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Winner of 2019 excellence in Innovation award - wyong

24/6/2019

regional innovator recognition

Laughing Mind been recognised in the 2019 annual business awards of Wyong Regional Chamber of Commerce, winning the "excellence in innovation" category for their focus on connecting regionally based individuals in fast paced, short format venture catalyst events.

Accepting the award as Founder for Laughing Mind, Brian Hill noted:

"We want to thank the hard work of our local chamber and recognise the excellence of all awards finalists.

Laughing Mind have been creating hands-on innovation experiences with a population health twist using a combination of IoT, Augmented Reality, Digital Health Wearables and physical activity. This stimulates curiosity in Making, PositiveComputing and Therapeutic applications of technology that enhance the spaces we live in.

We play an active role in fostering interest in regionally based entrepreneurship, running hackathons and venture catalyst events. This connects talent within regions and strengthens innovation capability, helping teams form quickly in time limited events and deliver on event challenges. We are honoured to accept this award in recognition of all the inspired work that our event participants showcase."

As a Finalist and Winner of the Innovation category in their local catchment, Laughing Mind now progresses to the regional and state awards of the NSW Business Chamber.

Their next series of innovation events are in planning stages at present, with announcements out soon. If you're interested in learning more or taking part, subscribe for further updates.

Want to learn more about what's happening with emerging innovations in our area? Check out our work at StartupCoast, where we profile the enabling elements of our local innovation ecosystem that can help get you started in bring your tech-enabled idea to life.

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innovation corridor - CentralCoast-LakeMac-Newcastle

5/5/2019

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As a digital services company that spends a fair bit of time spanning the peri-urban region north of Sydney, we regularly work with a broad range of companies and individuals within our local innovation ecosystem.

Since moving Laughing Mind from Canberra in 2012 to a new regional base, we've been involved in delivery of a range of venture catalyst events and have launched new companies for different sectors to pursue opportunities we think will create new value. It's been great to have a part to play in supporting and encouraging the growth of new ventures from our regional patch, whether it be from earliest stage ideas at our hackathons through to supporting scale-ups for Slingshot and NSW Govt as Entrepreneur in Residence.

As part of that effort, we've also been keeping a reasonably detailed mind-map based inventory of the different elements of the 3 ecosystems, which we're putting out in a more visible and interactive format so that new, current or prospective entrants to the startup scene can orient themselves to the broad range of things that are in play, or supports they might find useful.

Whilst there are bigger picture players like BlueChilli working to cover the larger ecosystems of Sydney and Melbourne through their StartRail maps (for which we pay due respect), or dedicated individuals like Chad Renando and his StartupStatus venture to cover the whole of Australia, our closest interests lie in the patches where we live, work and socialise.

As a contribution to the growth of our region, we offer an entrepreneurs based network view that spans the value chain of actors in our Central Coast - Lake Macquarie - Newcastle ecosystem. The map you'll see below is a work in progress, visible also at our Startup Coast page or in its largest format view. Feedback and contributions are always welcomed.

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SoNewy urban-iot-hack sees local talent shine bright

29/10/2018

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a Time to shine

Eighteen04 and the City of Newcastle worked with Laughing Mind to host #SoNewy - an #UrbanIOTHack from 25-27 October 2018, for teams to Connect, Build + Inspire. This tech-infused open hackathon event saw teams get hands on with emerging technology to create foundation elements for a vibrant, liveable city.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow, you Code.

Attendees gathered on Thursday evening in the Eighteen04 event space to connect over beer, pizza , listen to the event briefing and pitch the seed of their ideas, in the hope others would be inspired to join forces with them for the day and a half journey ahead. For the majority of attendees, this was their first time in a Hackathon, which was great to see, as we continue building on our Venture Catalyst event format.

Mission briefing

Pitch night saw 4 teams emerge, ready to tackle one of four event challenges:

1. Vibrant City: People don’t always know what’s on or where to go to make best use of the city - How can IoT help people assess the mood and pulse of the city to help them make decisions about what to do and where to go?
2. LuminoCity: Parts of the city are poorly lit, considered risky and are therefore underutilised, with a corresponding impact on night time economy and cultural life. How can IoT activations help bring more people into the city at night to help make it safer?
3. Circular City: The amounts of energy and effort that go into production are wasted in a throw away society. How can IoT help the war on waste and improve re-use of resources, or deliver greater efficiencies in their use?
4. Open Challenge: Our catch-all for other ideas and personal passion projects.

