Australian Innovation Festival

Apparently this week is the Australian Innovation Festival. I only know this because it was mentioned at the ACT Innovation event. I don't rally know what it is, having see nothing else about it. This evening there was a large pile of brochures at the door. These appear to be about the festival, judging by the cover, but seem to contain nothing but PR material and advertisements. I had difficulty finding anything about the actual event. But there is a web address on the cover, so I will have a look at that: ausinnovation.org

Even without using the web address it tells me something: this is very similar to the ACT Innovation web address and so may well be related. Having clicked on the web address I am still none the wiser, as so far noting has loaded. I am using a slow wireless Internet connection at present and it seems this web page has not been designed with this in mind.

In the interim John got my attention by using the example of turning a problem into a solution with Staten drugs for reducing cholesterol.

It has been several minutes at the supposed Australian Innovation web site still has not arrived. So I decided to run a few tests to see what might be the problem with the web site. These are the sort of tests my second year ANU web design students learn to do on their assignments.

The first test is to validate the HTML of the web page. The Australian Innovation web page failed this test with 96 Errors. This is a very large number of errors. Students are expected to have no errors on their web pages and a typical web page might have a half dozen errors.

The second test I usually run is for mobile ok. This tests how well the web page will work on the typical mobile phone. Unfortunately the test failed to complete.

John got my attention again by mentioning Bob Clifford, Tasmanian large fast ferry builder. John pointed out that having a ferry tied up at the factory unsold represents millions of dollars. It happens that I met Mr. Clifford once on the bridge of one of his ships at an Olympic Games function (the US DoD now buys such ships from Australia). He surprised me by leaving me in charge of the ship, while he popped down stairs. Fortunately it was tied up at a wharf, but it was still lonely on the bridge.

The third test I usually run is for accessibility. An automated TAW test, which reported thirteen priority 1 problems, 56 Priority 2 and one Priority 3 problems.

At this point the web site finally appeared after several minutes. From first glance, it is obvious why the page took so long to load: there are a lot of high resolution graphics and animation on the page. Unfortunately none of this has helped me find out what the event is about. There are photos of unidentified people along with large blocks of test appearing. But these are disappearing before I can read the text, or work out who these mysterious people are. There are also lots of maps and logos which suggest this is an important and well supported event, but I am still none the wiser as to what it actually is. So far about all I know is that this web site must have cost a lot of money to develop.

Here is the text of the page:

Australian Innovation

* Home * Festivals * Events * News * Publications * Get involved * AusInnovation TV * About Us * Supporters * Newsletters * Login

Ausinnovation.org

The future is electric - GM concept car

Take a look inside GM's new EN-V concept car as Chris Borroni-Bird explains how this zero-emission, electric vehicle ...

National News

Startup Camp (Melbourne) 2010 consisted of 30 university students - Read more

From little things, big things grow. Take Google, the brainchild - Read more

New discoveries happen through perseverance in the pursuit of a - Read more

A strong and efficient intellectual property (IP) system is a - Read more

What makes an organisation successful? Able to grow and prosper - Read more
Innovation News

Since the industrial revolution, burning fossil fuel has been - Read more

Innovation remains key to meeting future challenges, enhancing - Read more

In this International Year of Biodiversity it is appropriate that we - Read more

NSW Manufacturing Week aims to inspire and encourage manufacturers to - Read more

As the Minister for Education, I see investments in people, places - Read more

Top Stories - 12 total ( view all )

* The Pursuit of Happiness - Video
* Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy - Video
* 170,000 bouncy balls make good advertising - Video
* Social Entrepreneurship: Creating Change - Video
* The growth of the internet and social networking - Video
* Unlocking your business innovation - World Innovation Forum - Video
* [Comedy] What Google might be thinking - Video
* How TV shows are actually created - Video
* [Amazon] Jeff Bezos’s on regret minimisation - Video
* [TED] Lead your tribe - Video
* The sky is the limit - Video
* BMW (South Africa). Defining innovation. - Video

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This suggests that the web page is a collection of events to do with innovation. The rapidly changing content on the home page appear to be examples of events. Exactly who is doing this, or why, is not clear. A search of the ASIC database shows there is an organisation AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION PTY. LTD, created 04/06/2009.

Teaching Researchers to be Entrepreneurs

InnovationACT provides free training in entrepreneurship and $70,000 of awards for ANU and University of Canberra staff and students. This year's program is being launched 6pm, 8 April 2010 at Finkel Lecture Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research (please RSVP). Last year I gave the participants a talk on "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT".

