Australia’s first app-building workshop for women entrepreneurs
Announcement posted by TiE Sydney 07 Jan 2014
SYDNEY: 13 December 2013 –Women install 40 per cent more apps and pay 87 per cent more for apps than men but account for only 4 per cent of mobile developers.
TiE Sydney ran Australia’s first workshop specifically tailored for 30 non-technical women entrepreneurs. Create-a-thon was sponsored by Commonwealth Bank and Vanessa Beggs (Head of Strategic Initiatives and Innovation) was one of the judges at the event.
Considering that women account for 85 per cent of purchases, bringing entrepreneurs into the app development eco-system looked like the perfect powerhouse for creative innovation.
Participants were given a crash course on app building, fundamentals of designing, marketing, business validation and investment pitching. Many are now ready to take their app ideas to market with the confidence and skills obtained from the workshop.
The two-day workshop, culminated in a pitching competition with $2000 awarded to the winning concept.
Game Gurlz (Janine Cahill, Marianna Cheklin, Denise Archie) took the top honours with their app Doggie Dates winning $2000 and access to a Commbank mentor. Josie Flynn’s CajFriend, a female networking app, won $500 and access to a Commbank mentor. PropellHer, created by Danielle Fletcher and Naomi Kimberlin received $300 and access to a Commbank mentor for their app on mentoring connections.
“The team we formed on the first day will continue to work together to develop our winning Doggie Dates App,” said Janine Cahill, CEO, Future Journeys.
"I've built apps for 3 years, sold one to a US firm and have had tens of thousands of downloads and wanted to share my experience of creating an app that's actually useful to a lot of other people", said Yi Zhang, Founder of Telkitty Digital
"To take a whole bunch of newbies to a place where most of us don't live - deep tech - with a great feel of fun, collaboration and uninhibited learning. Priceless” said Aranka Nolan, Director, Einstein Marketing Group.
"Women consider problems in a different way, so empowering us to build apps provides new solutions to everyday issues. My specialist area of complaints is a great example of this,” said Jo Ucukalo, CEO, www.handlemycomplaint.com.au
"Phenomenal event and the outcome was nothing short of hackathons that have been running 5-7 years in a row," said Andrey Shirben, SYD VenturesFounder & Create-a-thon Judge.
Ends
Media enquiries
Ambika Malvia Director, TiE Sydney
Mob: 0438 171 070
Email: ambika@phonesandplans.com.au
About Create-a-thon event
Speakers included Natasha Rawlings, CEO & Co-Founder at StreetHawk, Katrin Suess, Founder & CTO at Vimily & Startup with Style, Brandon Cowan, Co-Founder & Director, Crazy Dog Apps and Colette Grigc, Lead Startup Advisor at Blue Chilli.
The event was organised and hosted by Ambika Malvia, Director, TiE Sydney, Co-founder OzCompare.com.au and Sophia Demitriades, Strategic Relationship Manager, TiE Sydney.
TiE Women
TiE Women is a community within TiE Sydney – a not for profit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in Australia and around the world.
About Ambika Malvia
Ambika is passionate about encouraging women in tech. She runs a price comparison site OzCompare.com.au and is the Director for women entrepreneurship at TiE.