A unique group of 86 students, researchers, primary producers, startup founders, engineers and industry representatives came together over the weekend at University of New England’s SMART Farm in Armidale, NSW for Agmentation 2018.

Coordinated by UNE SMART Region Incubator, attendees took part in a 24- hour hackathon style event, driven by challenges sourced from local primary producers. A Friday evening start on campus at UNE included hearing video submissions from four primary producers, giving attendees real-life scenarios to address during the event.

After a resounding success at 2017’s inaugural event, Agmentation 2018 took a focus on solving grassroots agribusiness problems together with the mission statement “Weighing In – Measuring Productivity in Non-Traditional Ways”.

Styled as a ‘sprint-and-pitch’ style problem-solving event, attendees arrived at UNE SMART Farm on the Saturday. The diverse range of participants formed 8 groups, each working on a different idea inspired by the primary producers. Concepts were developed through a quick ideation process guided by mentors, lending expertise from startup, research and industry backgrounds.

“We were excited to see the opportunity picked up by such a great group – we had high school students from the region working alongside engineers from Cisco and developers from Auctions Plus – we also had team members from ANZ and Commonwealth Bank Australia, the New England AgTech Cluster and Business NSW as well as NBN Australia and CSIRO. To see everyone working so collaboratively and really embracing the challenge was fantastic.”

Sue-Ellen Hogan is the Manager of the UNE SMART Region Incubator who are supported by the NSW Government’s Department of Industry through the Boosting Business Innovation Program. She adds that the event has been a huge opportunity for participants in the pitch competition to meet and impress a highly esteemed panel of judges.

“It’s not often you have the chance to apply innovative, entrepreneurial and collaborative skills in the sort of context that will give you the opportunity our winning team will enjoy in the next 12 months. The SMART Region Incubator will be home to winning team The Rainmakers, who’ll work with our Expert in Residence as well as spending valuable time with a partner of CSIRO’s Innovation Fund.”

The Rainmakers team, including Angus Street – newly announced CEO of AuctionsPlus – impressed the judges with their proposed tech-based platform for tracking and recording data for cattle, bringing their idea home with a strong pitch.

Giving participants the exposure to an adrenaline-filled 24 hour hackathon style event in regional NSW opens the region up to new opportunities to collaborate, but it also provides primary producers with a chance to share their current challenges and to contribute to a larger conversation.

Laura Simpson from Glennon Valley was one of the event’s primary producers – she shares: “our minds were blown on the weekend by the amazing, intelligent people from across a variety of industries, coming together to work on agribusiness challenges. Their ideas really resonated with us as cattle producers – it was exciting to see such enthusiasm for agriculture”.

Agmentation 2018 has drawn to a close, but for our winning team as well as others inspired by an entrepreneurial spark during the event, the next stage of their journey starts immediately.

To find out more about the UNE SMART Region Incubator, Agmentation 2018 or upcoming events, visit smartri.com.au or contact Sue-Ellen Hogan via shogan23@une.edu.au or phone 0409 929 632.