Event description

"Making Your Story Stick: Getting Supported and Funded as a Clinical Innovator" is a 2-half-day workshop, and a hands-on format where participants will develop their elevator pitch and generate a communication strategy for their innovation.

Are you a health innovator with a brilliant idea, but struggle to find the right words, the right audience, or the right funding? Wondering what the tips and pitfalls are in telling your story?

Join us on a 2-half-day workshop, facilitated by David Leahy, WE Communications, joined by healthtech founders, investors and communication strategists to tell you exactly what they want to hear from your clinical innovation.

Your groundbreaking innovation deserves to make an impact. This intensive, 2-half-day hands-on workshop is designed to transform the way you talk about your work, ensuring your story is clear, compelling, and sticky enough to secure support and funding.

You won't just learn theory; you will actively develop your own polished elevator pitch and create an actionable communication strategy that works across clinical, academic, and commercial settings - and importantly get feedback from investors, coaches and successful founders who have been through it.

This is the essential next step for any health professionals, medical researchers, healthcare entrepreneurs, and more looking to move their idea from the bench or bedside into the world.

By the end of this Masterclass, participants will:

Develop a clear and compelling message about their innovation, tailored to different audiences.
Understand the difference between academic, clinical, and commercial communication styles, and when to use each.
Craft an effective elevator pitch or funding summary
Build confidence in public speaking and presenting to diverse stakeholders
Learn proven techniques for targeting stakeholders.
Leverage social media professionally, using platforms to increase visibility and credibility as a clinical innovator.
Know when and how to communicate innovation progress, while protecting sensitive information or pending IP.

Day 1 includes (from 1 pm-5 pm):

Business communication & articulating your value workshop + hands-on activities

Panel discussion on "Making your Story Stick: Getting Supported and Funded as a Clinical Innovator".

Day 2 includes (from 1 pm-5 pm):

Elevator Pitch Development & Delivery Workshop + activities

Reverse pitch with investors.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is essential for:

Health professionals developing new devices, diagnostics, or services.
Medical researchers are looking to commercialise their findings.
Healthcare entrepreneurs seeking investment or institutional support.
Any professional working on a healthcare innovation who needs to improve their communication and pitch skills.

This Masterclass will be facilitated by David Leahy, WE Communications,

About the Facilitator:

David Leahy, WE Communications,
General Manager, Acting Head Of Health, We. Australia.

David has worked on clients such as J&J, GSK and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is currently responsible for driving new business proposals and pitches across We.’s four practice areas, alongside leading the health team.

About the Guest Speakers:

Theresa Lim,
Head of Product of Play2Lead & inTruth

Theresa Lim is a 3x founder and executive coach with 30 years’ experience across startups, corporates, and scaleups in healthtech, AI, and product innovation. She has coached founders since 2018, helping them navigate uncertainty, build critical thinking skills, and lead diverse, high-performing teams. As founder of multiple award-winning startup Play2Lead, a gamified behaviour change platform + coaching/consultancy, Theresa brings deep expertise in product-market fit, UX design, and early-stage ideation—helping founders translate user insights into scalable, compliant solutions. She is especially passionate about responsible AI and building products that create lasting human impact.

Jeff Reid,
General Partner, Bioshore

Jeff Reid is an experienced medical technology professional with a demonstrated history of developing and commercialising products across a broad range of therapeutic and diagnostic fields. Working at the intersection of MedTech research and engineering, clinical trials, capital raising and efficient commercialisation strategy with a particular focus on bringing cutting-edge Australian technologies to the global market.

Katherine Robinson,
Globcal CEO, Miroma Project Factory

Katherine Robinson is an experienced digital strategist and Global CEO of Miroma Project Factory, where she leads innovation strategy across health, government, and enterprise sectors. With a focus on digital commercialisation and partnership development, Kat helps early-stage health tech ventures bridge the gap between promising ideas and scalable, fundable digital solutions.

She’s known for building smart delivery roadmaps, forming impactful partnerships, and guiding spinouts through funding, procurement, and adoption pathways.

Noam Pilpel,
Venture Lead, University of Sydney

Noam is a biotech professional with over 20 years of scientific and executive experience, in academic and commercial settings. Bridging the gap between the world of science and the commercial arena, She is an expert in commercialising innovative and excellent science, leading the strategic, development, and operational activities in C-level positions. Successfully raising funding from international VCs in the US and Israel, she is currently the lead of the new Venture Investments Team, overseeing the emergence of new spinout companies developing novel technologies in the Biomed field, invented by the top researchers of the University of Sydney.

Robert McInnes,
Principal, Rob McInnes IP Advisory Pty Ltd

Rob is a specialist in the structuring and negotiation of patent licences and contracts for the commercialisation of technologies. Recognised as an 'IP Star' by Managing Intellectual Property, Rob was ranked as Australia's highest recommended IP licensing lawyer through the 2010s, advising founders of, and investors in, technology ventures. I'm one of the few Australian lawyers to have met Certified Licensing Professional requirements.

Rob is also an Investor as part of the Sydney Angels.

Harikesh Pushpapathan,
General Partner (Stoic Venture Capital)

General partner of Stoic VC, an early-stage venture fund solving our world’s most intractable problems by a) Redesigning human health, b) supercharging compute, c) rebalancing the earth in partnership with Uniseed – a commercialisation body managing 65% of Australia's R&D output. Harikesh currently sits on a few committees, including Uniseed, Antler and the NSW government’s Biosciences fund. Before this, Harikesh spent a few years investing personally, at other funds, fundraising for startups and building his own telehealth business.

Please note this event will be at 5 Fleet Street, North Parramatta.

🚌 Public Transport? Hop on the free Parra CBD shuttle bus and get off at the Leagues Club stop—we’re just a 5-minute walk away!
🚊 Light Rail? Ride the brand-new Parramatta Light Rail and hop off at Ngara—it’s that easy.

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Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights from industry experts and network with fellow health tech innovators.

Cicada Innovations is proud to be collaborating with the Westmead Health & Innovation District, Australia’s fastest-growing health and innovation precinct, for this commercialisation masterclass series. These masterclasses are to help bridge the gap between research and commercialisation.

Find out more about the Cicada HealthTech Hub

The Cicada HealthTech Hub is proudly supported by NSW Government and is part of the Westmead’s Health & Innovation District. The district includes 4 major hospitals, 4 world-leading medical research institutes, 2 university campuses and the largest research-intensive pathology service in NSW. By 2036, the number of full-time staff will increase to more than 50,000 and the number of students will expand to more than 10,000. Among the first projects for development is a viral vector advanced manufacturing facility to provide ground-breaking trial therapies for infections, cancer and genetic diseases.