There are slides and videos of last year's presentations available online. I have suggested this be turned into a formal assessable course, so student get credit for taking part.

Startups in Sydney

Greetings from "Startup BarCamp Sydney" at the Australian Technology Park as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009. I volunteered to talk on "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT" at 12:30pm. But I broadened this to talk about the process Innovation ACT uses to teach entrepreneurship to students at the Australian National University and University of Canberra and ended up with "Entrepreneurs for climate change mitigation".

The BarCamp is being held in the Innovation Centre at the ATP. For me this is a bit like coming home. In 1998 I used the ATP as an example of how technology innovation should be done in Australia. This was meant to be just an example, but the government appeared to take this advice literally and set up the National ICT Centre of Excellence (NICTA) in the building. I was last here for the CSIRO ICT Centre conference two weeks ago. What I didn't realise is that the ATP is home to ATP Innovations, which is part owned by the ANU.

This Bar Camp has a wider range of participant than BarCamp Canberra, which was focused on web and government. At this event there is one delegate is selling coconuts (for eating and drinking) and another solar thermal power stations.

Startup BarCamp Sydney

"Startup BarCamp Sydney" is being held 21 November 2009 at the Australian Technology Park for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009. I have volinteered to talk on "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT", which I talked to Innovation ACT about a few monts ago . For those not familiar with the BarCamp format, it can be a bit bewildering. In addition to the celibrity speakers, anyone can present. The rohbust audince participation can also be a bit confronting. The event is free, funded by the sponsors. To participate you edit the home page to add your details and proposed topic. This can see a bit like the Merry Pranksters meet the Calfornian Business Assocation.

Social Networking System for Innovation in Canberra

Greetings from launch of the Innovation ACT Portal at "spacedock" (aka John Curtin School of Medical Research) the Australian National University in Canberra. This is a new social media enhanced web site designed to help students and staff at the ANU and University of Canberra to get together to turn their research into products and services. The new web site will be used in the Innovation ACT program which teaches innovation and then has a competitive process. The ACT Department of Business and Industry Development has funded a new web portal.

This year I talked to the Innovation ACT participants about "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT". Next year the Innovation ACT Portal will include a boot camp for new entrepreneurs and an "i-Prize" for addressing an important social issue.

"No matter what your achievements or future plans, chances are you will need to operate within the world of business. Whether you are planning to be the next high flying entrepreneur, an eminent scientist or one of the literati, you will need to attract funding, obtain industry support or get your own business running to disseminate your ideas.

InnovationACT will give you the skills you need to understand all aspects of business and commercialisation, as well as the chance to be awarded up to $20,000 for your business plan.

InnovationACT provides eight weeks of seminars and mentoring from industry leaders and business professionals. Each team will be guided through the process of writing a professional business plan and could be awarded up to $20 000 by our panel of judges.

Open to all staff and students at the Australian National University and the University of Canberra, with no costs and no strings attached. Come along to learn and mingle with industry professionals or put together a winning team and submit a business plan.

Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged and we provide team formation opportunities. ..."

From: InnovationACT, Innovation ACT Ltd., 2009.

Social Networking for Teaching Innovation

InnovationACT is a program for Australian National University and University of Canberra students to learn entrepreneurship.
The ACT Department of Business and Industry Development has funded a new web portal, to be launched 27th October 2009 at 6pm in the Finkel Lecture Theatre at The John Curtin School of Medical Research. The web portal will use social networking for teaching innovation. For catering purposes please RSVP to InnovationACT@gmail.com

Innovation and carbon emissions

Greetings from Innovation ACT at the Finkel Lecture Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU campus, Canberra. Staff and students of the Australian National University and the University of Canberra are learning how to turn their inventions into products and services. I will be talking at about 7pm on "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT". The session is being recorded and will be available via the Innovation ACT web site. Also I am trying to use a Web Meeting for this.

Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT

I will be talking on "Innovating to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT" at the Innovation ACT Seminar , 6pm, 3 June 2009 at the Finkel Lecture Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU campus, Canberra (Map). For catering purposes please RSVP to InnovationACT@gmail.com. This is a free event sponsored by the Australian National University and the University of Canberra:

Innovation ACT promotes the learning and understanding necessary for the development and commercialisation of a viable product. One area entrepreneurs can seek to commercialise are socially and environmentally sustainable business practices. An example of this are new methods, ideas and products which can reduce carbon emissions by the use of computers and telecommunications (ICT).

