Join WiTWA as we take a look at the people behind the ideas, and the steps that they have taken to help create some of the most interesting and successful startup brands in WA.

Continuing with our 2019 theme of "If You Can See Her, You Can Be Her"… we are incredibly thankful to have Charlie Gunningham, Commercialisation Adviser (WA) Accelerating Commercialisation and co-host of Startup West podcast, lead our panel discussion with Dr Sofie De Meyer (CEO of MALDIID), Louise Daw (Co-founder of MiPlan) and Beth Caniglia (Global Marketing Manager at VROC AI)

These fascinating individuals will share their startup experience and talk us through how they have positioned themselves and their companies to win industry awards or achieve grant funding.

Winning professional awards is incredibly valuable for the doors that it opens to set yourself or your business apart. It is that rubber stamp by your peers that says that you are externally recognised for being the best of the best…but many people don’t know where to start and there can be barriers to nominations. In the second part of our discussion, we will hear from Anne Furey (CEO of Grantsmart) who has not only been a judge on many award panels, but has also helped organisations win awards or grants.

Please see below for more information on our speakers and panelists.

With all our 2019 TechXChange events selling out, we suggest you secure your tickets early. Unfortunately, refunds cannot be processed on the Humanitix platform, but 100% of all Humanitix profits will go towards supporting literacy programmes for young girls.

Thanks to the support provided by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science for this WiTWA TechXChange event, we are able to offer a number of free tickets to those who are currently studying (part-time or full-time), unemployed or looking to upskill, reskill or transition into a role within the science or technology sectors. A limit of 2 tickets per person applies. If unsure whether this applies to you, please email alana@witwa.org.au

Mini Mentors / Mentees

Are you a Uni Student, parent returning to work, new to the industry (or Perth Tech Scene), upskilling, reskilling or are you without many connections in the industry?

We are excited to offer our "Mini Mentor" program as part of our next event on 11th June

We have been delighted with the generosity from the community with a lot of amazing women and men who have volunteered to be your "Mini Mentor" on the night. These Mini Mentors work in various roles in Perth Tech - including Technical, Management, Project Management, Account Management etc and across many industry streams.

After organising your ticket here, please visit the link below to register your interest as a Mini Mentor or Mini Mentee:

https://events.humanitix.com.au/witwa-mini-mentor-mini-mentee-program-part-of-witwa-tech-exchange-event-turning-ideas-into-start-ups-and-winning-awards

With thanks to Spacecubed for hosting this WiTWA+ Event and Mini Mentor Session.

Special thanks also goes to Wrays for being a proud sponsor at this WitWA event

Meet our speakers and panel:

Charlie Gunningham is an active supporter of Perth’s tech startup sector, running Startup News, co-hosting the Startup West podcast and sitting on various advisory boards. His full-time role is with the federal government’s Accelerating Commercialisation programme, which provides access to commercial advice and matching grants of up to $1 million for eligible innovative projects. Having landed in Perth in 1997, Charlie topped the MBA at the UWA Business School, cofounded and then later sold aussiehome.com, ran reiwa.com and was CEO of Business News. He also sits on the boards of Rise Network, WA Leaders and Perth Symphony Orchestra.

Anne Furey is one of Australia’s leading Government Grant’s consultants, and has been helping GrantSmart clients to win Government Grants since 2006. Specialising in identifying funding opportunities and preparing competitive grant applications, GrantSmart has assisted clients across most sectors and industry bodies. Anne is a well-known, and active member of the WA innovation community, nominated for an inaugural Women in Technology WA (WiTWA) 20 in 20 Award 2018; has served as a judge for WAITTA INCITE Awards since 2017 and for the HKABA (WA) Awards for the past 2 years. She has previously served on the WA Innovator of the Year (IOTY) Awards committee and was an IOTY awards judge in 2013 and 2014.

Dr Sofie De Meyer is a biochemist and internationally recognised expert in legume microbiology. When faced with re-occurring questions about rhizobia identification she investigated alternative technologies and developed a rhizobia identification service. This presented an ideal step change towards commercialisation and hence she founded MALDIID Pty Ltd in 2017, a root nodule bacteria identification service for farmers and institutes. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family she always had the mindset of making things work no matter how hard you have to work for it. Therefore, she enrolled in business workshops and learned to commercialise research in BioTech/AgTech and identified and managed new research-industry partnerships. This led to being a recipient and finalist for numerous research, communication, entrepreneurship and commercialisation awards in the last 6 years. Moreover, she is a capable public speaker and STEM communicator with a strong people network in Perth’s innovation eco-system and has a strong passion for the environment and sustainability.

Beth Caniglia is a Digital Strategist and self-professed 'word nerd'. As a writer and a digital technology enthusiast, she's spent most of her career combining these two worlds, creating content for businesses big and small, from start-up to corporate to government. With an extensive background in award and tender writing, Beth knows her way around a tricky award application!

Louise Daw co-founded MiPlan as she was driven by a strong desire to change the data management landscape of mining, civil and other industries around the world. In 2014 she was accepted into the Springboard program, immersed in a group of extremely motivated mentors and was able to utilize Springboard to understand the value of her business and focus on funding the next stage of growth. Miplan successfully raised capital in late 2014, and in 2017, MiPlan was sold to Hexagon with the aim to deliver end to end life of mine solutions globally. Louise is now the Innovation and Strategy Advisor at Hexagon, Mining division and continues to mentor several start-up businesses. In 2017, she was EY's Entrepreneur of the Year for the Western Region.