The Entrepreneurial Research Organisation KCA Annual Conference and Research Commercialisation Awards 2O17 Wharewaka Conference Centre 7-8 September 2017
Program Culture, infrastructure and corresponding support elements are all important ingredients in the creation and development of an entrepreneurial environment within a research organisation. Technology and knowledge commercialisation practitioners are key figures in influencing and facilitating the current shift towards a holistic approach to entrepreneurship, and cultivating a culture within their organisation that encourages innovation. Practitioners are playing a pivotal role, driving specific programs and initiatives designed to provide a range of support to entrepreneurs of all types when and as they need it. They are championing, mentoring and incubating internal entrepreneurs, facilitating collaboration with business, and connecting existing ingredients within their local innovation ecosystem to construct an environment conducive to new business creation and the implementation of innovative ideas and technologies. The 2017 KCA Annual Conference notes all this activity, and will showcase some of the fantastic initiatives that are happening in Australasian tech transfer to aid in this shift towards an entrepreneurial research organisation. Topics covered include nurturing and supporting entrepreneurial academics, funding models & sources, industry outreach, networking, case studies and interns. There will also be a meeting for heads of offices.
Pre-Conference - Wednesday 6 September 9.00am - 5.00pm 6.00pm KCA Business Development Course (separate fee) KCA & KiwiNet Member Price: AUD$440 Non-Member Price: AUD$660 NZ Science Entrepreneurship Policy Debate at Back Benches (places are strictly limited) Day 1 - Thursday 7 September 9.00am - 9.15am 9.15am - 10.15am 10.15am - 10.45am 10.45am - 11.30am 11.30am - 12.30pm 12.30pm - 1.30pm 1.30pm - 1.50pm 1.50pm - 2.45pm 2.45pm - 3.00pm 3.00pm - 3.15pm 3.15pm - 5.00pm 3.15pm - 4.15pm 4.15pm - 5.00pm 5.00pm 6.30pm - 10.30pm Welcome Address Keynote Address: Creating an Innovative Culture within the Research Organisation: Managing the Shift Towards an Entrepreneurial Environment Morning Break Sparking Entrepreneurial Academics Funding Models to Nurture & Spur Entrepreneurial Academics Lunch Getting the most out of your networking efforts Inter-Cultural Collaborations: Exploring Indigenous Business Engagement 2017 KCA Awards Finalists Pitch Afternoon Break Director s Forum (parallel session) Strategies for more effective knowledge transfer Industry Outreach KCA AGM KCA Awards Dinner Day 2 - Friday 8 September 9.00am - 10.00am TBC 10.00am - 10.30am Morning Break 10.30am - 11.15am Delivering an entrepreneurial ecosystem 11.15am - 12.00pm How to manage a successful internship program 12.00pm - 12.30pm Lunch 12.30pm - 1.30pm Hindsight is always 20:20 1.30pm Conference Close Conference Pricing KCA & KiwiNet Member Price: AUD$990 Non-Member Price: AUD$1430 admin@kca.asn.au www.kca.asn.au 2
Topics - Day 1 Keynote: Creating an Innovative Culture within the Research Organisation: Managing the Shift Towards an Entrepreneurial Environment Gus Balbontin has worked closely with some of the biggest companies in the world, developing cutting edge technology and products including Google X, Nokia, Apple, Amazon and more. He helped reinvent a 500-year-old model of book publishing for modern times at the world-famous Lonely Planet, and now this serial start-up mogul is lending a hand to create a new vision for the very old business of tertiary education as a university-based entrepreneur in residence at Victoria University, Australia. At the KCA Annual Conference 2017, he will share the learnings from his experience, offering insights into the transformation, struggles and successes of one of the most loved brands in the world, and how this can be applied in a PRFO context. Sparking Entrepreneurial Academics Raising awareness of the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset and activity amongst academic staff is part and parcel of the role of technology and knowledge exchange practitioners. The ability to identify and nurture an entrepreneurial spirit in willing academics not only aids in achieving individual KPIs, but with the right support and profile, can also be part of sparking the cultural change required to spur on greater commercial activity. In this session we will hear from two well respected researchers who had their entrepreneurial fire lit early, and not so early. They will describe their individual journeys, what sparked their entrepreneurial spirit, what factors within their environment nurtured that spirit, and what it was that helped them to achieve success. They will provide practitioners with insights as to what was key to encourage them to take this path, the benefits they saw despite all their competing academic pressures, and what more can be done to create a more conducive environment that motivates and inspires others to pursue commercial endeavours. Funding Models to Nurture and Spur Entrepreneurial Academics Funding is an entrepreneurial support element that technology and knowledge exchange practitioners are intimately familiar with. Accessing funds for projects, designing revenue share split models, and managing and implementing institutional policy are all part of the challenge of many projects. Thankfully there are more funds being created to support academic tech transfer, and encourage entrepreneurial researchers to commercialise their discoveries. New strategies are also being trialled which challenge traditional revenue share models, aimed at establishing greater understanding amongst institutional academics regarding the challenges incurred in taking a research outcome to market. This session will provide an overview of the support and initiatives being championed through the New Zealand Commercialisation Partner Network (CPN) to strengthen entrepreneurship and grow commercialisation.
