Workshops included “The Future of Innovation”, “The Future of Entertainment” and “Experience Windows 8”. It was amazing to hear the laughter and “oohs and aahs” during the workshops, and very encouraging to see a group of girls ambush our Windows 8 workshop presenter after his slot to see more of this new operating system! The girls asked lots of questions during our careers panels and it was great to be able to showcase that there a multiple paths that lead to a career in technology. 

So many schools had responded to our invitations that we actually had to turn a few away as we couldn’t overcrowd our venue. Having said that – the theatre was pretty packed, with several students sitting on the floor – learning for next time: book a bigger venue! We are looking forward to turning this into a nationwide event and have already started discussions with other Microsoft state offices so that girls outside of Sydney can participate in this amazing experience.

One of my Favorite responses was:

 

“Today was a very enjoyable day. I learnt a lot about the technology we have today and the upcoming technology that Microsoft is aiming to make public. The experience has shown me that I can have a career in technology and be successful at it. “

Well done to everyone involved!

So check out the “@home on Windows Azure” project. Via a four-part video series on Channel 9, you can learn how to build applications for the cloud on Windows Azure, and deploy a solution that will contribute to Stanford University’s Folding @home distributed computing project to study protein folding.

By simply running a piece of software, you can help scientists learn more about diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease and many cancers by banding together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world.  Every participant takes the project closer to understanding how protein folding is linked to certain diseases.

There are even 4 easy to watch videos to get you started:

@home with Windows Azure – Part 1 of 4: Getting your Windows Azure 90-day Free Trial Account Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 2 of 4: Setting up the @home App Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 3 of 4: Configuring Windows Azure Storage Click To Play

@home with Windows Azure – Part 4 of 4: Deploying to Windows Azure Click To Play

In addition to contributing directly to this project, Microsoft will also donate $10 per participant (up to $5,000 maximum) to Stanford University to help the cause. You can learn more about the Folding @home project here.

All video’s & Links reposted from Here:

Microsoft is committed to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to reach their potential. Technology not only enables people, but can also be a fantastic career opportunity; especially for young women. However, while female workforce participation rates are equalising across a number of industries, the IT and Computing industry in particular is one that remains quite male-dominated.

On Monday 2nd April, students will be attending Microsoft IT-Girls, held at the Microsoft office in North Ryde, which is the headquarters of Microsoft Australia. Microsoft IT-Girls is designed to help young women gain a better understanding of a rewarding career in IT and Computing.

The agenda will be packed with workshops where girls will get hands on with the latest technology, learn about technology courses offered at universities, and listen to first hand experiences from a range of Microsoft women, from interns to senior managers, and Microsoft Australia’s Managing Director, Pip Marlow – one of the most influential women in the Australian IT industry today.

If you haven’t taken part in these events before, then you’ll be in a for a big surprise, as it shatters the image of IT as being a geeky, male-only preserve. As it’s thee weeks away, we’ve still got some spare spaces (we have set a maximum number of 15 attendees per school due to high demand). Oh, and it’s free BTW – you just need to sort your transport (North Ryde train station is right around the corner)

Contact Katrina Wong if you’d like to book seats for your school, or you want to find out any more.

Anna mentions some great places to look for support/events/advice in the Startup community here in Australia. In addition to those she mentions I always suggest Startups join some of the great online communities we have here in Australia to Support startups such as  http://www.the-entourage.com.au and the online discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia - these are a fantastic way to connect with other local startups and hear about upcoming events. The Anthill Online Magazine is also a great resource for keeping up to date & getting great tips for your business: http://anthillonline.com/  and www.TheFetch.org is a great source of all the events happening in your local city.

Thanks Anna for sharing your personal experience and lessons learnt – I hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did – and be sure to check out http://shop.artbuds.com/ to pick out some amazing artwork for the special little people in your life!

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I think running a start up business is like having a baby. There's a lot of build up, preparation, anticipation and excitement until the actual birth/launch. Hopefully a beautiful afterglow and sense of achievement follows. Then there are lots of compromises, troubleshooting, lack of sleep and stress but somehow love and passion keep you going. The rewards do feel worth it if you are consistently nurturing and dedicated.

Yep, it’s definitely a real up and down path, full of challenges and accomplishments. There is a lot of advice and support available, but in reality nothing is set in stone. You take bits and pieces of information from a range of sources and you learn as you go. Common sense also goes a long way…

So as a mother and start-up entrepreneur of ArtBuds – Contemporary Art for Kids, (http://shop.artbuds.com/) I’d like to share my experiences of running an online business with a toddler in tow.