The generally accepted figure is that ICT contributes 2% of carbon emissions, but could achieve a 15% reduction in overall emissions by 2020. The ANU will be teaching Masters students how to do this from July 2009, in the course COMP7310: Green ICT Strategies Students can do the course from anywhere in the world, via the web.

About Innovation ACT:

All University staff and students are invited to attend seminars on commercialisation and business planning given by invited speakers from the business community in the ACT and NSW.

We encourage all everyone to come along to learn about all aspects of business and commercialisation.

Participating teams are required to register and are assigned a business leader as a mentor. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged and a team formation evening - in the form of a speed dating evening will be held. So come along and find a team to offer your services to.

Each team will produce an executive summary and a professional business plan under the guidance of their mentor and will submit this to be judged. Two opportunities are also given to present their ideas in the form of an elevator pitch, where the teams are given a few minutes to pitch their idea, and a longer presentation prior to awards being given.

All aspects of commericalisation and business planning will be covered during the program. Seminars will be provided on the following topics:
- Introduction to Innovation
- Intellectual Property
- Product Definition
- Market Sizing and Validation
- Taxation and Company Structures
- Financials and Resources
- Environmental and Social Sustainability
- Business plan writing and presentation

Additionally, web based resources will be provided throughout the program.

Innovation ACT Launch

Greetings from the launch of Innovation ACT at "spacedock" (aka John Curtin School of Medical Research) the Australian National University in Canberra. This is a program to teach innovation to students at the ANU and University of Canberra. The guest speaker was fabric artist Benjamin Shine, with hsi work including a portrait of President Barack Obama. As well as art, Benjamin does commercial design work, including the logo for the Aphasia Alliance (a topic I was lecturing on today). After a series of seminars on how to turn an invention into a product or service, the students (and staff) from teams, prepare proposals and compete. The winners receive practical experience to implement their idea. One innovation with the program is that it is no confined to profit making patented idea, but can include non-profit open source community benefit idea. John H. Howard, author of Innovation, Creativity and Leadership talked at the launch. The program events are open and a entertaining as well as informative. As part of the program I will be speaking at the "Environmental and Social Sustainable Seminar",6pm, ednesday, 3rd June. My postings from last year's program are also available.

Date	Event	Speaker
30th April	Introduction to Innovation Seminar	Benjamin Shine
6th May	Intellectual Property for Innovation Seminar	Robert Miller (Spruson and Ferguson)
13th May	Team Formation Evening
20th May	Product and Market Definition Seminar	John Hemphill (Pyksis)
27th May	Financial and Resource Management Seminar	Nick McNaughton (Blue Cove Ventures)
3rd June	Environmental and Social Sustainable Seminar	ANU Green
10th June	Business Plan Writing and Presentation Seminar	Lachlan James
1st July	Elevator Pitch Competition
Monday 20th July	Business Plans and Presentations Due
22nd July	Business Plan Presentations
29th July	Gala Awards Dinner

From: Schedule, InnovationACT, 2009

Innovation Competition in Canberra

InnovationANU, a business and commercialisation program, will be run again at the Australian National University, with the University of Canberra. Staff and students from the universities are coached on how to turn their bright ideas into products and services. They then form teams and compete in an elevator pitch competition. The winners receive financial and other support for developing their ideas. Participation in the event is free. The 2009 program starts with an Innovation ACT Launch, 6 pm Thursday 30th April, at the Finkel Lecture Theatre, Building 54, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU. RSVP to InnovationACT(a)gmail.com

All University staff and students are invited to attend seminars on commercialisation and business planning given by invited speakers from the business community in the ACT and NSW.

We encourage all everyone to come along to learn about all aspects of business and commercialisation.

Participating teams are required to register and are assigned a business leader as a mentor. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged and a team formation evening - in the form of a speed dating evening will be held. So come along and find a team to offer your services to.

Each team will produce an executive summary and a professional business plan under the guidance of their mentor and will submit this to be judged. Two opportunities are also given to present their ideas in the form of an elevator pitch, where the teams are given a few minutes to pitch their idea, and a longer presentation prior to awards being given.

All aspects of commericalisation and business planning will be covered during the program. Seminars will be provided on the following topics:
- Introduction to Innovation
- Intellectual Property
- Product Definition
- Market Sizing and Validation
- Taxation and Company Structures
- Financials and Resources
- Environmental and Social Sustainability
- Business plan writing and presentation

Additionally, web based resources will be provided throughout the program.

