Young Eyes Festival of Innovation

12/10/2023

Congratulations to all of our finalists!

We had 8 incredible pitches from our finalists at Young Eyes Festival of Innovation on Saturday 7th October from Illawarra and Shoalhaven high schools.

Our finalists all completed the 90 second pitch round and showcased their business idea with a presentation slide on the screen.

Our judges had the difficult decision of selecting our top 5 pitches to go into the question and answer round, where they expanded on their business idea to the judges and audience.

We are so proud of their accomplishments and how well they pitched in front of an audience!

Please see the photos of all finalists that participated in the festival!

10/10/2023

Congratulations to our Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2023…Isa Chapman!

Isa Chapman is a 13 year old, Year 7 student from Nowra Christian School and she presented her business called ‘Cosmic Cookies’ a completely allergy-free range of cookies at the Young Eyes Festival on Saturday 7th of October.

Isa won the hearts, minds and stomachs of our judges and they were very impressed with her pitch presentation, which granted her the winning title!

Isa has won a 12 month scholarship with a business mentor to take her business launch to market!

We are so proud of her hard work and determination in showcasing her business idea at the festival with her fellow finalists from schools in our local region.

We wish her all of the best in her business journey and look forward to watching her progress and development over the next 12 months.

Congratulations to Isa! Please follow her business instagram page …you can find her business page in our young eyes bio!

06/10/2023

The Young Eyes Festival is finally here!

Join us tomorrow at Wollongong Town Hall at our Young Eyes Festival of innovation 2023!

The highlights are our amazing finalists pitching their business ideas and our keynote speaker ‘Paul Smith’ sharing his business journey.

Offical opening is from 10am! Don’t be late ⏰

04/10/2023

Meet Tylney Taylor!

Tylney is one of our judges for the Young Eyes Festival of Innovation 2023

About Tylney,

Tylney is Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at Sicona Battery Technologies.

Before joining Sicona Tylney worked with Lendlease as Head of Digital Engineering and Innovation Engineer at Laing O’Rourke’s Engineering Excellence Group, which is where he met Sicona cofounder Andrew Minett.

Tylney has run his own startups and exited in the online multi-sided marketplace world in 2009-2014. He had 10 years of computer graphics in film and television as a CGI supervisor, 3D technical director and in the last five years was a company owner where he pioneered a remote first virtual studio setup.

Before then Tylney worked in commercial real estate development and aerospace engineering. As Sicona’s Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy officer, he is the right hand to the cofounders Christiaan Jordaan and Dr Minett. His role oversees IT, special projects and managing the overall strategy of Australia’s most exciting emerging battery materials company.

We look forward to having Tylney as one of our judges this Saturday the 7th of October at Wollongong Town Hall!

04/10/2023

2 days until the Young Eyes Festival of innovation 2023!

Join us at Wollongong Town Hall to watch our amazing finalists pitch their business ideas and be inspired!

Saturday 7th of October from 10am!

18/09/2023

Paul Smith - Keynote Speaker & Judge

Get to know Paul!

Paul Smith has decades worth of experience at the highest levels of international sport and business.

Paul is the founder and chairman of leading Australian sport and entertainment agency Total Sport and Entertainment and majority owner and chairman of National Basketball League franchise, the Sydney Kings, and Women’s National Basketball League franchise, the Sydney Flames. Under Paul’s stewardship the Kings have won back-to-back NBL Championships. He is also the co founder of Illawarra-based communications agency, South Break Media, with former Mercury editor Julian O’Brien.

We are thrilled to have Paul as our keynote speaker and judge at the Young Eyes Festival for 2023!

📌October 7th @ Wollongong Town Hall 🎤

13/09/2023

Meet Emily Bobisn!

Emily is one of our judges and speakers for the Young Eyes Festival of Innovation 2023

About Emily,

Emily is a founding director of Compass IoT, a multi-award-winning Road Intelligence company that uses Connected Vehicle data to build better, safer transport and city infrastructure.

She has 7+ years of experience operating tech-enabled mobility startups. Emily was also a finalist for NSW Young Woman of the Year 2022 and winner of Women in Digital's Innovator of the Year 2022.

We look forward to hearing Emily on 7th of October and having her as one of our judges!

08/09/2023

Zig Zag Hub just completed the 'Second Round, Pitch Fest' for the Young Eyes Festival of Innovation 2023, with 20 high school students from the Illawarra and Shoalhaven pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges at our Wollongong space on Wednesday 6th September!

The pitches were compelling, and the judges were so impressed with the bright ideas coming from young entrepreneurial minds, ages 13 - 17 years.

The judges were amazed by the talent and all participants are moving on to the FINAL round at Wollongong Town Hall, on Saturday 7th of October at the Young Eyes Festival, to go into the running to become the 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2023!'.

Check out the Illawarra Mercury article on our second round pitch fest!

Just like the TV show, these young hopefuls pitched their ideas before an intimidating panel of experts in...

28/08/2023

We are excited to have Sicona Battery Technologies as our sponsor and as one of the speakers for the Young Eyes Festival! 🤩

Book your seat on the link given in bio and be a part of the Young Eyes Festival of innovation!!