Teams hit the ground running from 8am Friday morning to start assembling the building blocks of their concepts, planning out the teams activities and collaborating in private team channels on Slack (we like to encourage our teams to be born digital). It meant we could invite our event mentors to monitor and engage with the teams as their ideas took shape, with remote support. Fuelled with healthy snacks from Lynchs Hub, our caffeinated crews hatched creative concepts that drew on local inspirations.

One team integrated the parallel #reclaimthenight activities to draw inspiration and make urban wayfinding easy, personal and ambient; another explored how to heatmap growing crowds where smaller festivals and events might be occurring; a small, diverse and deeply talented team grappled with safety dimensions of rock fishing.

The ripples of engagement spread well beyond the room as teams set out to validate their ideas, spurred on by our onsite mentors to test assumptions, prove the demand and assess the adequacy of existing problem|solution patterns.

Teams are in deep dive stage on problem definition, solution match phase of #SoNewy #UrbanIoTHack - focus helped by mentor input from freshly caffeinated @This_is_Dog & @BlueChilliGroup - @cherylgledhill #hackaus pic.twitter.com/u0Dz3Modnv
— Eighteen04 (@eighteen04) October 25, 2018

Encouraged by their discovery work, our diverse crews then set about the detailed build phase, mocking up concepts, registering domain names, 3D printing enclosures and bringing their teams up to speed on core IoT components that needed to be integrated. We watched over the course of Friday night as teams stayed connected, contributing and creating, reconvening on Saturday morning to support them through the final push to submission of their entries on DevPost by midday. Once done, with a celebratory WooHoo!, it was time to pause, eat and prepare for pitches to our guest judges from Anditi, Newcastle City Council, Spark Festival and Assemblient.

#sonewy teams sweating on final @devpost submission deadlines in #sonewy - We’re one of 4 #hackathons running this weekend for #sparkfest thx to @maxine Building about to fill with WooHoos as they hit milestone ahead of pitches, judging at 1pm pic.twitter.com/FgxRYWIb5N
— laughingmind (@laughingmind) October 27, 2018

With pitches completed, our inspired judges convened to sift through the rankings, emerging with a consensus for our winners to receive their recognition, in the following order:
First prize: Team Luna, with their ambient, personalised lighting solution, targeting private facilities, campuses and events;
Second Prize:NewyIoT, with a new gateway product perfect for community engagement and exploration of IoT as a grassroots product, creating edge to edge coverage across our cityscape;
Third prize: PeepScape, with their heat map for showcasing where crowds are gathering and exploring, delivering insight for urban place engagement and activation-as-a-service.

Want to dig deeper into their entries? Head to DevPost, where you can explore and engage with their ideas, give them a boost, or get involved with taking their concepts forward. Our top 2 winners will now benefit from Eighteen04 resident credits and their startup supports to progress and refine their concepts.

Our teams’s project (NewyIoT) was one of the winners at this years #SoNewy #UrbanIoT #Hackathon! A big thanks to @laughingmind, @eighteen04, volunteer mentors, helpers and participants for putting together a great gig! pic.twitter.com/D8afi1ltr1
— Core Electronics (@CoreElecAU) October 28, 2018

With the event taking place shortly after the release of Startup Muster, Australia's annual startup activity snapshot, where early stage activities were recognised as sorely needed, we're calling on the local community and beyond to engage with the teams concepts, reach out and help them make the event just the first stepping stone of a longer journey.

The 2018 results are out now from the largest and most comprehensive survey of the Aussie startup ecosystem!

AI is the new no1 leading industry
The number of overall startups is down
The number of women in startups is down#startupAUS #auspol https://t.co/mlstW7GaLn
— Startup Muster (@startupmuster) October 20, 2018

Completion of the event sees us bring to a close iteration 1 of our #SoNewy event model - with higher than usual barriers to entry, in a fast moving sector that requires a broad span of knowledge and a skilled team to deliver engaging concepts. We've been delighted to see the emerging feedback, and will be working closely with local stakeholders for what comes next.