#1: Who am I - now?

Let's start with the 'before' baby and running a business persona. I have always thought of myself as a great multi-tasker and action woman. If I had a goal I would generally achieve it. This included realising my teenage dream of living in Paris, to leaving my comfortable life and long term job to move interstate, to running my own brand insights consultancy whilst undertaking a Masters in Art Therapy. I also moved to Madrid with my Spanish husband and created a job for myself in a market research agency, despite not speaking Spanish or having a professional European network.

But this was all in my own time, in my own office where I had choices to work in silence or with music, have lunch or work through, stop and start at my own pace. Even working within the constraints of professional deadlines doesn’t quite prepare you for skills required to negotiate nap time, the level of patience for toilet training, the anger management needed when dark red lipstick is applied to cream carpet, texta on the walls…Now I have to multi-task around my toddler’s needs and routine which is generally much more noisy and unpredictable than you can ever plan around.

But just as kids are not robots, the online world moves so rapidly that we have to be agile and keep abreast of the trends, or more importantly create the trends.

My lesson: Giving birth is life changing, so my life and attitudes have also had to change. Whilst being goal oriented is necessary, it can be a bit rigid. It feels more liberating and productive to let go of what “used to be”, and focus on the now. I prefer to live in the present and adopt a broader forward thinking approach.

#2: Wanting quick success (AKA maintaining anxiety levels)

Although I would love my business to be further along its life cycle, it’s still really in the early stages. In the short 5 months since launch we’ve been tackling SEO and all its permutations, social media, content creation, video production, product development, PR and marketing angles, networking, market research and partnership opportunities.

There’s still so much to learn, and I think it’s realistic to say the business is at the same developmental stage as my toddler. Toilet training! It's a bit daunting, anxiety provoking, potentially a bit complex but a necessary and natural step we need to master so we can mature and advance. It really is time based and could take a few weeks or months, but we'll move onto the next stage when the time is right.

My lesson: It's all about being adaptable and flexible and dealing with the situation at hand, which sometimes changes tack without warning. Rather than getting anxious it’s also about being patient and remembering to celebrate the small steps that will help to maintain momentum when it gets a bit overwhelming.

#3: Working against the biggest challenge: time

My daughter goes to pre-school 5 days/fortnight. This roughly equals 10-15 hours of quality block time to work, sans any noise and toddlerville antics. Except for public holidays, school holidays or if she is sick, where those 10 hours a week can easily dwindle to no hours of clean lovely quiet time.

My priority has always been to put my daughter's needs first, otherwise why be a parent and why work from home to be with her? This is easier said than done! I am also conscious not to overuse the TV as a babysitter... so it's always a fine line providing a quality parenting environment and getting my work done to a decent level.

My lesson: Aim to work more efficiently and smarter not longer more stressful hours. It's taken a while to really learn this, and remains an ongoing challenge.

#4: Managing Workload

Whilst my husband and I take responsibility for all the important aspects of our daughter’s development and wellbeing she also spends time absorbing knowledge and new experiences from various people. She goes to pre-school, my mother helps out and on occasion we get in a babysitter or friend in, so we can remember why we got married in the first place.

Similarly, as it was advised to me early on, it's best to keep on top of all the important aspects of the business, and get support for the smaller tasks. I now delegate some tasks to a small team of uni students, but the important parts, like the finances and customer contact I retain direct responsibility.

My lesson: Don’t be too precious, delegate and get help wherever possible, so I can focus on the key aspects of the business. It’s also nice to feel like part of a team.

#5: Maintaining Big Picture Focus

It is amazing how innately babies and children are programmed to know what to do. When my daughter was about 5 months old she started to rock on all fours. She would do this movement every night for about 2 months, avoiding sleep at the excitement of preparing her little body for the bigger reward – crawling, then walking.

It's so easy to have high expectations with the immediacy of social media. Through social media, you may have great buzz one day but the next day it’s another story receiving attention. My mentor warned me about this at our very first meeting. There might be spikes of interest along the way, but it’s about finding strategies that build and sustain these levels of interest.

My lesson: Keep focused on creative ways to build online marketing strategies that incorporate social media, but do not only rely on this for PR and marketing traction.

#6: Being Too Emotionally Involved to be Objective

As a qualitative researcher I've spent many years talking to consumers, and advising companies about their brands, products and services. Think I could do this for myself? No way! It's too personal, I'm too close to it and I don't have the skills or expertise at this early stage.