19/07/2023

Pitch Fest!

The Young Eyes Festival will be showcasing the amazing business ideas from local high schools for 15 years at the Pitch Fest!

We are so impressed with the talent this year and we will have finalists from 10 schools having their ideas heard by judges and the community to support them in their entrepreneurial journey!

Stay tuned to be notified when ticket sales are available to purchase, to attend this annual event at Wollongong Town Hall!

19/07/2023

Pitch Fest!

The Young Eyes Festival will be showcasing the amazing business ideas from local high schools for 15 years at the Pitch Fest.

We are so impressed with the talent this year and we will have finalists from 10 schools having their ideas heard by judges and the community to support them in their entrepreneurial journey!

Stay tuned to be notified when ticket sales are available to purchase, to attend this annual event at Wollongong Town Hall!

11/07/2023

WE ARE BACK! 🎉🎉🎉

Young Eyes Festival of Innovation coming to you on Saturday 7th October at the Town Hall Wollongong!

The Zig Zag Hub has been going into the schools in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven delivering our Entrepreneurial program since February, where students from 15 years old go through the ideation process of a business idea and work on their business pitch!

Two students from each school will be selected as finalists to enter into the 'Young Eyes Festival' FINAL ROUND at the Town Hall, and pitch their idea in front of an audience and a panel of judges!

The WINNER will become the 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2023' and receive a 12-month launch to market for their business with a designated mentor.

Stay tuned to find out more about the festival!

14/10/2022

Check out our WIN News Illawarra segment on our Young Entrepreneur of the year - Tehlia Wood! Hosted by Zig Zag Hub

The 15 year olds business blew judges away, and Teliah Woods is now receiving a helping hand to take her ideas a step further. | Channel 8 & 80 (HD)Weeknights from 5:30pm

11/10/2022

Our Speakers!

We had 3 speakers:

📌Ken Kencevski - Virtual Reality
📌Kylie Flament - Sustainability
📌Mitchell Vella - Metaverse

They were amazing at sharing their knowledge and experience in their topics, and the audience enjoyed participating in the Q & A from Kylie and jumping into the metaverse with Mitchell!

Penny Wong - Key Note Speaker

Penny had a compelling and extremely in-depth talk on future changes in technology and all of its possibilities, it was fantastic to watch!

Thank you to all speakers for joining the first Young Eyes Festival! You were all incredible!

10/10/2022

Workshops!
Young Eyes Festival 08.10.22

📍Minecraft
📍Drones
📍Robotics
📍Virtual Reality

There was an amazing atmosphere at the workshops on Saturday and everyone had a great time participating in each activity!

Thankyou to all of our workshop hosts for doing a fantastic job!

10/10/2022

Our Pitch Fest -Finalists!!!

10/10/2022

The Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 is......

Teliah Wood!

Teliah is from Cedars Christian College and started her business this year called 'Resin Memories' where she pitched her business idea in front of a panel of judges at our Pitch Fest, at the Young Eyes Festival of Innovation on Saturday 8 October.

Teliah did an outstanding pitch and we are all so proud of her! She is a well-deserved winner of this award and has received a 12-month launch-to-market scholarship with the Zig Zag Hub commencing in early 2023!

We are looking forward to following her on her business journey with us at the Zig Zag Hub

05/10/2022

ONLY 3 days AWAY!!! 👀

30/09/2022

8 DAYS AWAY!! the countdown is on! 🎟 REGISTER WITH THE LINK IN OUR BIO FOR YOUR FREE TICKETS 🎟

27/09/2022

Our Workshops!

📍Drones
📍Minecraft
📍Virtual Reality
📍Robotics

Suitable for 8 - 18 years!

4 x 45-minute sessions throughout the day - starting from 9am - 3pm!

Register to attend our FREE event https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/young-eyes-festival-of-innovation-tickets-411732030587?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

22/09/2022

Workshop: ROBOTICS!

Per session, 10 participants will be able to experience this workshop!

📍The first session: Building the robots! (See images)

📍Second & Third Sessions: Programming & Building the robots!

📍Fourth Session: Racing & Playing with the Robots!

A perfect workshop for teenagers to participate and you will be able to sign up for the sessions at the workshop on the day!

20/09/2022

METAVERSE 🌐SPEAKER SERIES🌐Introducing Mitchell Vella from Saturn Digital where they support businesses with their online advertising. Mitchell wishes to support incredible businesses to adapt and change to the new opportunities the metaverse will introduce over the next 5-10 years! He believes that businesses will be able to build more personal connections with their customers using this technology.

20/09/2022

What's the future of work?

Our Speakers will be talking about topics in:
📍Virtual Reality
📍Sustainability
📍Metaverse

Register to attend our FREE event via our Eventbrite link: shorturl.at/doV79

Saturday October 8th / 9am - 4pm!

12/09/2022

Our Pitch Fest from Thursday 8 September!

Meet our 6 finalists that will be pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges at our Young Eyes Festival! Your business ideas were so impressive and we can't wait to hear your pitches on October 8th!

Congratulations to everyone that participated, you all did a great job!

To register to attend, use the following link: shorturl.at/doV79

10/09/2022