Our next Ideas2Market workshops are:

24-25 June Brisbane    

For information on Ideas2Market events scheduled in your area please visit our events calendar here.

Have a question? Email us at ideas2market@ausicom.com and we will try to answer it for you within two working days

Ken Anderson, inventor of the No1. Aussie Hangout, came up with the idea when he was setting up for a party at his house.  Ken wanted a fuss-free urinal trough for the males coming to the party and after exhausting the names of hire businesses in his local phonebook and getting responses such as “there’s nothing like that, anywhere” and “you’d be better off making your own,” he decided to do just that.

After nearly two years of progressing with his idea Ken attended a local Ideas2Market workshop, where he learned a number of valuable lessons and met a range of industry contacts including Mentoring for Growth, who offered further advice.  Ken said his only regret was not having attended the workshop 12 months earlier.

“Ideas2Market was just what I needed; if I’d attended sooner it really would have saved me a lot of time and money.  It did give me a clearer direction for where I had to go in the future,” Ken said.

“I had already progressed down the path and made some simple mistakes that were expensive to correct.”

Over the past 12 months Ken has put those lessons to work and has been utilising the networks he established from his 20 years’ of experience within the mining industry.  He has developed working business relationships with several high profile mining companies including Rio Tinto, BHP and Xstrata. 

Ken is speaking at the upcoming Ideas2Market workshop in Townsville from 20-21 May. To read the full case study, click here.

With more than 23 percent of Australia’s population heading towards retirement, the provision of adequate residential and aged care facilities is fast becoming an issue.

Past Ideas2Market participant Wim van den Herik saw an opportunity to put his architectural experience to the test to tackle this growing concern.

Ageing in Place co-founder Wim said the Ideas2Market workshop provided him with the reinforcement, clarity and direction needed to help progress his business venture.

“Ideas2Market gave us greater focus in translating our ideas into marketable products and we attended just at the right time,” Mr van den Herik said.

To find out more about the success of Wim’s company Ageing in Place, click here

The Ideas2Market “Consider” workshop was recently delivered on the Sunshine Coast to an eager group of entrepreneurs and innovators.  Chris Dixon, Director of Six Degrees Creative, very kindly donated his time and presented to the group about his experiences as an entrepreneur and starting a successful small business.

Based on the Sunshine Coast, Six Degrees Creative provides advertising, branding and design services for a wide range of media including print, press, radio, television and the web.  Six Degrees was founded by three like-minded partners – two designers and a writer and has come a long way from its humble beginnings in Chris’s spare bedroom.
One of Chris’s first challenges within the business was stepping away from his passion as a designer and assuming the role of director of sales.  For a business to be successful when it is starting out it is essential that there is someone who can get the business name out and into the market, promote the products or services and sell, sell, sell!  If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, then you need to find a business partner that is.  Although Chris misses working as a designer, he understood the importance of this step and now enjoys applying his talents to developing creative and innovative business strategies to take his company to the next level.

Chris attributed much of the company’s sales success to the power of networking.  “Although we are an advertising company, we don’t actually run ads” admitted Chris during his presentation.  By attending lots of networking events and building strong relationships, Six Degrees have grown and now have more than 50 percent of their client base outside of the Sunshine Coast, including a number of international clients.

For more information on Six Degrees Creative please visit www.sixdegreescreative.com

To find out about the upcoming Ideas2Market events please visit www.ideas2market.com.au

The Australian Institute for Commercialisation (AIC), in partnership with Anthill magazine, is seeking interesting case studies to publish in a book on the commercial development of Australian ideas. Share your experiences and help other Australian companies turn their ideas into successful commercial ventures.

For more information contact ideas2market@ausicom.com