My lesson: Get a mentor! You don't need to do it all, there are lots of experienced people who can help you. PushStart are fantastic and free.

#7: Trying to do it all

I believe the ‘supermum’ ideal is a farce, no matter how many successful mothers appear to “have it all”. I’m still unsure what that means…but it’s just not possible to give quality parenting time, focused business time, not to mention partner time, domestic affairs and general life - without something giving way.

It’s almost a no-brainer that to fit in quality time why not work at night after the kids are in bed, or at obscenely pre-dawn hours, to get it all done. Well I did do this, for about three months. Then I got really sick with a terrible virus but still kept trying to do it all, until I eventually broke my big toe and got mouth ulcers and infected gums. Charming. Then under strict medical orders I had to rest for 2 weeks without doing anything, or risk serious illness…a really excellent situation for parenting and running a business.

My lesson: Make health a priority, without feeling guilty for taking time out to exercise and unwind. It provides crucial headspace and clarity. Some of my best ideas are from walking along the beach in the morning. It’s so obvious but also quite difficult to remember and action this.

#8: Feeling connected offline

As a new mother, when your baby cries a lot it can feel really debilitating. With sleep deprivation and no previous experience it can sometimes be hard to cope. Fortunately in Australia there are so many great organisations, nurses, doctors that can help during this time. Unfortunately, many mothers aren’t aware of them, or don’t want to appear helpless and suffer unnecessarily.

Similarly, as a new start-up with no previous experience, it’s impossible to glide along without any hiccups. There are so many organisations and experts willing and ready to offer support, and generally at no cost. It can also get overwhelming and sometimes isolating if you’re working from home. Reaching out to some of the numerous experts and general start up community by attending industry events and meetings can be so enriching and normalizing. Some great (Sydney based) ones include:

http://socialmediawomen.wordpress.com/

http://pushstart.com.au/

http://www.meetup.com/cities/au/sydney/

http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-fastBREAK-innovation-networking-BREAKfast-talks/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/BuzSpark_au

My Lesson: Get out to as many networking events as possible. You meet inspiring people, make great contacts, learn a lot and/or feel reassured you’re on the right track, and make potential friends in a similar situation. It feels good to get out and wear some heels too!

#9: Getting the parent vs business balance

This is the trickiest one of all for me. Drawing from my art therapy experience (http://shop.artbuds.com/pages/meet-our-team), transference and counter transference (http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/6/1/57.full) is evident in any relationship we encounter. It's impossible not to get stressed as a parent, or running your own business, but projecting this anxiety, anger and potentially resentment onto a little person can have serious long-term ramifications. Their formative years are so crucial to shaping how they behave and who they become. I am reminded by the expression, "give me a child till he is 7 and I'll give you the man".

Just in case I lose my way, as can easily happen being a first time mum and new to online start-ups, my daughter guides me. Recently I had a lot of tasks to complete. I was feeling under pressure and my patience was being tested. I did many things that I shouldn't have: allowing too much time watching Cinderella and other Disney films, and losing my temper too often. Putting all this together - she said she was Cinderella and I was the stepmother! (NB: no offence to blended family stepparents).

My lesson: I love my business, but my daughter will always remain my best creation. Getting this into perspective has really allowed me to be a better mother and strive towards more efficient time management. As Zappos entrepreneur and motivational guru Tony Hsieh (http://about.zappos.com/meet-our-monkeys/tony-hsieh-ceo) advocates, find the happiness medium and success will follow. I know I’m on the right track when my daughter says, “Mum, you’re not the stepmother anymore, you’re the mummy and I love you”.

We have once again completely redesigned out back end and now have locked down the design for our back end accessible data points and have updated versions of the iPhone/iPad app & Windows 7 app working! Whoohoo!! We are just finalising the testing loop now. I expect that this will be finished in the next few days.

In the interim we have also been working on an updated PR piece that is way way way too long (who knew we had so much we could reference around our app that made for interesting stories – such as the projected increase in Childhood obesity, the increase in instances of Adult depression, the stats from the Cancer Council proving that (some) active time outside is actually really really good for you! ). We are now looking at consolidating that into an aggressive PR kit to use once the application is available on the iTunes & Zune marketplaces.

I also today attended a seminar held by Marcus Tarrant of http://www.businessplanninghq.com/  where we learnt about the value of a formal business plan and followed a surprisingly simple “wizard” that to be honest allowed me to create a much more professional and comprehensive Business Plan in the sessions than I did in the hours and hours I spent with my initial plan that was overly vague and missing massive chunks. I’d love to share the document with you – but I don’t think Marcus would overly appreciate that – so here is a snapshot of the sample document he provides to show what you get at the end… Well worth setting aside the time to do.