UrbanIoT Hackathon was an opportunity to connect with local thought leaders across a wide range of technologies and services. The event was the perfect mix of startup culture and fostered the ingrediants for meaningful innovation. I'll be back, for sure.

It's tough to get a handle on what new technologies might mean, or how you might network with people who can teach you things, or where to go to get to play with these technologies. This kind of event is essential to force yourself to upskill a little, to focus directly on applications rather than just talk, and to just to get you to jump in to explore what is possible in this space. It's a lot of fun and terrific to be part of an event where everyone is working towards shared goals - it's definitely competitive but you're working with other people who also care about what might evolve in this space.

IoT was a great topic to explore for me to learn more about the opportunities that it presents cities. Loved the diversity in the team gals/guys/techs/creatives. If you're seeking rapid immersion in an industry area/challenge, while practicing the art of letting go - to see what emerges (getting creative)- then get yourself along to a Hackathon! Great way to futureproof your skills!

This hackathon was part of a collaborative startup engagement project between the City of Newcastle and Eighteen04. The project received grant funding from the Australian Government under its Smart Cities Smart Suburbs program, with event delivery managed as a collaboration with Laughing Mind.

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winning newiawards 2018 joe award

1/10/2018

notes from a digital joe

Loved sitting down to watch the 2018 NewiAwards last week via their excellent live cast, thanks to the hard work of the crew behind The Lunaticks Society and event sponsors. It's been a whirlwind since being announced as the 2018 Joe Award winner, followed by a time of reflection and gratitude, on how tech can connect and create community, in memory of https://twitter.com/joegrgas

My enduring ask is that people take an interest in the range of #startups in #NewcastleNSW and our region, think what you can do to provide the lift they need - a boost on social media; words of encouragement; intros to an enabler or potential customer; a chore done that might have been overlooked; accomodate kids in a meeting if they're short on care; compassion if they try and fall, for they will try again. I know there are moments where I or my teams have fallen short by being spread too thin and trying to move too far, too fast - what matters is what comes next in recovering from that overreach.

If they're strung out from striving, encourage a walking meeting somewhere restorative (we really are spoilt for choice here), encourage #mindfulness - it's the spirit of the #entrepreneur to try, to persist, to explore.

View this post on Instagram

Great to spend time exploring @thisisnotart #zinefest and soak up some Newy as I ponder whatâ€™s next for #newydex Took time to #rememberjoe - and think how we create a visible, digital pulse of #NewcastleNSW places for the world to see, embrace and understand why we #lovenewy The #newiawards are a great pulse quickener, but thereâ€™s more to do. Starting with #urbaniothack #sonewy

A post shared by Brian Hill (@alaughingmind) on Sep 30, 2018 at 5:17pm PDT

There are some wonderful things being worked on above and below the visible surface in the Hunter, LakeMac and CentralCoast, tackling problems large and small, in a place that is ideal and open for experimentation, for all kinds of talents and ages - good results demand diversity. Dig deeper into their WHY and share their stories beyond our beautiful city, in person and on digital channels. We might not have the scale of Atlassian emerging from our local ecosystem yet, but there are some great and brilliant things emerging for our regions.

Be the wind beneath their wings.

For more on how, take a read of #startupville by @bradfeld / @kauffmanfdn #lovenewy #bekind #becurious #newiawards #newydex

If you don't know where to begin looking locally, start with some reading about the teams that have taken part in the Slingshot Accelerator ICON Program, head along/tune into the StartupStories hosted by University of Newcastles Integrated Innovation Network, or come and start your own journey at one of our venture catalyst events. Take the time to stay up to date with the evolving technologies that underpin our connected world, promote the patterns that unite us, question those that diminish us.

The NewiAwards are a wonderful regional celebration of the digital talent and startups embedded in the NewcastleNSW community and nearby regions. The Awards are a really important element of storytelling of local innovation and growth, helping others to see that local digital entrepreneurship is alive, vibrant and engaged with global audience needs, business opportunities. There's a lot going on in our own backyard - take the time to see their hard work revealed in the 2018 NewiAwards LiveCast.

DeepFake impacts on trust and regulation in conversational AI

4/5/2018

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It's no secret that we're fascinated by the work behind Nadia, a conversational avatar developed for NDIS that leverages the voice of Cate Blanchett for an appealing conversational interface. It's been a novel AU-NZ collaboration between Soul Machines, FaceMe and the NDIS. As a carer of people in my life dealing with disability, a health professional, and human factors guy working in software innovation, applied AI in healthcare, it's important to dig a bit deeper than routinely accepting AI with a human face as 'innovation'. It's a space that merits serious due diligence and hard questions.

