On Tuesday 19th May, the Gold Coast Innovation Hub had the honour of hosting the first (online) Regional Innovation Roundtable for the Gold Coast region. The session was designed to help the Queensland Government identify new energy and strength for an impacted regional innovation ecosystem and for stakeholders within the innovation ecosystem to share experiences and ideas about how we can work together to support Queensland’s innovation ecosystem to address the impacts of COVID-19 into recovery, resilience and growth.
This is one of several initiatives that Advance Queensland (AQ), and the Office of The Queensland Chief Entrepreneur (OQCE) have actioned with a wide range of Queensland innovation stakeholders, across all levels of government, to advocate and effectively respond to the needs of Queensland’s innovation ecosystem for addressing the impacts of COVID-19.
The Gold Coast was dealt a huge blow with COVID-19. Our economy is highly dependent on tourism, hospitality and the international education sector which has left thousands of businesses and people financially impacted.
However, as our Mayor Tom Tate, likes to say – there is no shortage of the ‘have a go spirit’ here on the Gold Coast. Throughout all of the turmoil there are some brilliant organisations closing funding rounds, securing international contracts, achieving national recognition and launching new innovations.
For the first roundtable we were thrilled to welcome a great selection of local innovative companies, investors as well as representatives from some of the industries that have been hardest hit by COVID and will need to look to Innovation in order to fast track economic recovery in the region.
While many had experienced a downturn in their businesses the discussion was proactive and positive, amongst the conversations were an array of good news stories as businesses addressed downturns in the market with innovative new services and value propositions that have, in many cases, opened up new market segments to their organisations.
The move to online meetings has also seen doors open to Gold Coast companies internationally as exporters are now the same distance (a zoom call) away from potential customers as competitors on the ground in other countries. For many B2C companies, it is now about your ability to deliver services remotely that will win the deal, something that businesses in our vast country are very well equipped for.
We look forward to seeing the outcomes of the roundtable and thank all of the people that participated. If you are a Gold Coast Innovator that would like to participate in future similar events, please send us an email at team@gchub.com.au.
