Transcript
PAT SPELLMAN: We have got people travelling down in Wellington, Christchurch, all over Aotearoa. It's a celebration of ideas, a celebration of start-up entrepreneurial spirit. It happens over 54 hours, starting on the 25th, so this weekend and it goes through to the 27th, the afternoon and it's happening in Manukau, the heart of the Pacific in Auckland. Basically it's just an idea where a group, it could be a developer, somebody who has come up with an original idea. People in marketing, could be a graphic artist, they pitch ideas for new start-up companies. They have got to be original ideas, we form teams around those ideas and then those teams all individually work as collectives to come up with working prototypes or demos, presentations and then by Sunday evening they have the opportunity of a life-time to present those to, not only all of their fellow developers and those that have come up with their own ideas but a panel of mentors, a panel of judges and then of course there are the invited guests who all have capital funds available to potentially invest into these prototypes and create original companies and original concepts.
DON WISEMAN: It is like a very large version of Dragon's Den?
PS: Yeah. I mean Dragon's Den or more recently the Shark Tank, the American version of that. So you come in with your idea that you think is the million dollar idea, you work with a group of like-minded individuals to flesh out the idea, do your SWOT, [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threat] analysis and come up with why it is that million dollar idea and then you get a chance to pitch it to some people that are going to pull you apart and hopefully you've got the answers to the questions and you jump over the hurdles. If the idea is strong enough and good enough, on the weekend, like we have seen in so many different occasions all over the world, you have got these companies that go on to become actual limited companies that are making a measurable difference in their various communities.
DW: Who is behind it Pat?
PS: So this start-up with the Auckland Pasifika, basically we are a whole heap of like-minded individuals that have experience in different areas and for the most part come under that umbrella of people that have a passion for the Pacific and hopefully we can work with these like-minded individuals to create a measurable difference for that Pacific economy and the communities moving forward.
