A map of Australian annual innovation and impact events

A few weeks back, I shared about the new Ready Communities program that co-founder Kerry Grace and I are delivering with Ready Macleay as the first region in Kempsey, NSW.

The post was followed by another that mapped place-based programs in Australia to consider Ready Communities in the mix of other place-based initiatives.

With the Social Impact in the Regions conference as a key part of the Ready Communities program, we now map annual Australian innovation and impact events to understand the landscape.

The value and evolution of events

Events are essential features of entrepreneur ecosystems and regional communities. Events provide boundary-spanning connections, bring diverse communities together around shared interests, build individual capability through sharing knowledge and ideas, and advance shared projects for collective impact.

Events related to innovation and impact have matured in Australia over the past decade. In addition to events for most industry sectors, sub-sectors, technologies, and functions, each state and territory hosts annual events focused on startups and entrepreneurs. Growth in event quality and quantity across Australia also highlights the opportunity to consider ways to support event alignment, differentiation, and sustainability.

A personal reflection

I can trace my career development to specific event experiences. In 2017, I attended the Kauffman Foundation’s inaugural EShip Summit in Kansas City which I credit with directing me on my current course through mind-expanding new ideas and life-impacting relationships. When I managed the Fire Station 101 innovation hub from 2016 to 2018, we ran two to three events a week plus two to three hackathons a year to intentionally develop communities of practice and create a cadence of activation in the community. For three years from 2015, I was involved in Random Hacks of Kindness hackathons at a time when leveraging emerging technology for social impact in rapid iteration was a novel experience. From 2018 I continued to learn and share in events specific to the emerging field of innovation ecosystems, including the Queensland Qode conference, the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, the regional 8point8 conference, South Australia’s _SouthStart conference, and the G20 Roundtable on Entrepreneurship.

In 2019, I attended the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Bahrain where I picked up the role of Managing Director for the Global Entrepreneurship Network Australia. I returned to the GEC three years later in Bahrain leading the Australian delegation in 2022. From 2020 to 2023, I was then involved in the project to bring the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2023 to Melbourne.

As my participation in events increased, so did growing questions about impact. The inherent value in events was clear. If nothing else, the evidence was seen in anecdotal observations of my own life. But how could impact be measured more broadly and consistently?

Can the benefit of events be more than a dopamine hit from thousands of networks and interactions, or is that enough? How do we connect the impact of hundreds of events, or at least draw a connective line through events in the same field over the year and across years? And how can an event have a greater impact on the place in which it is held, or at least avoid being extractive?

Insights from GEC 23

These questions were top of mind as I worked on the three-year GEC 23 project. The personal impact of the project was significant, including my reinforced respect for leaders in the Australian ecosystem who deliver events year after year. The collective muscle memory and capability in the cohort of leaders involved in innovation and impact event delivery is an undervalued asset in the Australian ecosystem.

The GEC event provided opportunities to trial approaches for increasing event impact, including a long lead-in engagement before the event to define opportunities to build innovation infrastructure and develop opportunities for collective impact through the event. Some ideas worked and others did not, but the lessons were invaluable.

Reflections that stayed with me from the GEC include a need to:

• Ensure structural alignment and shared KPIs between event functions of impact, funding, and brand;
• Embed impact evaluation from the project’s outset;
• Embed inclusive and diverse perspectives across event sponsorship and program;
• Engage the local host community in event planning and impact; and
• Define the longitudinal impact across annual events.

Application to Social Impact in the Regions

Following the GEC I was introduced to Kerry Grace who had also just delivered the 2023 Social Impact in the Regions conference, an event that integrated economic development and community development for broad social impact. Kerry’s views aligned with my previous work in connecting innovation and entrepreneurship to holistic community resilience in regional communities. We combined our work in Ready Communities, a two-year program with a 10-month engagement, a 3-day conference, and a 12-month follow-on support program.