Beside the benefit of meeting other early stage companies and sharing the ideas, questions, businesses with each other (I cannot iterate enough HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS!) I picked up a few great tips for my app around adding a geocaching feature, creating a targeted app for golf courses and an introduction to someone looking to help with PR. Another valuable tip came from one of the attendees who shared during the lunch discussions a tip he was given which was that: “A good photo in your press kit can mean the difference between a page 43 listing & a page 3 listing! “. I am now thinking off all the interesting photos I can add to the press kit!

We have a finite timeline to work towards now with the upcoming Anthill Awards – so am not going to add too much more tonight – as we make our next milestone… you will hear about it!

I also want to say a special thanks to Gary Twomey of IMC for our recent Guest Post on the key Government programs for Startups! Check it out here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bizspark_au/archive/2011/11/16/launching-a-startup-mobile-app-in-australia-guest-blogger-gary-twomey-outlines-the-key-government-funding-programs-for-start-ups.aspx

Innovation Management Consultants Pty Ltd (IMC) is a professional services firm with extensive experience in providing high quality management consulting services. They assist their clients to grow by accessing government assistance programs to help them plan, research, develop and commercialise their technology. A summary of the key government assistance programs that they assist clients to access are listed below. Further information is available upon request.

Event Questions

This is a unique opportunity and places are limited – please register immediately.

If you have any questions, please contact Catherine Eibner at caeibner@microsoft.com.

The event is specifically targeted to BizSpark companies, however developers that are not part of the BizSpark program are more than welcome to attend to gain access to this valuable training event.

Event Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I am registering for this! Although I already created a business Plan for Picknic App – over the last few weeks the goals have changed & adapted – and I want to revise the business plan. For $295 this is incredible value!

While I was away I got this very exciting news in my inbox I am now planning a trip down to Melbourne to attend the awards!  I think its a fantastic example of why you should take the time to nominate your company for awards – as the extra visibility will be invaluable!

I now also have the below lovely looking Media release to include in my launch plan – which also provides more value to the story I am putting together and hopefully increases the uptake of the idea.

In other options to get more (free) publicity – I suggest you subscribe to alerts from a great site called Source Bottle. SourceBottle is an online service that connects journalists, writers and bloggers with 'sources'. For example today, the great team at Shoe String Launch magazine listed a request for Startups that have just launched or that are just about to launch to contribute to an upcoming publication. http://www.thesourcebottle.com/query.asp?iid=30&qid=11174 Did I respond to this request?? Of course I did! You should too!

Media Release

November 08, 2011

Picknic has been named one of Australia’s ‘Coolest’ businesses in Anthill Magazine’s Sixth Annual Cool Company Awards.

Picknic has scored a place among Anthill’s Top 50 in its 2011 Annual Cool Company Awards, a national program developed in 2006 to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently to bring about positive change.

Over 700 aspiring ‘cool companies’ were nominated for the 2011 awards, making ‘The Cools’ one of Australia’s largest business awards programs. The winners will be announced at an award’s function on Thursday 24 November 2011 and published on AnthillOnline.com.

“The Cool Company Awards are extremely egalitarian,” said James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine. “Previous winners have included two-person start-ups, not-for-profit social enterprises, large private companies and publicly-listed corporations.”

“Judging takes into account far more than mere business variables, such as revenue and wealth. The criteria is geared to consider other qualities, from the disruptive nature of the product or service to the culture of the organisation.”

“Applicants either nominated themselves or were nominated by peers, work colleagues, family, friends and other ‘admirers’. A field of hundreds was examined (and cross-examined) before our judges were able to isolate three Finalists for each of our seven categories.”

What are Cool Company Awards?

The Cool Company Awards was launched in 2006 as a way for Anthill Magazine to publicly acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. In its sixth year, the awards attracted nominations from over 700 organisations, making it among the largest business award programs in Australia.

What is Anthill Magazine?

AnthillOnline.com is a digital business magazine that celebrates creativity, inspiration and commercial ingenuity, providing a fresh, exciting and practical perspective on Australian business in a global world. It is among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia, as ranked by Nielsen Online Ratings, and is home to the Cool Company Awards, the 30under30 and the Smart 100. It’s where ideas and business meet.

For further information:

Catherine Eibner, picknic@live.com.au