk in government, and designing better ways to deliver services for your department or agency. This is an international workshop that will see Canberra based staff jamming with Public Servants in Australian Capital Cities, Scotland, and potentially around the world?

Who said that ’Public Sector Innovation’ was an oxymoron?

I’m really excited to learn that Greg Hall, founder of Lockout Productions and Shane Burrell, founder of FinalPost have launched Film Republic, a new screen industry group for Newcastle’s screen industry professionals.

Film Republic Open Haus

Under the fantastic name of Film Republic Open Haus, they’re planning a series of events which are aimed at connecting fellow screen citizens together, to learn new skills and have some fun. Hosted by a different screen facility within the region every 2 months. The first Film Republic Open Haus is scheduled for May 8th.

The Script Competition

To help launch this group, Greg and Shane have created a competition to find a great script or idea to be produced. The winning script will be used for a “crowd” developed screen project. Led by leading professionals in the Hunter region, the project will give our screen community an opportunity to join forces to produce a screen masterpiece.

 If you want to find out more about Film Republic, the Film Republic Open Haus events or their Script Competition go to www.filmrepublic.com.au

Enjoy

And I loved every minute of it!

To give you a sense of what it was like, I’ve uploaded a few photographs from my SXSW Interactive trip. Enjoy

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Today’s top managers now operate in a very competitive global marketplace characterised by new media and distribution channels, changing business and revenue models. In order to compete effectively, top managers look to strategic planning to identify new opportunities, calculate risk and allocate resources more efficiently.

However, in the digital age, too few top managers actually turn to strategic planning to help navigate the complexities of emerging technologies and changing consumer behaviour.

So, isn’t it a good idea to have a digital marketing strategy? More importantly, one that isn’t the same as your competitors? Of course the answer is yes, however most prefer to use outside agencies for every decision about their companies’ digital needs.

Ask for a website, you get a website. Ask for a social media campaign, you get a social media campaign. Nothing more.

So here’s my pitch. Sticky takes a strategic approach. We bring our unique digital marketing methodologies to help clients devise their long-term strategic plan to leverage the booming digital economy, drive business growth and open new exciting opportunities.

The eight elements of the Sticky 360 degree digital marketing strategy:

1. Website Business Plan (the best starting point)
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Audit and Plan
3. Social Media Audit and Plan
4. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Audit and Plan
5. Database Marketing Plan
6. Content Marketing and Management Plan
7. Digital Marketing Analytics Audit and Plan
8. Mobile Marketing Strategy

For more information about Sticky’s strategic approach go to www.getsticky.com.au or email me using gordon@stickyads.com.au.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is Australia’s biggest-ever infrastructure project. It’s what the national road system and railways were to the previous two centuries – an essential piece of infrastructure for a city’s future economic success.

But, should cities wait for the digital future or should cities create their own digital future?

Hosted by The Lunaticks Society of Newcastle, we will give attendees access to top business leaders and tech thinkers, with the goal to learn how cities can become super-connected? What’s the benefits of a community owning its broadband infrastructure? Wireless, fixed or both? What’s our city’s digital infrastructure needs? And how use of technology will drive our city’s future economic success and improve social well being.

Panelists: James Vidler – associate director of IT Services UoN; Brendan Brooks – founder of Hyperweb; Roger Pryor – tech blogger, speaker and educator. More panelists to be confirmed.

Moderator: Paul Wallbank – tech writer, speaker and ABC radio broadcaster

Venue: Delany Hotel (upstairs lounge)

Date: Tuesday 27th March 2012

Time: 6.30pm registration Ends 9.30pm

It’s a simple question. As the 21st century unfolds and we move towards a truly global economy, the leadership role in our city, in driving economic success, prosperity and social wellbeing is increasingly becoming more important and continually changing.

New Yorkers look to Michael Bloomberg. Londoners look to Boris Johnson. Sydneyites look to Clover Moore. All mayors. All are known for the influence they bring to the leadership role and their positive outlook and vision for their city’s future.

Now, think about it. Who is leading the fight for our city’s economic future?

My argument is simple; cities of the future need leaders of the future.

