Events!!!

Posted On July 4, 2019

Events!!!

TLDR: Attended a bunch of workshops. Pitching next week.

A bunch of things happened after I wrote my last blog. I went surfing and camping with UNSW WSSC club. Then one of the event organisers invited me to Rock and Swing dance class at the Roundhouse at UNSW. So that was something new and interesting.

But I won’t go on about that now. I’ll be talking about some events that I attended because I am working on a startup (hey did I tell you about that?). So here we go…

1) VC Pitch night at Fishburners

This one event was at Fishburners, which is a startup space in Sydney. The VCs (Venture Capitalists) from companies like Right-Click Capital, Reinventure, Telstra Ventures, Blackbird, etc. were given 3 minutes to pitch.

They talked about their company, success stories of the start-ups that they backed, what sectors they’re into, and so on. It was an interesting night because even though our startup is not at a stage to look for investors, I got to learn a lot from the VCs’ presentation styles. I also learnt about what they look for when they are interviewing startups.

Turns out that many of them looked for some sort of connection, how enthusiastic the person is. Getting to know the people working at the start-up is an important process.

Fishburners is a pretty cool place for startups. They have regular events and the people are very friendly. Plus there’s beer and pizza. Maybe someday I’ll have my startup there!

2) WIT+IBM Watson workshop

Women in Technology (WIT) is a club at UNSW that has tech-based events and encourages the participation of women. The events are open to all (as far as I know). This was their first event that I attended.

David Provest from IBM was kind enough to introduce us to Watson and helped us set up a chatbot using Watson AI (am I saying that right?). He also recommended online Design Thinking courses by IBM.

I see our startup using Watson for chat functionality as it allows for some nice user experience. I will try exploring it further in the near future to see how it could be used in our context.

I also learnt about IBM iX Studios. Being a global organisation, it would be interesting to see how they function. So I am keen to have some experience there.

3) Leading through Chaos

Academy Xi had an event about Leadership yesterday. Considering that our startup is in its early stages, I thought this might be a good event to attend.

The talk was about good leadership and it touched on topics like Relationship Intelligence, Self Leadership, and Mindsets. 

One of the speakers stressed that leadership is about showing respect, building trust, and providing safety for all.

I met a few people at the event. One of them happens to be working on his 7th company! That was pretty inspiring!

Some other things

Next week, I’ll be attending a talk on ‘Changing Minds’ by Prof. Richard Buckland. His previous talk at UNSW Chancellery was quite inspiring. I am also eager to network with other great minds at the event.
Also next week, we shall be pitching at UNSW Art and Design Campus! The winning team would get $1000 and 6 weeks of tech and design support! Considering the stage we’re at, we really need this! I’m optimistic about the event and looking forward to presenting our idea along with my co-founders.
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I am thinking that instead of writing about a bunch of events in one article, maybe I should talk about them as they happen. That way I get to write more and be more regular. What do you think?

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