5 regular inspiring Melbourne events for creatives, innovators and entrepreneurs
CreativeMornings event in Melbourne.
Learning via books, podcasts and virtual tools are a fantastic way to gain knowledge and stay inspired, but there’s something special about meeting like-minded people and exchanging ideas in person.
After working in very small teams and as a remote employee, I’ve found it extremely valuable to attend live events and meet amazing humans doing great work.
There are regular events happening all around the world that are specifically designed to inspire people, and these events are often organised by dedicated volunteers. Below are some of these events that are hosted in Melbourne regularly. I’ve attended and enjoyed the below events in Melbourne for several years, and along with their hundreds of return attendees, I can attest to their benefits of countless free lessons, high potential for quality connections and endless inspiration to make positive changes.
Did I mention these events are FREE?
By sharing this short list, I want to not only shout-out to the awesome event organisers, but I hope to encourage others to take a chance and step out of their comfort zone, attend one of the events where you will either learn something new or meet someone new. Even if you have to walk in the door alone, you won’t be solo once you get there. There’s always another person to arrive by themselves who is probably more nervous and more shy than you are — just say hi and ask them why they came.
Each of the below events are hosted in Melbourne once a month, often have snacks and drinks (huge bonus) and are filled with inspired and inspiring people. The speakers are usually experts in their field who are there because they want to share their knowledge. The list outlines the what the event involves, where it is in Melbourne and more details about the events proceedings.
Attend five highly recommended regular inspiring events in Melbourne (and some in other cities) for creatives, innovators and entrepreneurs:
1. CreativeMornings
“Breakfast lecture series designed for the creative communities”
What? Inspiring breakfast keynotes / lectures
Where? Usually at The Commons in Collingwood or Billy Blue Design School near Flinders Street, Melbourne CBD
Why should you attend? To gain insights from creative people
What makes it a great event? The attendees are creative and the speakers are always interesting and engaging. The event is sponsored by both international and local creative companies. In Melbourne, the organiser — Jeremy Wortsman of The Jacky Winter Group — chooses volunteers from the crowd to read out the sponsor notices and they receive a Milligram notebook. So if you’re brave, you could leave with a fresh notebook for new ideas or perhaps lessons you’ve learned from the keynote. Also, there are usually croissants and coffee from St Ali.
Bonus benefit: You can re-watch some of the ~8,000 CreativeMorning talks on their website. Bookmark this to complement your TEDTalk watching.
What’s CreativeMornings all about?
CreativeMornings are monthly events all around the world. As of Nov 2019, there are 207 chapters that meet up every month across 65 countries. A monthly theme is chosen by one of the chapters and an artist from that chapter creates an image for it, and then speakers are chosen by each local chapter to share their story through which they can educate attendees about a topic or share lessons they’ve learned in the trenches.
There are a team of volunteers behind this event in Melbourne and they choose a wide range of speakers from different backgrounds who are always informative, engaging, and often very funny. Previous speakers include artists, designers, game-developers, startup founders and passionate people doing their thing. There’s usually time to ask questions.
Other locations: In Australia, there’s also Creative Mornings in Sydney, and in New Zealand there’s a chapter in Auckland. If there’s not one in your city, you could start a chapter!
2. Startup Victoria Pitch Night
“Encouraging more people to be founders and helping founders to be more successful”
What? Evening of founders pitching their startups + judging
Where? Often at Melbourne CBD co-working spaces like Stone + Chalk near Southern Cross Station
Why should you attend? To earn about new startups in the ecosystem
What makes it a great event? There’s usually a judge’s choice prize winner, and there’s audience participation to help choose a People’s Choice winner.
What’s startup vic pitch night all about?
Startup Victoria is one of the best and most dedicated organisations in Australia that supports startup founders. They offer a range of programs and events for founders, and these pitch nights are a highlight. Usually near the end of the month, these pitch nights have a different theme and a different sponsor / partner.
There have been pitch nights that provide opportunities for female founders, impact driven businesses, migrant and first generation entrepreneurs as well as industry specific themes like FinTech, EdTech, SpaceTech, HealthTech, SportsTech.