From: About InnovationACT, ANU, 2009

Date	Event	Speaker
30th April	Introduction to Innovation Seminar	Benjamin Shine
6th May	Intellectual Property for Innovation Seminar	Robert Miller (Spruson and Fergusson)
13th May	Team Formation Evening
20th May	Product and Market Definition Seminar	John Hemphill (Pyksis)
27th May	Financial and Resource Management Seminar	Nick McNaughton (Blue Cove Ventures)
3rd June	Environmental and Social Sustainable Seminar	ANU Green
10th June	Business Plan Writing and Presentation Seminar	Lachlan James
1st July	Elevator Pitch Competition
20th July	Business Plans and Presentations Due
22nd July	Business Plan Presentations
29th July	Gala Awards Dinner

From: Schedule InnovationACT, ANU, 2009

Technology Transfer Seminar in Canberra

Tom Hammond and Victor Pantano from the Office of Commercialisation will talk on Technology Transfer at the ANU, Canberra, 2pm 28 October 2008:

Technology Transfer at the ANU
Tom Hammond and Victor Pantano (The Office of Commercialisation, ANU)

DATE: 2008-10-28
TIME: 14:00:00 - 15:00:00
LOCATION: RSISE Seminar Room, ground floor, building 115, cnr. North and Daley Roads, ANU

ABSTRACT:
The Office of Commercialisation provides a number of technology transfer related services to the ANU, with the objective of finding paths beyond traditional sponsored research funding to support ANU research with commercial potential.

Members of the Office of Commercialisation Physical Sciences Team will present a short seminar on the support the Office provides in protecting and managing IP to facilitate research and commercial objectives; identifying and evaluating the commercial potential of research outcomes; and travelling the most appropriate path from research to technology transfer in the physical sciences. ...

From: Technology Transfer at the ANU, CECS, ANU

Dr Victor Pantano (Physical Science)

Before moving to the Office of Commercialisation in March 2006, Victor was based at the University of Warwick where he lead a number of projects associated with technology transfer into the UK automotive industry. Based at the International Automotive Research Centre in the West Midlands, his role involved facilitating the development of industry-based relationships with Centre researchers as an outlet for technology transfer. This included the formation of SME-based technology transfer clusters as a means to enhancing regional development. Prior to this, he completed his industry-based PhD with Ford Motor Company, based in various locations including Australia, India and the US. Victor holds a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) and a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from the ANU.

...

Dr Tom Hammond (Physical Science)

Tom comes to the Office of Commercialisation with academic experience in Zoology and Science Communication, and a career in the craft brewing sector.

After completing a BSc (Hons) in Zoology in 1998, Tom spent some time working in wildlife conservation in Western Australia, before completing a PhD in 2002, focusing on the acoustic behaviour of bushcrickets. An interest turned into a career in the craft brewing industry for several years, before Tom came to the ANU to study a Masters in Science Communication at the ANU. Tom brings a sound technical background, an appreciation of the processes of science communication, and an understanding of the requirements of industry to his role in the Office of Commercialisation. ...

From: Office Team, Office of Commercialisation, The Australian National University

Innovation ANU Final Round of Judging

The ANU has been running "Innovation ANU": an education program and competition to encourage researchers to commercialize their work. Six teams will present business plans a panel of judges for the finals this week. Interestingly some of the teams chose to develop not-for-profit projects, by adapting the business skills being shown. The projects range from very technical ones (fleets of miniature robot submarines) to ones involving the arts (encouraging music). The program started out with seminars on business issues and intellectual property and then moved on to fun presentations from the teams.

This Wednesday evening 23rd July will be the final evening of
InnovationANU 2008. After four months of hard work six teams will be
presenting their final business plans to our panel of judges and you are
all welcome to attend to see the impressive ideas that have emerged.

Date: Wednesday, 23rd July
Time: 5.30pm for 6.00pm start
Venue: Finkel Lecture Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research

Each team has been allocated ten minutes for their presentation, with
5-10 minutes for discussion with the judging panel following. For full
details about the talks and timing please see the attached agenda.

The InnovationANU program this year has been a success thanks to all of
you who got involved attending lectures, preparing and delivering
elevator pitches and finally preparing and submitting business plans.
From all the organisers we would like to extend our thanks to the over
100 participants who have been involved in InnovationANU in some
capacity this year. We hope this is the first of many years for this
program and we wish you all the very best in your future entrepreneurial
endeavours and hope to see you next year for InnovationANU 2009.

