February 17th marks the first Bizruption for the new decade, and it was certainly an evening to remember. Bizruption Sydney at The Star welcomed over 200 entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors and guest speakers to connect through discussions on innovation.
It was also a memorable evening for us at Netstripes as we unveiled our new branding and a new, exciting bootcamp designed for business reinvention.
But, the excitement doesn’t stop here! Keep reading to check out the highlights of Bizruption Sydney.
As always, the event started with our fabulous MC, Ms Sonia Wray welcoming guests to Bizruption and getting everyone pumped up and enthusiastic with her amazing energy. She made sure everyone shook off their Monday blues and was focused on the great presenters and invaluable stories being shared.
Kicking things off with Pitchfest
The Pitchfest challenge was a great way to kick off the evening and get the room buzzing. Business owners were separated into small groups and challenged to do a quick 30-second business pitch to their peers. Not only was it a fun and adrenaline-rush activity, but really a chance for them to practice, practice and practice.
Indeed, the finalists did an incredible job, some so convincing it had the room intrigued and ready to visit and support their businesses. Hopefully, finalists’ pitches have inspired others to work on and improve their business pitch.
Discussions on technological innovation in 2020
Our first guest speaker for the evening was Christina Gerakiteys – Co-CEO of SingularityU Australia. Christina spoke about the influence of exponential technologies like artificial intelligence and digital biology, and how businesses can benefit from innovative thinking to improve not just the way we do business, but humanity as a whole. Some interesting food for thought!
Next up was Alexandra Sloane, Head of Marketing at Facebook for ANZ, who spoke on the critical role social media plays in breaking down communication barriers and helping to share new ideas and businesses with more people around the world.
She also touched on the importance of accessibility to digital tools and the positive impact that it can have when used to create meaningful change to communities, especially to those affected by bushfires.
It was an honour to have our guest speakers attend Bizruption, and both Christina and Alexandra shared lots of great advice with the audience during a panel discussion and subsequent networking session.
Introducing the new Netstripes!
Bizruption Sydney set the stage for the launch of our new brand identity. Netstripes Founder Dinesh De Silva spoke about the dawn of a new decade, and how it was time for SMEs to assess their goals and think about how they can do things differently to keep up with the changes in digital innovation.
Dinesh revealing the new Netstripes branding
At Netstripes, we practice what we preach, which is why we completely reinvented and repositioned ourselves in the new decade by changing our brand identity and the services we’ll be offering in the New Year and beyond.
We changed the way we do things so that our core vision and what we really stand for is clear – to empower small and medium businesses to innovative and grow their business.
In addition to our new branding, we also reinvented our services and introduced our new 3-day power-packed bootcamp ‘futurise’.
“We looked at reinventing our business because we practice what we preach. So we wanted to create something that the small and medium businesses whom we serve can come and learn how to reinvent their business. However, instead of taking months or years doing it the hard way through trial and error, they can do it through immersive learning in a transformational way in just 3 days.” Said Dinesh.
Designed exclusively for small and medium business owners, futurise covers 14 modules, each created to impart business owners with the knowledge they need to enhance their business.
To learn more about futurise, click here.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing guest speakers for joining us at Bizruption. It was our greatest pleasure to have them at our event, yet alone address the small business community.
Also extending our thanks to our fabulous sponsor The Star Sydney for providing us with a great venue for Bizruption. Special thanks to Alison Smith – Group Executive of External Affairs and Jon Stewart – Head of External Affairs at The Star for their support. Thank you to our inspirational MC Sonia Wray for hosting the night and giving our guests the best Bizruption show possible.
And of course, not forgetting all the business owners who made the time to come and attend our event. Thank you for attending and helping us spread the awareness on the urgency of digital disruption and business innovation. We hope Bizruption has inspired everyone for even greater success and connected like-minded entrepreneurs together in our business community.
For more information on how Netstripes can help your business become digitally engaged in the New Year, check out our Innovation Suite package or book a free consultation with our digital specialists.
To view more photos, check out our Facebook page and don’t forget to like and follow us!
The NetStripes Team.
If you’re interested in participating as a sponsor or would like to feature your business at our next Bizruption – email us on bc@netstripes.com or call us on 1300 10 8880
