Thanks to the collaborative work of countless UTS students, alumni, academic and professional staff, UTS Startups has recently celebrated four years of the program, with 900 startups created and 450 still active. After the challenges of COVID-19 and empty buildings, the startups community has been flooding back to campus – now occupying buildings 15 and 16, as well as the ever-visible UTS Startups @ Central space, formerly the location of the Co-op bookstore on the corner of Building 3.
The UTS Startups Festival (currently running until 2 September) has now entered its third year, with a mainly on-campus suite of experiences designed to inspire and support students, alumni, staff and the public on their entrepreneurial journey.
‘Convince the world’
What does it mean to be truly ‘convincing’? Imagine if startup founders, or really anyone at all, was able to convince others of the value, importance and relevance of their work? Their ideas? Their values? Startup culture is synonymous with ‘pitching’. We often host pitch events and competitions and thought it would be great to theme the entire festival around being able to do this.
It’s not just about startups winning awards, or getting their name out there. What we really want to see is people learning how to articulate their work and ideas in a way that compels others. If we were the place where that kind of thing happens, imagine what would be possible?
Murray Hurps, Director of Entrepreneurship at UTS
Celebrate at the awards ceremony
For the first time, UTS Startups Awards and the UTS Venture Day have combined to bring two celebrations of entrepreneurship together. The awards will be run across two heats, giving startups the chance to pitch to a smaller, supportive audience and judging panel. The highest quality pitches will compete at the Awards finals on 31 August. Prizes from a range of partners total more than $60,000 in value and the judging panel will be made up of industry experts and startup founders.
Connect and collaborate
Anyone can join in the Festival to learn, experience and support entrepreneurs and students or alumni can join UTS Startups and pitch in the Awards. Go to the official Startups Festival website for more information, including the full list of events.