Budding entrepreneurs will be able to kickstart their business initiatives through a series of conferences, talks, workshops, exhibitions, tours of local successful businesses, pitching events, design competitions and networking opportunities during Spark Festival Sydney.
Held from 22 to 30 October, the event is expected to attract more than 10,000 local and international industry leaders.
The City of Sydney has committed $35,000 a year to support the festival over the next three years.
“Sydney is home to Australia’s highest concentration of tech startups and we’re developing a global reputation for supporting innovation,” says City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone.
“We’ve developed an action plan for supporting tech startups to make sure Sydney is a place where entrepreneurs can quickly scale innovative businesses and create the jobs of the future. Events like Spark Festival Sydney will help us build the skilled and connected community we need to make that happen.
“The three-year funding for Spark Festival Sydney is another step in creating a sustainable, long-term program of events to help us support and attract tech entrepreneurs.”
Topics for this year’s event include fintech regulation, cyber security, education, health, cleantech, immersive realities, quantum computing artificial intelligence, robotics and social enterprise.
Event themes also emphasise the startup journey, early stages of innovation and entrepreneurship, women in technology, the power of diversity, digital government and smarter cities.
“Spark Festival Sydney is about bringing entrepreneurs together in a way they can connect with people who can help grow their businesses, coach them to success and share their experiences with the next generation,” explains Chris Clark, co-founder and director of Spark Festival.
“We want to do whatever we can to encourage the establishment of globally scalable enterprises by helping Australians tap into the tremendous talent available here in Sydney — whether this is potential employees, investors, corporates, academia or government entities.
“The solutions are businesses that are 'born global' with foundations here in Sydney.”
Spark Festival Sydney is a non-profit initiative that launches this year in Sydney, with plans to take the tech startup event across Australia and was developed by the team behind StartupWeek Sydney held in 2015.