What do Jane Eyre, Star Wars, Moby Dick and Lord of the Rings have in common? All four follow the path of the "Hero’s Journey," aka the "Hero of a Thousand Faces."

The Hero's Journey is a narrative structure found in stories from ancient myths to modern cinema. So what does it have to do with startups?

The same narrative can be found in startups, innovation and entrepreneurship: think of the rise, fall, and return of Steve Jobs.

If you want to understand what it’s like to launch a startup or run your own business, explore the call to adventure and the road of trials in this fireside chat with entrepreneur & screenwriter Jamie Engel, entrepreneur & imagination teacher Kelly-Ann Denton, and entrepreneur & filmmaker Russell Scott.

Grab a mug of hot cocoa (or something stronger) and let us take you on a journey…

Three startup founders from the Future Minds Accelerator, and one industry expert will share their points of view on and discuss:

What is "The Hero's Journey?
How can you apply it to your startup journey?

Our Panel Experts

Jamie Engel, CEO & Founder of Neutopia

With a background in film, 3D animation, virtual reality and augmented reality ( VR / AR ), Jamie specialises in designing innovative curricula that use storytelling techniques.

An inspiring keynote speaker and master educator, Jamie has mentored and partnered on projects that foster entrepreneurship, social enterprise, and leadership skills for young adults such as One Young World and Remarkable, Australia's first disability-focused accelerator.

Neutopia.co is the leading online education platform to support the global transition to connected ways of learning for academic, corporate and forward-thinking organisations. Neutopia supports 21st-century learning and builds community by creating meaningful peer-to-peer engagement.

Kelly-Ann Denton, Chief Visual Officer of Imagineer.me

Kelly-Ann is an art teacher who writes curricula in visual thinking for educators of all disciplines, with the aim of harnessing the power of vision to improves imagination.

imagineer.me is a school for the imagination. 21st Century Skills and the development of Future Minds require Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration (known as the 4 C’s).

Russell Scott, Co-Founder at Cognetic Technologies / Vortals

Russell directed Australia’s first 3D IMAX documentary “Hidden Universe,” a significant technical and artistic achievement that saw the film finish number 8 in the Australian Box Office for 2013 and is the 6th highest grossing Australian documentary of all time.

He has helped Swinburne University develop a world-renowned astronomy package for digital 3D theatres that has been viewed by over 3 million people and has worked with a broad range of clients, from Nickelodeon to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Vortals is a mixed reality (AR,VR,3D and 2D) design and presentation platform which is currently being used by a number of institutions around Australia.

About the Future Minds Accelerator

The Future Minds Accelerator, a partnership between Rio Tinto, BlueChilli and Amazon Web Services (AWS), has been designed to support and inspire startups and the education ecosystem to tackle a 21st century challenge: How can we prepare Australia’s young people to thrive in the jobs of the future?

Facilitated by BlueChilli, this panel discussion will explore education (K-12) and student health, innovation and emerging technology.

Suitable for teacher professional development (PD / NESA)

Experience new techniques and frameworks you can apply in class, network with progressive educators and people from government and business, and learn about emerging technologies and innovation processes.

Come with an open mind and prepared to contribute.

Tickets are free. Ticket numbers are limited.

Schedule

7:30 – 7:45 :: Introductions

7:45 – 8:15 :: Panel discussion (10 min per topic)

8:15 – 8:30 :: Q&A

8:30 – 9:00 :: Networking