Smart modern cities need a leader on top of their game – not from the left or right of politics. But a leader who has influence and a positive outlook and vision for their city’s future. Someone who is known to attract and surround himself or herself with the very best talent and inspires the community – not divide it (Gordon, don’t mention the figs).

Like it or not, you can’t fight the future, although many of our city’s current crop of civic and business leaders are guilty of trying. We live in a world of great advances in technology that are having huge implications for the delivery of existing and new forms of services including government, education, healthcare, communication and transportation. And like the industrial revolution of the 1700’s, traditional jobs and business models have to quickly adapt to new trends in the digital revolution.

Just as a company needs to invest time and energy searching for the best leader to stay competitive, so does a world-class city. It is, after all, like a business competing with other cities.

So, if Newcastle really wants to become a smart city, then why shouldn’t we invest a little more time and energy trying to unearth a new leader with the skills and influence to secure our city’s economic future?

Why shouldn’t we look to people who are shaping the future like a Jack Dorsey (creator of Twitter and the founder and CEO of Square ) or a Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) for our next Lord Mayor of Newcastle?

What was once at the heart of our city’s past connecting people to the world has fallen into disrepair. But I have a vision of reclaiming Newcastle’s industrial past from dereliction and tap into the $4.2 trillion global digital economy.

The goal. To bring Newcastle’s old abandoned post office back to life by transforming the currently disused building into a vibrant and functional modern digital space for high growth potential tech and creative start-ups – called The New Post Office.

The idea. Honouring the historical communication and community focus of a post office, the idea is not only to return the landmark to its former glory but also bring that focus into the 21st century. The New Post Office will support Newcastle’s emerging tech and creative communites with affordable serviced offices, co-working desk space, meeting rooms, event space and access to reliable fast broadband. Open to the public and business traveller, a post office themed cafe will occupy the ground floor to showcase modern technology and it’s potential benefits for all.

The problem. The NSW Government purchased the abandoned post office in July 2010 as part of the revitalization plans for the City of Newcastle. Vacancy and neglect for over a decade has resulted in a blow out in the cost of restoring this iconic building with estimates now at over $10 million.

The post office is one of the city’s most iconic heritage sites built between 1899 and 1903 and is listed on:

• the NSW State Heritage Register
• The National Trust of Australia Register
• the Register of the National Estate

Currently, the NSW Government has been looking to partner with the private sector to restore this former landmark building into a hub for the Newcastle CBD, in keeping with the site’s heritage status. And it has been reported that negotiations have taken place with the University of Newcastle Alumni without any commitment.

Both the State Government and Newcastle City Council are known to be working collaboratively with the business community to renew the city centre. They aim to achieve this by creating a diverse economy which supports innovation and creativity, embracing the challenges and opportunities arising from the emerging trends of the 21st century.

The biggest economic challenges and opportunities lie in today’s trend towards a digital economy and at the moment, the city doesn’t have a digital ecosystem or digital infrastructure for a successful 21st century economy.

Newcastle is especially devoid of a physical space for its lively tech and creative start-up community. It lacks affordable space for tech and creative entrepreneurs to touch down, plug-in and work, a place that stimulates a start-up culture, facilitates networking, collaboration and knowledging sharing.

The audience. The New Post Office will target a broad range of professionals including high growth potential entrepreneurs, people working in industries such as software and mobile app development, writers and online publishers as well as digital and screen content producers (film and television). While a themed cafe/restaurant with free fast Wi-Fi would cater for the Newcastle tech and creative community, mobile workers, business travellers and welcome the general and maybe not so tech savvy public.

The approach. The NSW Land and Property Management Authority would enter into a long term lease arrangement with the newly a formed not-for-profit enterprise, which would lease office, desk and cafe space. Surplus funds are reinvested into maintaining the heritage building, the tech and creative space and used to foster the city’s vibrant startup ecosystem and community.

The New Post Office will offer:

• cafe/restaurant space
• long-term leased office space
• short-term co-working desk space
• fast fixed and wireless broadband
• breakout and meeting rooms
• networking events
• incubator, mentoring and training programs

What’s next. So far, a number of companies have shown interest in leasing space. However, restoring this landmark building to its former glory needs government and industry to recognize the future economic impact of seeding an opportunity like this and start talking.

Do you want to start talking?