In an age where DeepFakes are becoming increasingly hard to distinguish from reality, what impacts does that have on trust, ethics and interface innovations? Should we be treating a digital-human AI as a conversationally equivalent adult language interaction, or instead overlay a Childs voice to better reflect the linguistic maturity of the AI engines that sit beneath the surface? How do we help our audiences discern between illusion and reality, within a carefully considered interaction design? What are the cybersecurity implications of malicious actors on robust design?

There's some great work being done by lauded institutions such as the Alan Turing Institute on the ethical implications of AI and the problems it's going to pose for effective regulatory oversight to protect consumers. The positioning of critique and regulation of AI as a domestic political and economic issue ignores the global availability and addressable market mindset of the vendors behind the engineering though.

We're busily exploring the relevance of interaction innovations such as chatbots and "digital humans" as a way of supporting a variety of health sector problem sets, since technology such as this helps achieve scale in service delivery, but really value the tough questions that are being posed in an age of increasingly blurred realities. In the long run, it will lead to better design and guide the innovators journeys of what's viable, ethical and trustworthy.

Image from CSIRO DeepFakes blog article:

Longer reads

Are our online lives about to become private again? http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43659260

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/ai-committee/news-parliament-2017/ai-report-published/

https://www.turing.ac.uk/media/news/turing-response-house-lords-ai-report/

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603895/customer-service-chatbots-are-about-to-become-frighteningly-realistic

check out my opinion piece @TheEconomist on the role of ethics and law in a data driven society, and why ethics alone is not always good enough https://t.co/zuOVo1xEy3 @turinginst @oiioxford @UniofOxford
— Sandra Wachter (@SandraWachter5) May 1, 2018

Here it is! Our report on ‘Ethical, Social, and Political Challenges of #AI in Health’, supported by @wellcometrust. Thrilled to contribute to such an exciting and challenging field. #AIethics #AI4Health https://t.co/Xw6GYj9y39 pic.twitter.com/7ruKpPWFXu
— Future Advocacy (@FutureAdvocacy) April 30, 2018

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Cleanm8 makes top 10 finalist list for 2018 regionalaus brightideas challenge

2/4/2018

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We've been working away quietly in the background on this when spare moments present themselves, with collaborators at The Glen Centre and Valley Medical, look forward to talking more about it soon. News item originally posted at https://www.cleanm8.com/brightidea2018.html

Laughing Mind are pleased to have their CleanM8 concept selected as a Top10 finalist in the Regional Australia Institutes "Bright Ideas" competition for 2018. This support has substantial importance, as it will benefit Rural and Remote Australia where access to AOD (alcohol and other drug) treatment and recovery services can be difficult, making it harder for people to quickly start a supported recovery journey. In towns where people know each other well, having the anonymity of a supportive online treatment pathway can be a helpful thing for taking those first recovery steps safely and with reduced risk of stigma.

The smart digital tools we're building are designed to provide prompt assistance from that first "motivated moment" where someone decides they need and want to take a different path back to health. The value of this is far reaching, as these services have a strong evidence based association for helping with the burdens of family breakdown, mental illness and suicide risk in these communities. The innovation and commercialisation pathway we're taking has good export potential as well, since it can be attuned to serve other cultures and communities in need.

Whilst the team is based in the Hunter and Central Coast, its origins lay in our founders lived experience of remote locations, regional towns and healthcare consulting, motivated by the impacts of AOD issues on those populations. Conceived as a social impact venture of Laughing Mind, a Digital Health product development company, Brian Hill (Founder, Occupational Therapist) said: “For those wrestling with substance use issues in areas where they have limited access to services, better help is sorely needed. We want to help turn lives around - fast, adaptive and personalised digital platforms can help build and support behavioral insight for recovering individuals and their support networks. Our Apps and digital interventions are based on evidence based neuroscience and behavioural support methods proven to work in other clinical and community settings, but we're designing them now for scale and ease of access by consumers, clinicians and carers. However, being a therapeutically focussed platform, it requires extra levels of care in its design than a standard 'wellness app', with Software as a Medical Device design rigour needed and the support to overcome those hurdles. We're delighted to be selected as a Top10 Finalist and congratulate other regional entrants who've also made the finalist list.”