Kindest Regards,

The InnovationANU Organisers

Business Development Program
Team Presentations
Wednesday, 23rd July 2008
5:30pm
Finkel Lecture Theatre
John Curtin School of Medical Research

Agenda

5.30pm Drinks
6.00pm Welcome and Opening Remarks
6.15pm Presentation 1: One Corp - Generation Y Receipt Storage
6.40pm Presentation 2: Fault Technology - Blind minerals exploration
7.05pm Presentation 3: Photos Inkorporated - Online community photo-sharing and printing
7.30pm Break
7.45pm Presentation 4: Harp Centre Australia - A Centre for Harp in the Nation’s Capital
8.10pm Presentation 5: Cardishield - Cardiac protection
8.35pm Presentation 6: Serafina - Swarms of submarines
9.00pm Closing Remarks

How to Write a Business or Commercialisation Plan

The ANU's InnovationANU unit will be having a free seminar on "How to Write a Business or Commercialisation Plan" , Wednesday, 4th June The seminar is by
Cindy Reese, from Epicorp Pty Ltd. and is in Finkel Lecture Theatre in The John Curtin School of Medical Research. This is the same venue as previous events. The evening will commence at 6pm with refreshments before the seminar begins at 6.30pm. Please RSVP for catering purposes: InnovationANU (a) anu.edu.au

Innovation ANU Elevator Pitches

Greetings from the Innovation ANU Elevator Pitches in Canberra. This is the culmination of a series of evening courses to educate university people in how to turn an idea into a product. Earlier each person with an idea presented and then formed teams. About a dozen of those teams now get two minutes each to present their idea. Two judges, from the venture capital industry, select the best for an award and then for development.

The presentations are entertaining. It is remarkably difficult present an idea in two minutes. One part I found surprising was that few of the teams used props for presentations. Most presentations were someone standing at a lectern talking. This makes me appreciate the quality of the presentations which the ANU software engineering present.

Topics of the presentations were aids for home finance, puzzles, teaching English, B2C, photo printing, fast food catering. At that point the next presenter, Felix Schill woke me up by pulling a miniature robot submarine out of their backpack and said these would cost $15,000 each. This is the Serafina, developed by ANU (sort of an underwater Aerosonde).

The next presentation was the EtherDVB", video over Ethernet product. That was followed by the BushLAN system for long distance broadband (might be useful for the last few percent of the population with the government's broadband system). This was followed by a proposal for electronic medical records. Then gold prospecting.

At that point the presentations changed outlook to one with a "non-profit" proposal. The first was about reconciliation and learning about indigenous culture.

When then flipped back to a proposal for keeping track of receipts. There was then a second food proposal. One of the few medical proposals was for a drug to reduce deaths due to heart disease. We then had a proposal for bio-gas for developing nations using cow manure for cooking. There was then a second proposal for e-health records. A less usual proposal was for a low cost harp to be sold online (bit like the OLPC, but for music). The last presentation was for asthma treatment: a counter for dispensers and a test kit to check the medicine is present. It was claimed that these are already protected by patents.

The one hour of elevation pitches went very quickly. The judges are now considering their decision.

... first round of judging and awards and will require teams to submit a two page executive summary and a 2 minute (maximum) elevator pitch. Details about both of these submissions are outlined below. Executive Summary submission will be by midday, Tuesday 22nd April (the day before the judging evening), to give the judges plenty of time to read the executive summaries. The elevator pitch will be conducted on the evening and the order of the teams will be selected randomly on the evening. Both the page and time limits are fixed and teams will be asked to strictly abide by these.

The elevator pitch is a two minute pitch to sell your vision/idea of a product, service or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride. The elevator pitch should be delivered without visual aids (pictures, powerpoint presentations, etc.) and within the required time limit, after which the team will be asked to stop immediately.

Investors will often judge the quality of an idea and team on the basis of the quality of a short pitch such as this as any weaknesses are often easily exposed in this process. An effective elevator pitch is designed to give the audience just enough information that they will have a sense of what you are talking about and want to know more. Second, and just as importantly, it is designed to not give the audience so much information so that they feel overwhelmed (and tune you out). There is an overview of the requirements for the elevator pitch on the resources page of the Innovation ANU Website (www.anu.edu.au/InnovationANU). There is also a good overview of an elevator pitch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc.

