What the government should actually be doing to foster innovation instead of “bullshit marketing campaigns”

By Eddie Cranswick

We’re seeing big business and the Australian government trying to align themselves with innovation and entrepreneurialism a lot lately.

But how about instead of wasting money on ads and bullshit marketing campaigns you start actually creating value for young and aspiring entrepreneurs in the community?

Why not pay to bring out some successful global entrepreneurs, put on free meet-ups and talks with said global entrepreneur and actually engage with the startup community where we are instead of re-targeting me with Facebook ads about your so called “innovation”?

We’re crying out for startup conventions and events where we can showcase our talents and innovations, meet like-minded global entrepreneurs and start being taken seriously as a nation.

I think it’s ludicrous that we should have to fork out up to $400 for the StartCon convention. Why not subsidise these events and allow it to become accessible to entrepreneurs and innovators who may not have the disposable income to afford at early stages?

Hackathons are incredibly popular and allow entrepreneurs a real chance to learn and grow their ideas by actually implementing and testing them. Why not start funding these amazing events and fostering the ideas and talent that is showcased?

We’re not rich and loaded with investors money, we’re scraping by and reinvesting anything back into our businesses to achieve growth.

If you so badly want to align yourself with the startup community then stop with the bullshit innovation rhetoric and start doing something worthwhile.

Entrepreneurs will take notice if you start actually bringing value to the table. We see through the bullshit and create change, that’s what we do best.

We know what we want and we know what we need – start listening.

Until then, we couldn’t care less if your bank or government department just realised innovation is the buzzword for 2016.

Eddie Cranswick is the creative founder of Now VR and a community member of Fishburners.

This piece was originally published on LinkedIn.

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