Following up on Vicki Lane’s presentation at the Opportunities Forum, a meeting was held on June 14 to progress the idea of creating a Bendigo Tech Hub. Attendees were from a range of backgrounds including local businesses, government and member bodies (ACS and AISA). Discussion was robust and everyone was keen to see the idea progress further.
The group discussed key reasons for the creation of the Tech Hub as a physical place in Bendigo devoted to technology businesses, networking and learning:
- Visibility – “you can’t be what you can’t see” – encouraging people to choose technology as a career path and ensuring they understand that this is a viable career in Bendigo without moving to Melbourne
- A place to belong – growing the community locally and ensuring that people feel that they are part of the local community of tech people
- To be seen as a destination for IT Talent – an “attractor” – there was much discussion about the number of tech companies in Ballarat compared to Bendigo before and after the creation of Ballarat’s Tech Park and the incredible contribution this has made to the creation of local jobs and bringing money into the local economy
At this stage the next steps for the group are:
- Setting up an association and a governance structure
- Writing up our vision/statement of what we’re trying to achieve
- Organising a working party to discuss the minimum requirements for a space including working through what this looks like in 1, 3 and 5 years
- Starting to look for funding and help from government or other funding bodies
We’re keen to speak to people from all sizes of tech and tech-related businesses operating in the Bendigo area to get their input – if this is you, please contact us! There is no obligation down the track – there are many ways to potentially be a part of the community in the future and we are interested to get all perspectives and input as we move forward with this. If you’re interested, please contact Vicki from Square V at vicki@squarev.com.au, or John from Bendigo Telco at john.spark@bendigotelco.com.au