The 2024 Social Impact in the Regions conference will be from 4 to 6 September in Kempsey, NSW. The event is designed for anyone who participates in, contributes to, or is interested in social impact in regional, rural, and remote communities. Designed using a principle of “content in context”, the experience is relevant to all regional communities and is informed by the engagement with the local community leading up to the event. The event provides delegates with a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact from their participation.

As a new event, we are conscious that we are entering a full calendar of events in Australia. The broad coverage of economic and community impact by the Social Impact in the Regions conference expands the types of related events in the minds of delegates and partners.

In keeping with our practice, we publically share a map of potentially related events and invite conversation and engagement to build clarity, connection, capability, and capacity in the wider Australian innovation and impact ecosystem.

A map of innovation and impact events in Australia

Any static map of ecosystem roles such as the one above will change as soon as it is published.

You can view the dynamic live map of events here.

Caveats and considerations

Mapping is always performed with respect and some trepidation as we interpret what can be observed and represent it at a point in time.

As is the way with any mapping exercise, we start with some caveats:

• The list is not comprehensive: We document events through local knowledge, data mining, and web searches. There are some missing, including some likely embarrassing omissions. If you see something missing, please let us know.
• Zombie events: Events can maintain an online presence years after their last iteration. There will be a few legacy links until confirmation that the event is no longer running.
• ‘Innovation’ and ‘impact’ are broad with many intersections: Ecosystem boundaries are blurry, socially defined, and intersecting. Our main focus is on fields related to innovation and impact, with a place-based and sectoral focus. There will always be discussion on what is in and outside this definition.
• Additional categorisation is required: Some events are tagged based on sector and impact. The tagging is not comprehensive or complete. Selecting a sector, impact, or technology filter may not show some relevant events.
• Limited to annual events and awards with events: Our focus is on Australian annual full-day or multi-day events and/or award programs that culminate in an annual event. This excludes international events periodically held in Australia, one-off events that are not recurring, and regular community events. There may also be annual events that emerge or have happened that are not shown based on the time of this writing due to not being in market, including Northern Territory’s October Business Month and the Canberra Innovation Network’s Innovation Showcase.
• This is not a full calendar of events: A logical evolution of the map would be a directory and schedule of events. In the past, we have played with creating a national directory of events including building APIs into Meetup and Eventbrite and using a shared Google calendar. Challenges we experienced include limitations with the increasingly popular Humanitix not having a comparable API, and limited funding models to maintain a national events register. Current approaches are managed by state-based platforms through central bodies such as LaunchVic or Advance Queensland and industry bodies such as Climate Salad for climate-related events.
• Event month may change: The month the event is listed is based on the 2023 to 2025 calendar and may vary based on the year.
• Defer to event peak bodies and experts: I write this as a practitioner, researcher, observer, and leader in organisations not specific to events. My focus is on mapping, which may see me map areas I observe but in which I am not necessarily an expert. Others can provide greater insights including the many professional event practitioners and their peak bodies such as the Australian Business Events Association, Meetings and Events Australia, and Exhibition & Event Association of Australia.

Observations

Seeing the map in a single visual provides an opportunity for some initial observations. These are based on a sample and not the total population of events, but observations can still be indicative.