Getting the most out of your networking efforts Facilitating academic research commercialisation is a people sport galvanised by personal relationships. More often than not, it is our relationships derived from our networking efforts which get our deals across the line, making networking some of the most important activity many of us undertake in our professional roles. Networking and the development of good contacts can generate a variety of opportunities, and while it s important to always take advantage of opportunities to expand your network of contacts, it s equally important to nurture the relationships you have. Quite often, it s not about who you know, but rather who knows you, and who wants to do business with you. This concise session will be a quick health check to ensure we are all making the most of our networking efforts, and cover off a few handy tips to maximise the results from our investment. Inter-cultural Collaborations Maori businesses contribute approximately $26.6 billion to the New Zealand economy. Collectively they are eager to embrace innovation to support their vision of long term guardianship of the people and environment. Effective engagement is the key to wider acceptance and investment. This session will highlight the burgeoning strength and appetite of the Maori economy for innovation and commercial opportunities, and provide an overview of the engagement opportunities available to the research community in Australia and New Zealand, noting engagement practices from a NZ cultural perspective. We will hear from three interlinked perspectives; University and MBIE drivers including Vision Mätauranga- the transfer of knowledge, local iwi perspectives focusing on new endeavours through startups and innovative collaborations, and iwi board level innovations that support change looking towards prosperity for future generations. Strategies for more effective knowledge transfer A collaborative hackathon style session to workshop four key issues facing technology and knowledge transfer / exchange practitioners. Attendees will apply critical thinking to areas around Professionalisation / Skills, Government Relations, Managing & Raising Capital and Creating Entrepreneurial Environments, aided and facilitated by experts to help aggregate responses generated in group discussion. KCA hopes to create working groups post conference to further the ideas developed within this session. Industry Outreach Knowledge commercialisation and technology transfer are reliant on strong engagement with local and international businesses. Initiatives that highlight the capability and facilitate opportunities are necessary. In this session we feature three examples in NZ s innovation ecosystem targeting enhanced industry engagement aiming to encourage commercial outcomes. Mathematics for Industry NZ, is a showcase week where businesses set challenges for the applied maths, stats and engineering academics and students. Callaghan Innovation has set up a competition to engage R&D focus in an area NZ technology capability could lead globally, and the NZ government is taking an innovative approach to attract large technology businesses to New Zealand to provide closer connections and opportunities to our R&D community. admin@kca.asn.au www.kca.asn.au 4
Topics - Day 2 Delivering an entrepreneurial ecosystem Creating a sustainable entrepreneurial culture within a research environment takes time, and requires encouragement, support and focus. Strong progress has been made at local NZ universities to create an environment for young entrepreneurs that is conducive to new idea creation, and that provides much needed ongoing support. This session will explore the inner workings of two tech incubators within the NZ ecosystem that are providing the due diligence and dedicated guidance needed to support innovative ideas and technologies coming out of publicly funded research organisations. How to manage a successful internship program We all know the benefits to be had from having a fabulous internship program. A fresh perspective on the business, strategies, and plans, access to a market that is social media savvy, a test-run for entry-level hires, an extra set of hands and mentorship opportunities which help to build strong morale and create more leaders within the business. We also know that businesses only benefit from an internship program if it s a priority for the business, it s well structured, and provides students with the supervision they need to be successful. But what does it take to mobilise an army of interns and ensure the internship program returns value to all parties involved? Auckland UniServices has been running a successful internship program from some time now, and will share their insights around how they ve structured their intern program using the KCA Framework, and how they have maximised interns as a resource. Hindsight is always 20:20 Technology commercialisation is a hard road to tread at the best of times. For those that are successful, and those that fail, there are many useful lessons that are learned along the way. This candid session will bring together a selection of success case studies, but framed in a way to understand the challenges that were faced along the way, how these were overcome and key take-homes for those that follow.
KCA Development Course When: Where: Wednesday 6 September, 9-5pm AJ Park, Level 22, State Insurance Tower, 1 Willis Street, Wellington KCA will be running a brand new one-day Business Development Course alongside the KCA Annual Conference on Wednesday 6 September 2017 in Wellington. Facilitating academic research translation is a people sport galvanised by personal relationships. More often than not, it is our relationships which get our deals across the line, making BD some of the most important activity many practitioners undertake. This course is being designed and written with TT/KT practitioners in mind, and will be run by highly experienced industry business development professionals to offer insights around engagement with established companies. The course will cover off both proactive and reactive BD strategies to ensure that you are getting the greatest return from your BD activities and efforts. A flavour of what will be covered off includes: Collaboration building across the ANZ research translation community Identifying multiple engagement opportunities with clients it s more than fee for service discussions Understanding and leveraging what your organisation does best Smarter prospecting and avoiding cold calls developing existing and broader organisation clients, using networks, leveraging warm referrals and maximising conference preparation Pre-client meeting preparation articulating a valid business reason and crafting compelling value propositions for different buying influences Market segmentation, differentiation, positioning and market validation workshops Opportunity pipeline management Course Coordinator Ian Storrie Ian is an independent consultant specializing in sales best practice, large account management and conceptual selling, having trained and coached 800+ sales executives, senior staff and engineers/researchers across ANZ, India, South Africa, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Ian has worked as a senior business development, client alliance and strategic marketing professional at organisations including General Electric, Siemens and CSIRO across technology, research and engineering driven market segments including education, mining & manufacturing, power, food & beverage, petrochemical & refining, healthcare & pharma and primary industries as well as working with State and Federal government agencies throughout ANZ, South Africa, India, South America, Asia & North America for the past 20 years. admin@kca.asn.au www.kca.asn.au 6