Looking to take ‘the next step' in business? Capital Region BEC presents an informative breakfast designed to assist innovative businesses navigate the intellectual property maze and assess sources of potential funding. Hear expert advice from AusIndustry and a leading Sydney IP law firm. Dr Gavin and Sylvia Tulloch, of local solar cell manufacturing success, Dyesol, will illustrate how appropriate IP protection can build your business. A mini-expo of agencies that support business growth will let you meet the experts on achieving success through innovation.    

Join key CSIRO and NICTA representatives at an important breakfast examining how commercialisation tools can catapult Australian research from the laboratory to national and global markets. Dr Alex Zelinsky, Director of CSIRO ICT Centre and Ric Clark, Business Development Director of Australia's Centre of Excellence for Information and Communications Technology, National ICT Australia, explore the importance of business sector engagement with niche R&D innovators to drive industry productivity and maintain our burgeoning reputation at the vanguard of global ICT. Supported by CSIRO, National ICT Australia and the Canberra Business Council.

Leading Australian intelligence solution provider, The Distillery, will unveil a world-first development set to alter the intelligence landscape as we know it. Witness the international market launch of this cutting edge, home-grown technology as it emerges from a three-year development phase.

Across the developed world, a combination of: ageing populations; changing employment patterns; unprecedented mobility; and net population outflows have left certain professions, regions and nations feeling the effects of ‘the brain drain'.   In the ACT, the annual departure of large numbers of young people is a recognised threat to the region's skills base. How can our region and country successfully attract and retain ‘the best and brightest' to enrich our population's skill set? Join Professor Ann Harding, Director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra; Sheryle Moon, Director Manpower Services Australia; and Mark McCrindle, highly regarded futurist and generational expert. ABC Canberra Mornings presenter Alex Sloan will moderate. Presented by the University of Canberra with the support of BusinessACT.   

One of the world's most influential thinkers, Edward de Bono, is set to transform our views on the organisational, cultural and perceptual values that underpin human activity. The Six Value Medals theory is expected to dramatically alter accepted ‘values' wisdom, just as the groundbreaking Six Thinking Hats radically altered views on creativity and delivered the now ubiquitous term ‘lateral thinking'. This Canberra seminar promises to stimulate, provoke and challenge participants who will depart with a new world view. Presented by the Australian Institute of Management.

Join Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winners and finalists for an insight into how award-winning business people meet the challenges of leadership, ethics and innovation. Featuring: Craig Winkler, Founder and CEO of MYOB; Jason Hart, Founder and CEO of Canberra-based company Protocom Development Systems; and Mark McConnell, Founder and Managing Director of Canberra-based Frontier Group.   Presented by BusinessACT and Ernst & Young.

Click here to download a copy of the Innovation in Action: A Leadership Challenge brochure.

You are invited to the NICTA Techfest where you will have the opportunity to view world-class research that is currently being conducted in our laboratories throughout Australia.  Chat with NICTA researchers, view demonstrations and explore collaboration and commercialisation opportunities.

ICAN introduces a one-stop-shop exhibition, forum and networking event for the region's budding inventors and entrepreneurial leaders. Join James O'Loghlin and our region's best inventors as they pitch for major prizes.

Ideas @ Work Exhibition proudly presented by Telstra Country Wide

Time: 4pm to 8pm

All the introductory professional advice any budding entrepreneur may need to kick-start the commercialisation process gathered under one roof. Whether you're toying with a big idea or have already gone beyond concept stage, you'll find all the relevant Territory and Commonwealth departments, including BusinessACT, AusIndustry and IP Australia, here to help. Telstra Country Wide representatives will also be available to offer personalised telecommunications advice. Get expert feedback on the market potential of your innovation and peruse displays of some of the region's finest inventions.

Ideas @ Work Forum proudly presented by Telstra Country Wide

Time: 5.30pm to 7.15pm

Join James O'Loghlin and a panel of local industry experts to judge our region's best New Inventors. Leading entrants in ICAN's Ideas @ Work Commercialisation Contest will vie for a $10K business planning prize. The package includes: legal counsel and services to the value of $5K from Meyer Vandenberg, Canberra's largest independent commercial law firm; and an accounting services package from global auditing and professional services firm, Ernst & Young. Hear the top five entrant's pitch to the small panel of judges, and flex your own preference via the People's Choice Award.

This event is proudly presented by Telstra Country Wide.

Supported by BusinessACT, AusIndustry, IP Australia and the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy, in association with the Canberra Business Council, Australian Business Limited and Epicorp Limited.

Congratulations to the winner of the inaugural Ideas @ Work Commercialisation Contest and the People's Choice Award, Perpetual Water - Home™.

Congratulations to the runner-up of the Ideas @ Work Commercialisation Contest, ELACO® - The Composite Edge.

Following recent successes in securing contracts in the United Kingdom, SoftLaw Corporation is proud to launch its new RuleBurst technology. RuleBurst represents a genuine innovation in public sector administration and a huge step forward in making it faster and easier for government agencies to draft, test and implement complex policy, legislation and associated business processes. The development of RuleBurst was supported by funding from AusIndustry's R&D Start Grant and the ACT Knowledge Fund.

Epicorp presents a panel discussion and networking reception focusing on early incorporation of marketing strategy in start-up business planning to build long-term success.   Panel experts: Helena Krel, Founding Director, StratigiSolve; Kevin Jeffery, Managing Director, Solid Data Corporation; Lindsay Kiley, Marketing Director, Intersystems Corporation, Inc.; and Jonathon Brake, Managing Director, Momentum:tmc, offer unique entrepreneurial and marketing perspectives and will address pre-selected questions from the audience. Send your burning marketing queries to the bookings contact.

If increasing sales in your business is proving a challenge, join the Canberra Business Advisory Service team for expert advice on significantly building sales and profit.   Assess your current marketing strategies, identify areas requiring modification and make improvements using tools such as the ‘Marketing Ramp Up Checklist', applicable to any business.

Centre for Aborginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) Seminar: Locating Entrepreneurialism in Indigenous political process: in the context of land use agreements with the mining industry. Presented by Dr Sarah Holcombe, ARC Research Associate, CAEPR.

How do we enhance collaboration between universities and business to optimise the commercial potential of our innovation and research efforts?

Join Professor Ian Chubb AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of The Australian National University and David Murray, Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Bank, to discuss collaborative strategies that deliver tangible benefits for both the education and business sectors. Supported by The Canberra Executive Forum and the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy.

Questacon's newest gallery: Strike A Chord – The Science of Music opens to the public on Thursday, May 12, 2005.   Explore the universal language of music, rhythm and dance common to every culture on earth. The exhibition focuses on music's vital role in the most sacred elements of life, death, courtship, marriage, celebration and cultural identity. Strike A Chord blends an examination of the psychological, sociological and ethnographical aspects of music with the science of sound from ear physiology to how sound is recorded.

futurePlay from the House of Tomorrow transforms the National Gallery of Australia's Children's Gallery into an ultramodern playroom of the future. Using discovery and games to encourage children's appreciation of art, this exhibition presents a twisted mirror, an animated carpet, a magical rocking horse, a video food fight, a digital baby and a pet couch.

CSIRO Discovery is an interactive showcase of CSIRO's research. It contains an exhibition, education rooms and a cafe set within a spectacular atrium.

The CSIRO Discovery Centre is open Monday to Friday, including public holidays.