The Adapptor team has had the privilege of attending multiple events at West Tech Fest 2022 enjoying the long awaited return of in-person conferences. Team members who attended the events, whether it be the West Tech Women Breakfast, Innovation Showcase or the West Tech Fest Conference, left feeling inspired and empowered to be a part of the ever-growing Western Australian technology and innovation landscape.

Over the course of the week, we have put together some key highlights and themes that we think are too good not to share.

Then and Now

Adapptor has had the privilege of supporting the West Tech event as it has grown from its first conference in 2012, when it was a mobile app awards event called the OzApps, through to this week’s festival of technology. The conference event was an amazing time to take a step back and look at how far the event, and the Western Australian tech industry, has come.

The contrast is immense; from Larry’s comments on the day about bootstrapping the original event with speakers staying with him and his wife, to now holding a weeklong event across multiple locations, and having homegrown speakers with very successful startups.

The funding alone is staggering to see. Back in 2012 an entrepreneur looking for funding had to beg friends and family, or those with smarts would seek out wealthy locals who in most cases weren’t ready to bet on the tech sector. However, just last month Blackbird Ventures (co-founded by Rick Walters who has been a long time supporter of West Tech himself) raised the largest ever Australian venture capital fund, banking $1 billion.

However, the single greatest evidence of change was seeing and meeting dozens of people involved in brand new startups that are ready to take on the world. The original OzApps allowed anyone with an idea to enter, with winners gaining some funding and exposure. Today those attending didn’t just have ideas, they have businesses, many with customers already.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years bring.

West Tech Women & Innovation Showcase

After a series of warm welcomes from Professor Harlene Hayne, Stephen Dawson, Hon Ed Husic MP and Rebecca Gordon the women of West Tech Fest were introduced to Laura Clarke, a self-confessed recovering workaholic.

Laura delivered an inspiring speech about rising from the darkest point of her life and finding a renewed sense of purpose after moving to one of the most remote parts of the world. She delivered a powerful message as to how we can all live and work in harmony with our community, culture and environment.

The event finished with a thought-provoking panel, led by Pia Turcinov. Ajintha Pathmanathan, Michelle Hepworth, Sophie Doyle, Bill Tai and Grace Wong. Each of them gave a unique perspective on how to help women be more involved in start-ups.

West Tech Conference

The West Tech Conference was an inspiring and motivating day of keynote speakers, panel discussions and Q&As that showcased some of the best WA tech success stories.

The day began with a rousing speech from Perth Lord Mayor, Basil Zempilas discussing the City of Perth’s long standing relationship and support of West Tech Fest from its inception and how Perth was dubbed ‘The City of Light’. He then went on to moderate a brilliant panel discussion titled ‘Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime: Unleashing the Athlete’s Mindset for Entrepreneurship’.

Our key takeaways from the brilliant Matthew Pavlich, Jason Weber, Diane Smith-Gander and Sophia Nimphius were:

• Champion your strengths and make them differentiators whilst improving upon your weaknesses;

• Build a team around you that has your best interests at heart and that you can trust; and

• You are not going to be an expert in every field, so don’t try to be.

One of our favourite speakers of the day was Grace Wong from Liven. Grace talked about the mindset that has helped along her journey since founding Liven in 2015. Grace spoke with utmost passion for her company and how founders should stop wanting to build ‘unicorns’ but rather, they should be striving to build ‘dragons’.

Grace had four key tips on how to make magic:

• Culture isn’t why you work, it’s how you work

• Instead of buying into attention and hype, focus on customers and community

  • Trust in your offering, and by building a good product that creates a sense of community, much of your marketing will be done for you.

• Love your dragons

  • ‘Dragons’ was in reference to the size of clients. This point was coupled with the fact that when you’re starting out, if you can engage and sign up a ‘mega dragon’ they will act as a magnet to attract other clients.

• Build burgers (platforms), with a focus on the ingredients that differentiate you from competitors

  • Build rapidly & iterate, learning from mistakes

  • Partner - You don’t have to do and build everything by yourself, if there are opportunities to collaborate, look into them

  • Acquire - If you have the opportunity, acquisitions can be an effective way of scaling your product and offering, but make sure you do your due diligence!

After the lunch break we were treated to more great speakers with some fantastic learnings for us to take away.

Rob Newman founded aerial mapping company Nearmap from his garage in Nedlands with the business recently being acquired for more than $1 billion dollars. He discussed the business' journey from start-up to scale-up, and subsequent expansion into North America. 

He highlighted the four mistakes he made during this journey:

• Build the right culture

• It takes years to build culture, but it takes even more to change culture

• Define the culture

• Live the culture, from the top of the leadership structure to the newest graduates

• Reward the culture, because that is how you will maintain it

• North America is not Australia

• When expanding, know where you are expanding into

• Your product offering may (and more likely will) have to change to be successful in different markets

• Not all clients are the same

• The value of clients isn’t just in terms of dollar figures

• Be careful who you engage with and how you engage with them, pending your product offering, you may give them the tools they need to be successful, and they often have no obligation to take you with them.

• Have deep tech

• This was less of a mistake, but more an important point for people in the technical landscape

• Ensure that your offering has differentiators that make you stand out so that you can fend off competitors and be confident that others can’t match your offering

The penultimate talk of the day was a panel discussion with Christina Gerakiteys (Utopiax), Dan Jovevski (WeMoney), David Weir (Radium Capital), Jeremy Chetty (Student Edge+), Julian Reisser (ULUU) and Fleta Solomon (Little Green Pharma). 

The panel discussed ‘The WA Hustle to Expansion’ and spoke about their unique journeys into the tech industry, but also navigating international expansion and the challenges companies face when attempting to do so.

Each panel member left a unique pearl of wisdom for guests, but particularly those interested in beginning their own business:

• Jeremy Chetty told budding entrepreneurs to enjoy the journey and not get wrapped up by self imposed pressures and stresses.

• Dan Jovevski spoke about the importance of creating relationships and reaching out to people, because you never know who might be willing and able to help you along your journey.

• Fleta Solomon reiterated the importance of enjoying the journey, but also emphasised the need for people to have a genuine passion for what they do, otherwise they will burnout and not have success in the field that they are working in.

• Julia Reisser encouraged entrepreneurs to think global with their plans and to not be afraid to try and fix large scale problems that affect people globally.

• David Weir highlighted the need to surround yourself with a strong team that you can depend on (a key theme throughout the day). You aren’t going to know everything about all things and you will cause more damage than good by trying to pretend you know everything. 

The final talk of the day, and a firm favourite for speaker of the day, was Peter Vesterbacka, who is most well known for being the Mighty Eagle at Angry Birds for many years and taking the brand to unprecedented heights. Peter had the entire crowd laughing with his relaxed presentation approach and nonchalant manner discussing the dizzying heights that he led Rovio Mobile Ltd. to during his 6 year tenure. 

Peter discussed Rovio Mobile’s journey and how people often talk about the overnight success of the company, however, Angry Birds was the 52nd game developed and released by Rovio, their successes certainly weren’t overnight and couldn’t be attributed to luck. 

Peter emphasised the need to differentiate your product, people will tell you to emulate ‘x’ and be like ‘y’, but you can not lead by following, and you can not lead by copying. You have to build something that makes you stand out. 

If you can build a culture where people aren’t afraid of doing new things, because they aren’t afraid of making mistakes, you will create an environment that is more likely to build new and exciting innovations. 

Adapptor loved being involved and back in-person at West Tech Fest 2022 and we can’t wait to see everyone again at next year’s conference.