Laughing Mind has established formal collaborations in the sector, including University of Newcastle's Centre for Brain and Mental Health Priority Research Centre, GPs from Valley Medical and The Glen Centre in Chittaway Bay, NSW, and smaller collaborations with lived experience advocates. We're also working with emerging clinicians who represent the next wave of technology-integrated professionals.

We're in co-design stages at the moment, integrating the lived experiences of recovery journeys, perspectives and lessons from Consumers, Carers and Clinicians. For collaborators in regional, rural and remote areas, we want to connect, listen and learn, which you can do by expressing interest to participate and help make a difference.

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health apps - guidance tools for robust design

6/2/2018

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When we recently asked "who tames a global healthbot", we touched on the iceberg of Software as a Medical Device and the need to balance effective regulation with commercial imperatives like the rate of capital burn for startups looking to bring a new product to market. Since we're also on a product development journey for CleanM8 - a clinical toolkit for supporting recovery journeys - we're going to take a moment to share some effective tools that help shape your design and compliance focus.

We reference these in our work delivering events like HackingHealthTech and startup acceleration programs with Slingshot, but share them to help grow local capability for DigitalHealth innovation and export market potential.

Staying local - Australian guidance
http://accan.org.au/files/Grants/PeaceofMind/index.html is a guidance tool developed in 2017 by University of Sydney researchers to help understand privacy, security, consumer protection, financial and therapeutic goods compliance. It's a simple, fast and effective tool for working out your minimum regulatory obligations.

Looking to the USA - FTC coverage
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/mobile-health-apps-interactive-tool is a useful tool published in April 2016 for navigating the more complex US healthcare environment, HIPAA, data breach obligations but would benefit from updated guidance about the impacts of imminent EU GPDR obligations that start in May 2018 (see www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018)

Design for Transparency and IP Defence
We're seeing some really good thinking coming out of the Turing Institute in the UK, touching on why algorithm driven interventions need capacity for forensic oversight + audit, whilst also being mindful of the need to protect IP rights of the algorithm developers. Highly recommend following their work.

Interesting @WiredUK article by @turinginst Fellow Prof. Jon Crowcroft on how differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, and #GDPR could help #consumers wrestle back control of their personal information https://t.co/sYMFuqgh70
— The Turing (@turinginst) February 5, 2018

Check out my new paper w/@b_mittelstadt and Chris Russell on how to offer 'counterfactual explanations' for AI based decisions without opening the black box and to create explainable and accountable AI https://t.co/VzDHihL6Cn @oiioxford @turinginst @oxfordethicslab #aiethics
— Sandra Wachter (@SandraWachter5) January 8, 2018

See @turinginst Fellow @tforcworc's article on #GDPR and the use of differential privacy, homomorphic encryption and 'edge cloud' approaches to ensure companies use citizens' data in a privacy-preserving way https://t.co/gGQIUSvRzj
— Helena Quinn (@h_s_quinn) February 5, 2018

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hunting the coworking sweetspot

25/1/2018

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(Originally posted in 2015, we've recently updated our recommended resources list for 2018).

As a small business owner, freelancer and coworking advocate, I've enjoyed watching the emergence of a bigger range of options here in the Hunter and Central Coast regions of NSW, with a nod to those who've helped to set up the pattern in other cities, or who are tracking the change in facility focus with new ways of working.

The Hunter and Central Coast have some great options for visitors to the region, or for freelancers who need to get out and connect with others, seeking serendipitous collisions and encounters that can create new business opportunities, or to expand your network of trusted associates. Whilst we do that in part with our DigitalMakers Meetup, others have set out to create compelling new workspaces that are worth a closer look.