This event is always trying to be more inclusive and innovative — one month there was The Secret Pitch where the judges faced away from the founders and the founders pitched through voice modulation software to try to prevent unconscious bias.
Other locations: In Sydney, the Fishburners co-working space hosts regular similar pitch nights.
3. Fuckup Nights
“Honest stories about failure”
What? Evening honest speeches about failure
Where? In a range of locations — usually around the Melbourne CBD
Why should you attend? To learn from other people’s experiences
What makes it a great event? The humans that speak at these events are usually always exceptionally kind, honest and keen to share their lessons so others don’t have to f* up like they have. The people that attend are super supportive and great humans too.
Bonus benefit: You can watch videos of previous Fuckup Night talks.
What’s fuckup night all about?
Fuckup Nights are for those people who want to hear about life — without filters. Sharing stories about failure, and the honesty that comes is extremely valuable to learn from.
Fuckup Nights are hosted all over the world with over 300+ meetups in 90+ countries. Usually 3–4 speakers have 5–10minutes to share their stories and lessons — with or without slides. Each speaker is unique and has their own way of sharing their stories and the knowledge that comes along with that. It’s great you’ll always be a little surprised.
Other locations: These run around the world including in other major cities around Australia and in New Zealand.
4. Melbourne Connect
“Connecting people, places and possibilities”
What? Breakfast panels with academics + industry experts
Where? Usually at The University of Melbourne at 10 La Trobe Street in the Melbourne CBD near the Victoria State Library
Why should you attend? The speakers at these events are always super experts in their chosen field and have a wealth of knowledge to share.
What makes it a great event? There’s usually time for audience questions and the Graphic Recording summary of the discussion is always informative.
What’s melbourne connect all about?
Melbourne Connect events are running in the preparation of the Melbourne Innovation Districts which is opening at the end of 2020. Each month, an innovative topic is chosen and academic, industry and experts engage in an informative and future focused panel discussion.
Melbourne Connect aims to connect research, industry, government, students and elite thinkers in one location and it will be placed in the upcoming Melbourne Innovation District which is opening at the end of 2020. This means there are around a year’s worth of upcoming Melbourne Connect events coming up!
5. Startup Grind
“..largest independent startup community..”
What? Fireside chats with well-known and successful people in the startup world
Where? Usually somewhere in the Melbourne CBD
Why should you attend? You’ll most likely learn something new and meet some local entrepreneurs
What makes it a great event? The values of Startup Grind are all about supporting others so it attracts people who want to help and get things done:
We believe in making friends, not contacts
We believe in giving, not taking
We believe in helping others before helping yourself.
What’s Startup grind all about?
In partnership with Google for Startups, Startup Grind is a huge global network of over 2M entrepreneurs. There are monthly meetups around the world in 600 cities across 125 countries. Monthly meetups feature experts who usually have experienced some sort of known success and who willingly share their knowledge.
And they also have flagship conferences like the Startup Grind APAC Conference presented by MYOB. Over two days in Melbourne, the conference features local and international startup founders, investors and supporters. It’s a great opportunity to learn more and connect with people involved with startups from around APAC.
BONUS MELBOURNE EVENTS
Startup Victoria share most of the upcoming startup events on their website and on their mailing list.
One Roof regularly organise a range of female founder focused events in Melbourne. Here you can read a wrap up of YOU GOT THIS.
Innovation Bay run startup events around Australia with a focus on connecting founders and investors.
General Assembly occasionally host panels and fireside chats on creative topics — alongside their regular educational workshops and courses.
Often co-working spaces like The Commons and The Hub regularly host events
ALTS Events: Three out the five regular events above are co-organised or are sometimes facilitated by Garry Williams, founder of ALTS (A Lot To Share) Projects. As a side-hustle based on his passion to create engaging events all about unconventional career paths and the projects that consume us. We should be seeing more regular ALTS events like Tech Showcases and deep dives into sub culture and pop culture.
So, which event are you going to attend next month?
If you know of more inspiring events in Melbourne, please let send me a message to let me know about them.