• May and October are busy months: Very little happens in January due to school holidays, coming off New Year’s, and holidays at the end of the month. The heat of the middle of Summer may also not help matters. Of the sample of 103 events, 14 and 15 events are scheduled in October and May, respectively.
• Media driving events: InnovationAus represents with their annual awards and regular capability papers sessions (not listed as they are not single annual conferences). The Australian Financial Review is a prominent contributor to the event schedule, with their AFR Live representing 14 events across the annual calendar. The AFR Live can be seen to bring together thought leaders to drive a narrative captured in the paper while ideally also supporting and not displacing others in each topic verticle.
• Sydney-centric: Sydney has a greater proportion of events likely due to its geographic centrality for travel. Other events have a place-focus such as state conferences like South Australia’s _SouthStart, the Tropical Innovation Festival in Cairns, and the Maranoa Ag Innovation Expo.
• Industry body events: Industry bodies drive events for their members, such as the National Farmers Federation National Conference, GrainGrowers Innovation Generation, Agrifutures evokeAg, Philanthropy Australia’s National Conference, and Cooperative Research Australia’s National Policy Summit and Collaborate Innovation Conference.
• Verticles and sub-sectors: There is an event for most everybody and a niche within sectors, like the Technology in Government conference, HR and L&D Innovation & Tech Fest, EduTech conference, TechDiversity, Legal Innovation & Tech Fest sports tech focused SportsNxt. Technology streams will also have events such as Blockchain Week, Crypto Conventions, and Surgical Robotics Innovation Summit.
• Startup and Entrepreneur events: The national schedule of startup events includes South Australia’s _SouthStart, Queensland’s Tropical Innovation Festival and SomethingFest, Western Australia’s WestTechFest, New South Wales’ Spark Festival and recent addition SXSW Sydney, Northern Territory’s CrocPitch and October Business Month, Canberra’s CBRIN Innovation Showcase, and Now or Never and Thrive in Victoria. There are also events for dedicated functions in the startup community including InnovationBay’s Inspire conference, Blackbird’s Sunrise Festival, and the National Health & Innovation Precincts Summit.
• Months and weeks: Dedicated month-long and week-long campaigns are scheduled throughout the year, including Indigenous Business Month, NT Business Month, Global Entrepreneurship Week, National Science Week, and Blockchain Week. There are more and we can add them in to align campaigns.
• Impact, place, and rural: Looking at the calendar through the lens of the Social Impact in the Regions conference, other events that relate to social impact capability, place, and regional economies include ChangeFest, Social Impact Summit, Regional Australia Institute’s National Summit, National Economic Development Conference, Segra National Regional and Economic Development Conference, Mainstreet Australia conference, and Purpose Conference.

Reflections and next steps

This review of events has helped confirm the position of the Social Impact in the Regions conference, in that it has a deep connection to place, focused support for practitioners in social impact, integration with a two-year place-based program, and invitation for delegates to join in a ten-year vision of impact. The Conference is also part of a wider ecosystem of related events we can work with to facilitate greater impact and systems change beyond what we can achieve on our own.

Some reflections on the wider events ecosystem include:

• Clarity and alignment for sponsors and speakers: Many sponsors and speakers are shared among events. It would be good to align efforts to make it as easy as possible for speakers and sponsors, acknowledging competitive tensions from geographic and sector boundaries.
• Work together for systemic change: The annual event schedule creates a cadence of interaction. It would be good to integrate shared challenges and narratives where possible to build on outcomes from other events and effect wider systems change through event connections and collaborations.
• Sustainability: Australian events can be a challenging business model. Australia has a large geographic distribution, a relatively small pool of sponsors particularly for niche topics, and increasing event delivery costs. These challenges are increased for regional communities. While not directly related to innovation and impact events, insights can be gained from the recently cancelled 2024 Splendor in the Grass music festival. Events need to be treated as an asset and supported, particularly for those who would benefit the most from or may not have easy access to the connections.
• Align schedules: One of the motivations for mapping events was to see where there might be conflict in delegate and speaker schedules and travel budgets. A national calendar will help to minimise duplication and create space between similar events where possible.
• Align event impact: We are building the evaluation and impact framework into the Ready Communities program. It would be good to share metrics where possible to build the overall capacity and capability across events, acknowledging the work already being done to align event data.

I am grateful for those who have brought people together in events I have attended that have brought me to where I am now. I also appreciate the work of hundreds of leaders who connect Australians and Australia as a country through the national portfolio of innovation, entrepreneurship, and impact-related events every year.

As always, feedback and critique are most welcome. I am keen to hear your reflections on Australian innovation and impact events and to work with you as part of a national, long-term vision of impact from greater connection and connectivity.