Whilst they might not yet appear on coworking facility listings like desks near.me or TheLoop just yet, they do still exist, with some great design thinking emerging which shows they get what it's about, with some sophisticated regional influences evident. What's nice is that these also reflect entrepreneur driven spaces, rather than larger facility manager centric spaces. Here's the list of who's active in this space in the Hunter + Central Coast at the moment:
Hunter

www.innx.com.au (CoWorking Space)
www.theroostcreative.com.au (CoWorking Space)
www.slingshotters.com (Startup Accelerator)
The Business Centre (Regional business support - Newcastle + Central Coast)
www.theproductionhub.com.au (CoWorking Space)
Eighteen04 (CleanTech focussed Incubator/CoWorking Space)
Three76Hub (UoN Incubator + CoWorking Space)
Dantia Smart Hub (DaSH) (CoWorking Space - Charlestown)

Central Coast

www.nexushub.com.au at North Wyong
Gosford Smart Work Hub at Gosford
SparkCC Makerspace at West Gosford

Whilst doing some recent work in this space, there's a clear continuum evident in the collaboration and facility design patterns. At one end of the scale are the entrepreneur driven spaces, small but engaging and personal - at the other end are the larger facility managers, seeking tenant occupancy and infill to boost their space utilisation and revenues. Importantly, both have their place, but the motivations differ, which we described in http://www.laughingmind.com/blog/smartworkhubs-and-coworking-spaces-similar-but-different. For both, they're clearly engaging with the concept of the workspace as a honeypot, drawing in talent and seeking to keep it there, engaged, present and productive. It's an important part of creating and catalysing entrepreneurial spirit.

For more on why that matters, you might like to check out http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/News-and-events/News/News-archives/2014/UK-firms-embrace-remote-working-to-stay-competitive-/

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Who tames a global HealthBot?

13/11/2017

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It's Friday night. I know I should be doing something other than reading the Medical Technology Association of Australia's 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, but I'm on a mission. With Digital Therapeutics as an emerging field of clinical support and digital product innovation, according to the AMA, I'm wondering where we'll find the Lion Tamers needed to help guide the rise of the machines and build the checks and balances, auditability of our most complex emerging tech, presenting as AI or conversational interfaces and leveraging massive realms of data to nuance its intervention algorithms. Regulation rarely precedes innovation, as it's a reflexive beast, but it needs a pretty close coupling.

I'm fresh off the back of a capital raising workshop by a rising star in radiotherapeutics and had wondered how they are navigating the sticky, messy spiders web of un-harmonised regulatory frameworks across the EU, US, UK and AU markets. All of which are serious compliance mapping exercises confronting a HealthTech or LifeSciences startup. Also a great spot to burn seed or Series A funding, fast. Naturally, it took me, first of all, to the Therapeutic Goods of Australia website, where I skimmed briefly through their Lifecycle approach to Regulation, published in 2011. Not a mention of digital platforms like Apps, or their more pervasive and complex AI cousins. Similarly scant mention in the MTAA Strategic Plan, but at least some placeholders of intent, by my interpretation (Australia, we've got some catching up to do). The FDA are, at least, wrestling with the definitional and regulatory questions of where to apply the right level of scrutiny. But it's a messy space to navigate.

One of my sideline interests is the work being done by TheHealthHorizon team in Canberra, Australia as they map the inbound HealthTech innovations that will influence the way we seek, receive and integrate healthcare in our lives. Another cap I wear is as a HealthTech Hackathon host and advocate, nurturing new ideas and building connectivity in our local regional digital talent pool, seeing clinicians grapple with real world problems and trying to bridge it quickly in a fast prototyping event. For some of them, they may go onto more formal incubation or acceleration pathways, but it's one filled with plenty of compliance hurdles if they cross over into the curious hell of Software as a Medical Device. Honestly, I can see why ventures take the simpler path and go for lowest risk profile "health coaching" apps. It's low hanging fruit, but has a trade-off of shallow IP moats, easily knocked off and forked into a variant.

Locally, there are signs of early seeds and saplings, but lots of soil needs tilling. The Health Informatics Society of Australias new Certified Health Informatician credentialformalises a certain kind of Lion Tamer pathway. However, we're facing Hydras here, with complex solution architectures and plenty of recursive feedback loops as we try and get our heads around how we deliver, track and iterate on behavioural change interventions, delivered in the form of a pleasing conversational interface. Naturally, I'm following the Human Behaviour Change Project with a high level of interest, but you can pretty quickly see why it's hard for clinicians to integrate a fast moving technology.
So, I remain curious. If you're a Hydra wrestler, or designing a personalised support system that's aiming for global traction, yet fits into the Software as a Medical Device morass, I'm wondering how you balance your speed to MVP + market investor imperatives against building in the checks and balances your customers expect. It's an open question for a complex innovation space. Our early career innovators are going to need some pretty good Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs to navigate the space though.

