Techfugees Sydney Meetup Hosted by Atlassian

Techfugees Australia is proud to announce the next Techfugees Meetup in Sydney hosted by Atlassian. Techfugees was founded in 2015 to bring the tech start-up and NGO communities together with refugees settling into a new life in Australia. Our community of 'Hackers, Hipsters, Hustlers and Humanitarians' has grown beyond the first event to further Hackathons and Meetups in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide with our national community launching numerous refugee businesses and social ventures. These meetups between Hackathons help us to maintain connections and welcome new friends into the Techfugees community.  For our second Sydney meetup, we are excited to have as our guest of honour Nahji Chu, former refugee, entrepreneur, restauranteur, and the Founder, former CEO and Creative Director of misschu. Following the talk and fireside chat with Nahji, our great friend Dor Akech Achiek from Settlement Services International will give a short briefing on the next Techfugees hackathon site at Fairfield. We will finish the formal part of the evening with a pitch session with refugee-led businesses and ideas. The evening will conclude with have an opportunity to network with start-up mentors and food catered by Parliament on King, a social enterprise which offers authentic food cooked by refugees in Newtown. We are so grateful that the event will be hosted by Atlassian one of Australia’s most innovative companies both in the tech sphere and in the world of corporate philanthropy. Back when Atlassian was a small company, the founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes made a commitment to divert 1% of equity, 1% of product, 1% of profit, and 1% of employee time to charitable causes–a corporate philanthropy model pioneered by Salesforce. As the company has grown, they have maintained the "Pledge 1%" model with significant financial resources allocated. Importantly, Atlassians are encouraged to use 5 days per year for the good of the community. AGENDA FOR THE EVENING 5:30 – Registration 6:00 – Welcome from Techfugees and Atlassian 6:10 – Talk/Fireside Chat: Nahji Chu, Entrepreneur 6:30 – Fairfield Briefing: Dor Akech Achiek, Settlement Services International 6:45 – Pitch Session: four businesses or startup ideas, then feedback from the Panel 7:30 – Followed by food with the Techfugee Community networking with mentors Talk and Fireside Chat We are honoured to have as our guest speaker Nahji Chu: entrepreneur, restauranteur, art collector and activist. Born in Luang Prabang, Laos in 1970, Nahji and her family escaped the Pathet Laos Regime in 1975. Inhabiting various Thai refugee camps over a four year period, the Chu family eventually became one of the first Vietnamese / Laotian refugee families to settle in Australia. Nahji Chu is a recognized social commentator on refugee rights, a collector and commissioner of contemporary Australian visual art and a sought after public speaker. But it is her work in hospitality that is the focus of Nahji’s efforts to reshape Australian perceptions of Chinese and Vietnamese culture to be more than just dumplings, spring rolls and Phở. For Nahji hospitality is a platform for discussing what kind of society we want to live in. The spatial design, the service and the menus Nahji creates are an expression of her desire for people to have enjoyable conversations about how to make our cities more open, inclusive and beautiful. Briefing on Fairfield Fairfield will be the site of our next Hackathon in October. It is one of the most multicultural diverse cities in Australia; more than half the residents were born overseas and over 70 per cent speak a language other than English at home and it also has a long tradition of refugee settlement. Our long-term partner from Settlement Services International Dor Akech Achiek will give a brief profile of the refugee arrivals we will be working alongside in October and issues they face. It’s an incredibly diverse mix of people with some interesting differences from our previous Hackathons. Mini Pitch Session Teams will pitch to our experienced Panel of Startup Founders, Investors and Mentors. The purpose of this session is to get quality feedback from our panel which will help move your idea or business forward. IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA YOU WANT TO PITCH FOR A BUSINESS OR SOCIAL VENTURE, PLEASE CONTACT US AT techfugeesaustralia@gmail.com Panel Peter Huynh: Partner at Qualgro, Startmate Investor and Mentor  Jessica Glenn: Chief Technology Officer, skilld_team and meet_tamme Anthony Farah: CEO, Vivant, Director Code Club Australia, Serial Angel Investor Sally-Ann Williams: Engineering Community & Outreach Manager for Google Australia, Director Fishburners Anu Bharadwaj: Co-Host and Head of Product Management at Atlassian, Director Atlassian Foundation Food and networking with the Experienced Mentors and Advisors After the formal event closes, we will have an opportunity for to catch up and network with mentors and advisors who support refugee business and social ventures. NUMBERS ARE LIMITED SO PLEASE SIGN UP TODAY! HOST SUPPORTERS Tripadvisor Catalsyr: Refugee and Migrant Entrepreneurship Settlement Services International Fishburners Awesome Foundation Sydney Refugee Talent / Migrant Talent Thrive Parliament on King Chief Disrupter We can't wait to see you all again on 30 August! Regards Annie, Anne-Marie and Nicole