Come and join us for engaging conversation about what corporates should consider when trying to engage with a startup ecosystem and why Australia is a perfect ecosystem for European corporates to practice some of these strategies.

Innovation has now become more of a buzzword rather than an outcome resulting from analysis, systems, discipline and hard work. Experts call on big companies to become more entrepreneurial and engage with or act like startups. Nevertheless, there are no quick fixes or shortcuts. Founding a startup is not just about ‘natural creativity’ or ‘risk taking’ – it is hard, disciplined work and practice. Accelerators and incubators around the globe are using the lean launchpad methodology to assist entrepreneurs from customer discovery and defining their value proposition to preparing their pitch (among other things). However, many concepts still remain brilliant ideas but do not proceed from the source of opportunity to a commercial product.

Having worked with accelerators, startups, venture capital firms and corporates around the world, Dr Martin Schlegel will share some of the latest thinking from the various clusters of innovation around the world.

With more than 20 years’ experience in the sports and recreation, construction and plastics specialty chemicals industry in the areas of product development, process engineering and R&D commercialisation across Asia, Europe and the USA, Martin spends his time on novel concepts that will stretch the boundaries of current thinking and practice. He engages internationally with startup organisations, SMEs and subsidiaries of multinationals to identify growth opportunities, develop business model strategies and commercialise R&D in global markets. Martin is an advisor, board member and director.