July 20, 2015

Demo Day to showcase Illawarra innovators

The latest innovations and ideas to come out of the Illawarra will be showcased at the inaugural iAccelerate Demo Day on 21 July.

Demo Day, hosted by University of Wollongong (UOW) business incubator iAccelerate, offers a platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to grow to put their ideas in front of the community and investors.
iAccelerate CEO Dr Elizabeth Eastland said events such as Demo Day help form business ecosystems that drive jobs growth in the region.

“This is an opportune time for the Illawarra to diversify its economic base through fast growth small businesses and startups,” she said. “Often people think of startups as a couple of computer programmers in their garage writing code.

“At iAccelerate we have a great number of startups founded by people who have worked in the region, have run their own businesses and have seen an opportunity to take a product or idea and grow it.

“Others stem from university researchers who want to develop the ideas that started in the labs at UOW. The Illawarra is full of small business owners and business leaders who have the ability to support the next generation, particularly the talented and hungry students coming out of the university.

“Demo Day is an opportunity to bring all these people together and collaboratively contribute to economic diversity of the region.”

The day will also feature breakout sessions and a panel discussion to learn more about the funding landscape and other challenges facing the small business and startup sector.

iAccelerate has created 71 new jobs in the past two years and is well on the way to meeting its goal of 500 jobs in the next five years.

Startups showcasing their ideas on the day will include:

Aquilae - aquilae.com.au
Aquilae is a technology consulting company working to help early childhood education centres, educators and parents navigate the technology options for preschool-aged children.

Progenia - progenia.com.au
Progenia offers beautiful, sustainable and affordable homes. They handle every component of the project, from sustainable building design, energy and water modeling, life-cycle analysis, structural engineering, documentation, project and construction management.

Stretch & Glow - stretchandglow.com.au
Stretch & Glow offers online prenatal yoga classes for busy mums-to-be and beyond in the comfort of their own home. The online offering helps women take time out for themselves when they are juggling life’s responsibilities.

For more information visit the iAccelerate Demo Day website.