The Breath of Fresh Air Festival in November hosted the inaugural Tasmania Action Day, an exploration of activities to inspire change in Tasmania's economy and society.
Featuring a series of films and Q&A, forums, debates and master classes designed to showcase storytelling as a catalyst for change, the Tasmania Action Day program featured 5 films on selected topics.
Two topics in particular - 'Renewing Tasmania' and 'Can We Really Change' called for proactive change in the Tasmanian community.
- 'Renewing Tasmania' was co-hosted by Northern Tasmania Development and Startup Tasmania, asking the questions ‘Can Tasmania be renewed?’ and ‘Can startups succeed here?’.
- ‘Can We Really Change’ was co-hosted by the University of Tasmania and asked ‘What does real, lasting change take?’ and ‘How can we move from conflict to progress?’.
A series of action points to be further developed from these session has been posted as a call to action to the broader community on The Examiner website.
Other Tasmania Action Day collaborative events featured masterclasses and workshops, some of the industry's biggest players, including Rick Chen from Pozible, Andy Edwards, formerly with Telstra’s T-Box project and now an entrepreneur and Enzo Tedeschi, creator of hugely successful crowdfunded film The Tunnel.
According to Startup Tasmania's James Riggall, the BOFA initiative was a very successful experiment to highlight new ideas about Tasmania’s future.
"We wanted to draw out the notion that the film industry, for the smaller players at least, is a lot like a collection of startups, and they face the same challenges of any startup community," he says.
"The unique opportunity through the BOFA Festival was to use film as a catalyst for changing minds, then attempt to capture the spirit of the moment and ask the audience to brainstorm, and commit to, some concrete actions which would benefit our region."
"We wanted to demonstrate to people that by working together, great things are possible and you can set your sights high and achieve amazing things."
"Everyone - the audience, presenters and organisers - was thrilled with the result. There was a huge sense of optimism that we have great talent and capability here in Tasmania that we forget to recognise."
The Action Day featured Tasmanian film and digital specialists from across Tasmania, who shared their insights and lessons candidly in panel discussion.
Tasmania Action Day was an initiative of the Breath of Fresh Air Festival, co-sponsored by Startup Tasmania and sessional partners.
Tasmania Action Day was supported by The Examiner (and its Visions for Tasmania series) and by individual session partners, Northern Tasmania Development, MS Society of Tasmania, L.C.C., Dementia Tasmania, Glenview Community Services and UTAS.
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This collaboration also gives the chance to build closer ties with communities like design, media and online — some entrepreneurs themselves, already.
Whether aimed at customers or investors, branding and communications can be vital for success, so closer ties with these communities can only be beneficial. Likewise local ‘creatives’ may benefit from startup experiences, and other perspectives.
Hopefully useful actions stem from this event, the related discussions, and Startup Tasmania’s involvement.