An executive summary is similar to a written version of the elevator pitch and outlines many of the relevant elements of your concept and idea and why it will be a success. This should be a two page document without images or other visual elements. There is an overview of the requirements for the executive summary on the resources page of the Innovation ANU Website (www.anu.edu.au/InnovationANU). The executive summary should be submitted in word (.doc) or pdf formats by midday, Tuesday 22nd April. Late submission will rule participants ineligible for this award.

Innovation ANU Elevator Pitch Awards Evening

The Australian National Unviersity is having an evening of "elevator pitches" by budding entrepreneurs on Wednesday in Canberra. This is part of a program to educate university people in how to turn an idea into a product.

The first awards evening is upon us this week and we are in for a very exciting evening. The evening will commence at 6pm in the foyer and later in The Finkel Lecture Theatre of The John Curtin School of Medical Research this Wednesday 23rd April.

The first elevator pitch will commence at 6.30pm and the order of teams will be randomly chosen on the evening. Refreshments will be served all evening. Each elevator pitch will be followed by a short question and answer time. At the conclusion of all the pitches the judges will award the winners of both the elevator pitch and executive summaries with their awards.

Failure to submit an executive summary or elevator pitch may make participants ineligible for the major awards at the conclusion of the program. The following details were sent out last week and are included as a reminder of what is required this week.

* Please note the deadline of the executive summary submission is midday, Tuesday 22nd April, which is the day before the awards evening this week.

* If any more information is required please contact us, otherwise we look forward to seeing you all there.


Regards
The Innovation ANU Organisers


Next week will be the first round of judging and awards and will require teams to submit a two page executive summary and a 2 minute (maximum) elevator pitch. Details about both of these submissions are outlined below. Executive Summary submission will be by midday, Tuesday 22nd April (the day before the judging evening), to give the judges plenty of time to read the executive summaries. The elevator pitch will be conducted on the evening and the order of the teams will be selected randomly on the evening. Both the page and time limits are fixed and teams will be asked to strictly abide by these.

The elevator pitch is a two minute pitch to sell your vision/idea of a product, service or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride. The elevator pitch should be delivered without visual aids (pictures, powerpoint presentations, etc.) and within the required time limit, after which the team will be asked to stop immediately.

Investors will often judge the quality of an idea and team on the basis of the quality of a short pitch such as this as any weaknesses are often easily exposed in this process. An effective elevator pitch is designed to give the audience just enough information that they will have a sense of what you are talking about and want to know more. Second, and just as importantly, it is designed to not give the audience so much information so that they feel overwhelmed (and tune you out). There is an overview of the requirements for the elevator pitch on the resources page of the Innovation ANU Website (www.anu.edu.au/InnovationANU). There is also a good overview of an elevator pitch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc.

An executive summary is similar to a written version of the elevator pitch and outlines many of the relevant elements of your concept and idea and why it will be a success. This should be a two page document without images or other visual elements. There is an overview of the requirements for the executive summary on the resources page of the Innovation ANU Website (www.anu.edu.au/InnovationANU). The executive summary should be submitted in word (.doc) or pdf formats by midday, Tuesday 22nd April. Late submission will rule participants ineligible for this award.

Product and Market Definition for Innovation

Greetings from the Product and Market Definition seminar by John Hemphill from Pyksis. This is one of a series by ANU Innovation to encourage staff and students to innovate:

This seminar will focus on the difference between an idea and a product and going from an idea to the product. It will then focus on the right market to target, market segmentation and the right approach to market analysis and validation.

Last week's seminar was replaced by a "speed dating" event, where budding innovators presented their ideas and then invited others to join there team. This was entertaining, as well as informative.

As well as the educational content of these events, there is excellent catering from "The Vanilla Bean" cafe. One extra source of entertainment this week is that four people were working on the electronic information sign in the foyer, next to the Jackie Chan Research Center. The people had the front of the electronic sign open and were working on the display.

This week's seminar was a conventional format with slides and talk by John Hemphill. This went through the process of working out if an invention is a good idea: what problem does it solve? Who has done it before? Will people pay for it? My favourite comments from the evening, was a quote from motoring writer Jeremy Clarkson on the topic of Tata India buying Range Rover: "What would Ghandi say?".

Also mentioned:

• Presentation by John Hemphill

• Market size estimator by John Hemphill

• The InnovationXchange (IXC)
• Nine Sigma