Helen is the founder of Spare Harvest, an enterprise that uses technology to grow local sustainable communities. After experiencing a glut of mandarins which she dug into the ground, Helen was motivated to find a way to share them with her wider community. Spare Harvest harnesses the power of the circular and sharing economies to build connected eco-systems where food and garden resources are used and not wasted.

Amanda Appel is the co-founder of multiple businesses, ranging from skincare brand, BLOC, to venue, The Bower Estate. After a varied career in non-profit, consulting and in-house roles across marketing and PR disciplines, Amanda found her skillset more suited to creating new projects.

Multi-dimensional defines my academic career as an Assistant Professor and discipline lead for Interactive Media and Design in the Faculty of Society and Design at Bond University. James coordinates the Mixed Reality Research Lab (www.mixedrealityresearch.com) at Bond University. His experience in higher education and the wider community has formed around twenty years of industry and academic experience in emerging technology, teaching and learning.

At just five years old Zarraffa’s Coffee Managing Director and Founder, Kenton Campbell, exhibited an entrepreneurial spirit, starting up a bottle collection agency collecting all the bottles in his neighbourhood to redeem for coins at his local Safeway in his home town of Eugene, Oregon in the USA.

Rob Garwood is the Director and Creative Director at FIRME Agency. Born in Brisbane and currently residing in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast; Firme is an award—winning independent multidisciplinary advertising agency and production studio, disrupting the traditional way of thinking, connected by design, creatively led and culturally aware.

Criena Gehrke is Chief Executive Officer of HOTA, Home of the Arts. She has a diverse and eclectic background in arts management and a particular passion for the role of arts and culture in building strong and connected communities. She’s worked with all tiers of government on the development and implementation of cultural policy.

Leanne Kemp is Founder and CEO of Everledger and Queensland’s third Chief Entrepreneur. She is a highly regarded leader in many fields including technology and insurance, and well-known for her innovations using Blockchain technology to track high-value assets such as diamonds, art and wine. Leanne works on a global scale to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation and is an advocate of sustainability in business.

Clark Kirby is the Chief Executive Officer of Village Roadshow. Prior to his appointment to this position in January 2020, Clark was the Chief Operating Officer at Village Roadshow for seven years.

Sue is an experienced finance, accounting and corporate compliance professional with proven capabilities financial & strategic management, financial and operating systems, corporate actions (including mergers & acquisitions), treasury management, governance & risk management.

Scott MacKintosh became interested in scooters through a family friend and decided to set up Scooter Hut in late 2008, in a small warehouse in Burleigh Heads. Over the past nine years, Scooter Hut has grown from a small one-person business into the world’s largest freestyle scooter retailer.

Airlie has been in management leadership roles in the private, public, philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors for over 25 years. Across her career she has worked for some well-known Australian organisations including Clayton Utz, Minter Ellison, Outward Bound Australia, the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Kowalski Recruitment.

Michael is the Founder of Kynd, a Gold Coast startup that is reimagining the ‘care’ industry. Kynd empowers people of all-ages and all-abilities to choose and use the right carer, based on unique needs. It introduces a high-value, low cost model with locals caring for locals, using mobile apps.

David is a values first technology leader. He loves music production and DJing, with a particular fondness for minimal d&b, minimal techno, dubtechno and future garage. He likes riding bikes, camping and playing competitive video games.

Jack was born and raised on the Gold Coast where he attended Somerset College. In 2005 he graduated from Bond University with a Bachelor of Business Law. Following graduation from university, Jack worked as Development Manager for the publicly listed Consolidated Properties Group and Trinity Funds Management Group in a role which included the construction management and leasing of several Coles and Woolworths anchored shopping centres.

Don is the founder and CEO of Synengco, a well-respected, agile engineering firm based in Brisbane that focuses on adding value to asset industries by enabling them to increase production output with additional regard to environmental sustainability and real time assessment of their operational and potential risk.

Sally’s background is in Education and Social Action. She has also worked as a business owner and itinerant speaker in the realms of female empowerment, modern slavery, business innovation and education. After launching and successfully running a number of smaller scale anti-slavery initiatives in the UK she welcomed the opportunity to work with Outland Denim in its earliest stages to now heading advocacy and alliances.

Baden is a passionate educator, an engaging speaker, and is a champion of innovation in both start-ups and existing firms. He has a keen insight into the enablers of innovation and how they can be deployed in organisations. As the Head of Entrepreneurship at Bond University, Baden oversees the design, delivery, and assurance of learning for the Entrepreneurship subjects in the Bond Business School.

Risa is passionate about inspiring students to reach their potential by introducing them to the world of entrepreneurship. She visits high schools to support students in engaging in the design thinking process, and to learn about ideation, prototyping and pitching.

Rosa Willis is an entrepreneur, a teacher and an expert in startup marketing. With a background in tech startups, Rosa was a founding member and leader of Hometime, an Airbnb management business. Applying her e-commerce knowledge to lead generation, Rosa was able to increase Hometime's revenue by 750 per cent in under 18 months.

Gold Coast Entrepreneur and Somerset Alumni, Megan Ziems, grew up surrounded by the finest fabrics and designs in her mother’s production factory. Megan was involved in ethical manufacturing from a young age, and this has remained extremely important to her. In 2010 she started the brand, Grace Loves Lace, after her own wedding experience left her disillusioned with the structured and traditional wedding 'uniform' that the market was saturated with at the time.