Melbourne-Bandung Innovation Series

Connect, innovate, and thrive!

Following these times of unprecedented disruption, the need to innovate and adapt has become even more critical. While the COVID-19 pandemic has closed borders and kept us physically apart, it has also highlighted the many shared challenges we face across countries and emphasised that, now more than ever, we need to look for opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other.

Melbourne and Bandung are both fortunate to be home to leading universities and established ecosystems of innovators and entrepreneurs which strengthen our ability to innovate and rapidly respond and change.

This year, we’ve joined forces with The City of Melbourne and The Greater Hub at the School of Business & Management, Institute of Technology Bandung (Indonesia) to deliver this four-part interactive virtual series addressing some of Melbourne and Bandung’s Shared City Challenges.

We’ll hear from trailblazing entrepreneurs from each city who will share their innovation stories.

Receive email updates for the Innovation Series

You’re Invited! Get involved in the Innovation Series.

Attend the interactive webinar sessions happening throughout the year and compete in the Pitch Competition to win from a prize pool of cash and exciting perks to help you bring your idea to the next level.

The sessions will give attendees a unique opportunity to hear how leaders and innovators from Melbourne and Bandung have tackled Shared City Challenges, ask them questions, and explore different approaches and key lessons learned through innovation.

SPARK Deakin would like to thank our collaborators within Deakin who provided support for this project: the Deakin Indonesia Office, Deakin International, Prof. Alexander Newman, Prof. Steven Gardner, and Dr. Monika Winarnita, Indonesian Studies at Deakin.

Shared City Challenges

Be sure to mark these dates in your calendar!

Session 1 | 30 March | Inclusive entrepreneurship

How might we better address the entrepreneurship challenges faced by underrepresented groups through innovative solutions that minimise barriers and increase access to opportunities?
More info

Session 2 | 28 April | Resilience Innovations [MKW 2021]

How might we use innovative solutions to reduce the environmental impact on our cities and better prepare and adapt our cities to be resilient to natural disasters and climate change?
(This session will be a part of Melbourne Knowledge Week)
More info

Session 3 | 7 July | Creative approaches to tourism

How might we use creative and innovative solutions to reimagine tourism/visitor experiences to reach new audiences and revitalise the tourism industry post-COVID?
More info Register via Eventbrite

Session 4  | 4 August | Public health innovation

How might we use innovative solutions to address public health challenges above and beyond COVID-19 by utilising approaches that were unearthed during the pandemic and can be applied ongoing into the future?
More info Register via Eventbrite

Pitch Competition Dates

4 August – Pitch Competition applications open 
1 September – Pitch Competition applications closes
Week of 11 October – Pitch Showcase event

Meet some of the speakers from the Innovation Series

Annisa Wibi

Co-Founder and COO, MYCL | Mycotech Lab

Aun Ngo

Community Lead at StartSpace, State Library Victoria

Bedi Othow

Co-Founder of DivTal

Jeanette Cheah

CEO & Founder of The Hacker Exchange

Yulian W. Widodo

Founder & CEO of Khaira Energy

Maree Grenfell

Manager City Resilience and Sustainable Futures, City of Melbourne

Dr Adam Bumpus

CEO & Co-Founder of RedGrid; Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne

Athalia Mutiara Laksmi

CEO and Co-Founder of Hear Me

Timothy Kallady

Founder of Piccard.ai

Dr. Dina Dellyana

Director, Business Incubator & Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Technology Management Research Group

Muhammad Ghufron Mustaqim

Co-founder of Evermos

Vanessa Letizia

Executive Director at Greeneration Foundation

More speakers to be announced soon

The Pitch Competition

The pitch competition will be open for applications at the end of the fourth and final session on 4th August 2021.

Participants will have the option to enter one of two streams

Ideas stream – open to those with a solution that is an idea/early concept or with a prototype that has been developed.
Startup stream – open to those with an existing solution that is available for purchase or an iteration/new application of an existing product.

Participants must demonstrate the merit of their proposal against the competition evaluation criteria.

Competition Eligibility Criteria

To enter the competition you must:

Be resident in either Melbourne or Bandung (or if you are submitting as a team, at least one member of your team must be resident in either Melbourne or Bandung).
Be aged 18 years or over
Have attended at least two of the four sessions in the Melbourne-Bandung Innovation Series
Propose a solution that addresses one of the four themes/challenge statements of the Melbourne-Bandung Series sessions.
Consider and address how your solution could be applied or be adapted to apply to both Melbourne and Bandung (or more broadly in Australia and Indonesia)
Not be a member of the Judging Panel, nor an employee of City of Melbourne, SPARK Deakin, Greater Hub/ITB or anyone otherwise connected with organising or judging the Competition.

Competition Timeline

Activity	Date
Competition applications open	4 August
Competition applications close	1 September
Pitch Showcase event	Week of 11th October

Prize pool

Both solution streams have a number of great prizes on offer tailored to that development stage. Winners will have access to cash, support services, international mentoring opportunities and more to help take your concept global.