Innovation is not just about Silicon Valley, big cities, startups and technology - a presentation on fostering your own community of innovation. Keynote presentation from Regional Futures Conference, Rockhampton, 23 June 2016.

1. Beyond Silicon Valley
Developing communities of innovation
Colin Graham, Causeway Innovation
23 June 2016
@CausewayInno

2. Innovation: lots of talk …
Silicon Valley, Bay Area London
New York Tel Aviv

4. Source: PwC, Expanding Australia’s
economy through digital innovation,
April 2014
Note: Currency USD, calculations
reflect currency fluctuations
Australia vs. USA VC Spend: 2001 - 13
$4.5b
$18b
$285b
Actual
AUS
spend
US VC
spend
Equivalent
US per
capita
spend
Australians bet more on
Melbourne Cup in a day than
entire VC investment in a year
Startupsmart, 8 May 2015
@CausewayInno

5. ‘Hundreds of regions all
over the world collectively
spent tens of billions of
dollars trying to build their
versions of Silicon Valley. I
don’t know of a single
success.’
@CausewayInno
Vivek Wadhwa
US Tech Entrepreneur, Adjunct Professor,
Duke University and Fellow at Stanford
University

6. Context for Innovation
Density
@CausewayInno

7. @CausewayInno

8. @CausewayInno

9. Thin economic base:
low business &
population density
Difficult to attract
talent: smaller
labour pool
Limited availability
of finance
Distance to markets,
professional service
firms, unis etc.
Isolated from peers
ICT issues – mobile
& broadband
@CausewayInno
Example: Wide Bay Burnett ROC

10. Example business

11. Growing businesses & jobs
Grow
Startups
Established
businesses with
potential
Attract
businesses
All three are important
@CausewayInno

12. Startups
@CausewayInno

13. @CausewayInno

14. Example: Startup support, create your own density
Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast
• CREATE DENSITY
• Flexible office space & fast fibre
• 143 startups
• 91% remain in business today
• 720 FTE jobs
• $103m annual output
• $32m seed investment
• 350+ student work places / projects
• 6,000+ people attend events
Source: AEC Group 2016

15. @CausewayInno

16. A quick reality check
It’s all about twentysomethings
NO: Average age of successful founder is 40;
Kauffman Foundation, 2014
All start ups think big
NO: Most are not innovative, create few jobs,
necessity rather than opportunity; Scott Shane,
Illusions of Entrepreneurship, 2008
It’s all about coding and technology
NO: High growth firms equally represented in
high tech’ and ‘low tech’; NESTA, The Vital 6%,
Oct 2009
@CausewayInno

17. Scaleups
@CausewayInno

18. The Vital
6%
• Just 6% of high growth cos
generated half of the UK's
employment growth
between 2002 and 2008
• These businesses can be
found across all sectors,
and they span established
firms and start-ups, small
businesses and large
organisations.
@CausewayInno

19. Example region business
base (S. Burnett)
1%
Large,
over 200
2%
Medium, 20 to
199 staff
10%
Small, 5 -19 staff
27%
Micro, 1 to 4 staff
61%
Non employing
Estimate based on 3,207
businesses and national
patterns (ABS, 2014)
1,956
866
64
32
321
@CausewayInno

20. Innovation ecosystem
Startups
Scaleups
Large
established
cos
Places &
Spaces
Events
Education
& Research
Funding
Service
Providers
Mentors
Govern-
ment
@CausewayInno

21. Example: Savannah’s Startup Ecosystem, www.hiimcaleb.me/savannahs-startup-ecosystem
@CausewayInno

22. Conclusions
1. There’s only one Silicon Valley, what are you going to be?
2. Beyond simple ‘startups’ - question assumptions: young,
tech, types of innovation, VC backed?
3. Scaleups and the Vital 6%
4. Your region – identifying and supporting
5. Help owner managers with growth ambitions, education
opportunities
7. Build the ecosystem: link talent, mentors, professional
service firms, capital
8. Create your own density
@CausewayInno

23. THANKSColin Graham
causewayinnovation.com
@CausewayInno