Origin Stories: Where the most creative & innovative ideas began
CoLo invites you to join us for a panel discussion with some of Melbourne’s most creative and innovative entrepreneurs. Hear stories, learnings and advice about where the most creative ideas came from. We’re excited to be joined by George Hedon, Brad Krasukopf, Christine Donaldson, Taylor Tran & Conrad Tracey.
George Hedon - PauseFest
George Hedon is the founder and creative director of Australasia's premier creative, tech and business festival Pause. His expertise in design, advertising, media, music, curation and events lead him to create award-winning campaigns and experiences.
Under his creative leadership, Pause festival has attracted major brands, startups, agencies, corporates, government departments and hosted over 500 international and local speakers supporting the growth of Australian born businesses and enterprises. George's interests are in empowering creators and creating meaningful experiences.
George is also a regular speaker at meetups and global industry events such as SXSW, Sector 3.0, Pause, General Assembly, Melbourne International Film Festival, Billy Blue College, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology.
Brad Krasukopf - Hub Australia
Australian entrepreneur and workplace innovator, Brad Krauskopf, is considered a national authority on the latest workplace trend that is set to stay: “Liberated Work”.
Brad is passionate about creating creative and collaborative workplaces, noting the key benefits as optimising productivity, reducing city congestion, improving work-life balance, boosting productivity and fostering a sense of community.
Hub Australia is Australia’s largest co-working community and works with organisations to drive innovation through collaboration across all sectors. The successful subsidiaries of this advanced company, Hub Melbourne, Hub Sydney and Hub Adelaide, are now visited by hundreds of people every week. Meanwhile, CoActiv8 works with corporate and government clients across Australia to manage and operate collaborative and flexible workspaces.
With more than 17 years’ industry experience which includes global expertise gained in Madrid and Boston, Brad has firmly established his position as a driving force within the business community and is renowned for paving the way for a ‘new look’ Australian workforce.
In 2013, Brad was named Australia’s Small Business Ambassador, and the accolades and recognition have continued to flow. Hub Australia was recently voted a winner in Australia’s Cool Company Awards and was also named by Fast Company as one of the top ten SME brands to watch.
Brad has a very clear vision, to create spaces that enable entrepreneurs and businesses to connect, grow and ultimately do what they love.
Christine Donaldson - Bridge Street Collective
The Bridge Street Collective is an award-winning co-working space in Central Nelson. Established in 2011, the Collective was the first of its kind in Nelson—and remains the only co-working space in the city. Winner of the 2012 Emerging Business Award.
Taylor Tran - Innovation Melbourne
Taylor Tran is an author, strategist and tech and community founder with 20 years global experience in technology and services. He is also a thought-leader and speaker within the coworking industry. Taylor teaches at RMIT University and Mentors startups with the Founder Institute of Silicon Valley and several start-ups, including blockchain, robots, environmental, big data and services start-ups.
Taylor is passionate about building entrepreneurship ecosystems and designing pathways for connecting to start-ups, coworking spaces and accelerators. Following his recent book, INNOVATION MELBOURNE and upcoming book INNOVATION COWORKING, Taylor has played a major role in advising government on building smart city and startup strategies and is currently involved in a number of key ecosystem initiatives. This includes travels abroad to research best practices and running tech hackathons to activate innovation and collaborations.
Conrad Tracey - Inspire9
Conrad’s personable, dedicated and friendly approach has seen him become a thought leader in the startup, music and local community.
As the COO for Inspire9, Melbourne’s original community-led coworking space for startups, freelancers and creative entrepreneurs, Conrad is leading Inspire9’s reputation as an authority on the future of work discussion, as well as expanding from their original location in Richmond to a second iconic location- The Dream Factory in Footscray.
With a community of social enterprises, creative technologists and specialists in emerging technologies and new business making up the Inspire9 fabric, Conrad is enabling Melbourne’s startup community to build businesses that people love and connect with.
Conrad is a passionate entrepreneur with a deep interest in problem solving, leadership, community and helping people prosper.
Please feel free to submit your questions for the panel by tweeting us @mycololife using the hashtag #coloconvos!