Spark Festival 2024 Opening Celebration

A must-attend events for Sydney's startup ecosystem

Australia’s original and much loved grass-roots startup and innovation festival is happening again from 2–6 September 2024. Since 2016, Spark has been an independent not-for-profit organisation working to coordinate and promote startup-focused events that spark engagement into and across the startup ecosystem. We'll be celebrating the beginning of our ninth Spark Festival, at the Flex by ISPT Collider, 477 Pitt St. 

Spark Festival exists to spark engagement into and across the ecosystem.

Join us for the Future of Funding: a chance to take a snapshot of 2024, the current state of play for the Australian Startup ecosystem and where it’s heading next.

Our Guest Speakers

We are delighted to host the Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP, NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, for a fireside chat about the future direction of startup policy, and the role of government in supporting our entrepreneurship ecosystem through thick and thin.

Then, a panel of well-loved guest experts will join us from across the vast Spark Festival network to help us glimpse what the future holds for tech-enabled companies and initiatives in the new economy. 

The Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP – NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology

In 2023, Anoulack was appointed Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading; Minister for Industry and Trade; Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology; Minister for Building; and Minister for Corrections in the NSW Government. He has lived in the Campbelltown region for over 25 years, having moved to Australia from Laos with his parents and three brothers when he was six. Anoulack attended Robert Townson Primary, Robert Townson High School in Raby, then went on to graduate from the University of Sydney and the London School of Economics. He understands the importance of a good local public education and the opportunities it provides.

Anoulack worked as an economist for more than 13 years prior to being elected as the Member for Macquarie Fields. In 2004 he was elected to Campbelltown Council and served as Mayor from 2011-2012.

Elizabeth Henderson – Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills 

Elizabeth Henderson is a Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and co-heads the firm’s Venture Capital practice in Australia. She advises on transactions over the full life cycle of business creation and expansion, including early stage and expansion capital raising, acquisitions for growth, M&A and other liquidity transactions. 

Elizabeth provides strategic advice and assistance to founders and their companies who are raising early stage or expansion capital and to investors in venture, growth and other private capital raising. Elizabeth also leads strategy development and implementation in HSF’s Venture Capital practice nationally. She is regarded as one of the leading Venture Capital and start-up lawyers in Australia. 

Annie Liao – Founder of Build Club 

Annie Liao is the founder of Build Club, Australia’s leading AI community and accelerator, which unites top minds in AI globally with a presence in the US and Southeast Asia. Her work has made her an incredibly influential figure in Australia’s growing AI community.

Before founding Build Club, Annie worked as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and a data scientist at Westpac. Her most recent work has been serving as the Chief of Staff at Relevance AI, and before that, as an Investment Associate at Aura Ventures

Julianne Wilkin – Head of Impact Investment at Save the Children Australia

Julianne joined the Save the Children Australia in May 2021 as Legal Counsel, Impact Investment Fund and Social Enterprises. In 2022 she moved into the role as Co-Head of Impact Investing.

Julianne has more than 20 years’ legal and commercial experience.  Julianne spent 15+ years at Macquarie Group where she was General Counsel and Global Head of Legal & Tax for Corporate Asset Finance and advised on finance transactions, new commercial ventures, investment opportunities, acquisitions and divestments.

Julianne began her career in private practice with Corrs Chambers Westgarth, and prior to joining Save the Children Australia was General Counsel at The Fred Hollows Foundation and Alina Vision.

Kirstin Hunter – Managing Director, Techstars

Kirstin is the Managing Director (NSW) at Techstars - the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. In this role Kirstin uses her unique combination of entrepreneurial, strategic, operational and legal skills to select the most promising startup founders to participate in Techstars' 13-week mentor-driven accelerator operating from TechCentral in Sydney.

Kirstin is an experienced start-up and high-growth business executive with a particular focus on fintech businesses at the intersection of activism and capitalism: co-Founder and former CEO at Future Super, former executive at Brighte, and long-time mentor with Blackbird's Giants program and Startmate fellowships. In her spare time Kirstin is on the board of Morphic Ethical Equities (ASX:MEC) and parent to 9 year old Elizabeth.

Sarah Kinkel – Deputy Dean, Graduate Research School, University of Technology Sydney

Sarah earned her PhD at Yale in 2012. She now serves as the Deputy Dean of the Graduate Research School at UTS, where she works with people and organisations to develop the skills, technologies, and solutions they need to build a resilient future for all of us.

Chris Kirk - CEO, Stone & Chalk Group

Chris is a leading voice in the innovation and tech industry. As CEO of Stone & Chalk he has spent the last decade supporting Australia’s leading entrepreneurs to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. Chris has led the successful design and launch of innovation districts around Australia and supported companies to raise over $1.3 billion in capital. He is a member of the National AI Industry Forum, the CEO of AustCyber and a member of the interim leadership group for Tech Central. Prior to Stone & Chalk Chris held a career in Financial Services.

Hosted by Harry Godber and David LT, Co-CEOs Spark Festival.

Plus... surprises in store 

You'll just have to be there. 

About Spark Festival 

Spark Festival has a mandate to coordinate and promote startup-focused events that spark engagement into and across the startup ecosystem.

Spark Festival 2024 is proudly supported by the City of Sydney, and has been made possible by support from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources, ACS Labs and Harbour City Labs, Herbert Smith Freehills, Stone and Chalk, Atlassian Foundation, Startup Daily, CtrlPrint, UTS Graduate Research, NetNada and Startup/Angels.

By registering for this event, you grant full rights to use the images from any photography/video footage for publicity and education purposes. This may include (but is not limited to), the right to use them in their printed and online publicity, coursework presentations, social media and press releases. If you do not wish to be photographed, please inform an event organiser.