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Accessible Cities accelerator making a difference for travellers with inclusive design

29/9/2017

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The #AccessibleCities program we've been delivering with Slingshot Accelerator for Innovation NSW was revealed to a key audience last night at Telstra Customer Insights centre in Sydney. The following four teams presented the results of their 10 weeks of focussed effort:

TripGo - already established, this team were our scale-up as we worked together to develop next-level capability for a global player. Recently rated by Gartner as "Cool Vendor" (in the #MobilityAsAService sector), they walked the audience through their Trip Planner changes for wheelchair users. They have made journey planning and in-journey awareness of obstacles much easier - showing which stations are wheelchair accessible, re-routing when lifts are detected as out of service, modelling gradients and terrain steepness. Through the Accelerator, they generously shared lessons learnt in their international growth journey with early-stage teams, the challenges of supporting global operations and key tips for App positioning.

LendAHand by FutureGov - the Australian team revealed their micro-volunteering platform, designed to match willing commuters with other travellers to address the challenges of using public transport. Their approach makes it easier for Corporate Social Responsibility teams to pair up with Disability Support organisations and provide travel companionship in pre-planned journeys. Their discovery process revealed the impact of emotional elements of journeys as core barriers to public transport - fear, uncertainty, confidence - the team did a great job in communicating these experiences and designing a solution that builds independence through targeted alliances.

SwiftFare - frustrated by the impact of an antiquated paper docket system for users of the Taxi Transport Subsidy Scheme (TTSS) , this tech-savvy team of 2 fast-tracked a solution that fixes a bunch of problems. Travellers in the scheme now have a digital alternative, transforming the travel experience for passengers, drivers and scheme administrators. Travellers with disability, currently forced to use a paper docket system which requires handwritten form completion (imagine doing that if you have poor hand function) are now able to use a smartphone app that lets them book + pay conveniently, with banking grade audit trails and robust fraud-prevention patterns built in.

OrienTrip by AutismCRC - This App represents two years of PhD level research by their concept lead, Mortaza Rezae, into the mobility challenges faced by people on the Autism spectrum. Recognising the distress and anxiety created by transport, this team built on top of an existing trip planning platform to offer a solution that supports pre-trip planning, in-journey updates and self-soothing tips for moments when plans go awry. Whilst designed initially for users on the Autism spectrum, their design patterns and user experience design have a high level of relevance for a much larger audience of travellers on public transport. Mortaza also recently won the Australian round of 2017 Falling Walls Challenge with his focus on the transport challenges of people on the Autism spectrum, so is shortly off to Berlin to pitch their concept in a global challenge.

@Falling_Walls Oz winner @CurtinUni Mortaza Rezae is working 2 improve the lives of people with #autism includ. his lil bro @ScienceChiefAu pic.twitter.com/2mvlzgydaA
— Aust Academy Science (@Science_Academy) September 12, 2017

Each of the cohort now enter into formal pilot project and capital raising stages. Please take the time to engage with their work, understand and communicate the value of their platforms to friend, family, clinicians and consumers. They're designed to make a real difference.

The 10 Week Accelerator experience saw our Founder, Brian Hill, draw on years of blended experience in Digital Strategy, rapid prototyping/hackathon event delivery and clinical practice as an Occupational Therapist. In wrapping up the program, he noted:

It's been a real privilege to be asked by Slingshot to run this program as Entrepreneur in Residence - the process of working with each of the teams and their stakeholders has consistently been about delivering technology solutions that have therapeutic impact and commercial viability. I've been focussed on ensuring teams are joining head, heart and hands as they explore the challenges faced by people with a disability in daily travel experiences. We're all delighted by how far they've come, the level of commitment and quality they've shown and how well their efforts were received on DemoDay at Telstra's Customer Insights centre. It's been great to be part of the effort by NSW Government's Innovation team to make it easier for startups to get support and traction with real customers facing very real problems.

It's been great working with Brian Hill from @Slingshotters over the past 10 weeks #AccessibleCities pic.twitter.com/3pBhYknJKJ
— Isabella Wallington (@bellewallington) September 28, 2017