Sunrise Island 2018 in 60 seconds !

“A wonderland for the ambitious. A startup conference by founders, for founders.”

Sunrise Island is presented by Blackbird Ventures and this year, was hosted on Cockatoo Island – a quirky, glorious home for the 1500 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and intrigued guests who attended.

I’m not going to delve into the event ins and outs for this one, but rather, a few key messages and stories that have stayed with me.

This year’s conference was split into keynote speakers & a multitude of workshops hosted by Zambesi – meaning everyone’s day and experience was unique.

Here’s a little from my day on Sunrise Island

Lauris Yoler, Zoox Board Member (amongst a multitude of other impressive roles)

• Surround yourself with the smartest - and kindest people you can find ... in many disciplines
• See the big picture - don't lose sight of the politics, world affairs, and regulatory environment
• Be a lifelong learner
• Get involved with the community at large

Cedar Anderson, Flow Hive Co-founder

Cedar’s a legend ! A reminder to stay true to yourself. His innovative honey harvesting solution raised over US$12 million through crowd funding – breaking records.

Natalie Nguyen, Hyper Anna Co-founder

I found Natalie super inspiring. Hyper Anna is one of the fastest growing startups in the data science space, and through AI enables you to ask plain English questions about key drivers of your business.

From interviewing staff by way of boardgames to closing a $16M funding round, I can’t wait to see more from Natalie.

Rory San Miguel, Propeller Aero Co-founder

In a stalemate with your co-founder? Swap sides. By arguing the opposing side you’ll open yourself up to your partner’s view and hopefully be able to come to a resolution.

WORKSHOP : Building the Perfect Business Pitch & How to elevate your founder brand to grow your business. Alan Jones, M8 Ventures General Partner AND Fleur Brown, TedX Sydney

Alan : Our roles are to sell the future - to be from the future and pop back to the NOW to share a little of the future.

Your Narrative - what type of story are you telling? (A romance, suspense, great western, disaster movie, thriller, sci fi?) 

Presenting is about being (and dressing) in character

People are often so focused on making their deck perfect - they should focus on making their speech / presentation perfect ! Focus on themselves & their presentation, not just the deck.

Fleur : Practice out loud // Power of PAUSE // Get feedback - but ask for specific feedback - what worked, what resonated etc? 

*On the back of this presentation, I’ve booked an all day Zambesi workshop with Fleur around presenting and public speaking.

WORKSHOP : Roadtest your Brand. Simon LeCouteur, Founder, Collaborateur

Case Study : Scenic Tours rebrand : Created around the sense of wonder. Love how this filtered through the business providing purpose & team empowerment - Amazing people creating wonder

Case Study : Hiut Denim : DO one thing well. See founder, David Hieatt’s video around Purpose, passion & brand here

David Hieatt has also founded Do Lectures

WORKSHOP : How to define company values that actually mean something. Didier Elzinga, Co-founder, CultureAmp

Didier reads the following to every new CultureAmp employee.

From Didier : The last two lines of this poem capture for me the heart of what Culture Amp is about. We ask people to bring all that they are, their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, their fears and lay those down. But when they lay those down they need to be aware that they’re also stepping back on someone else’s dreams. We’re all being asked to be vulnerable, even the CEO. By reading people this poem I try and set the bar and show them that we’re a different kind of organization.

* See more from Didier on the power of vulnerability here : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-ive-learned-from-brene-brown-vulnerability-didier-elzinga/

A few other notes that resonated

Little Exercise : What do you believe in? List 20 I believes... (once you get past about 7 your curious brain kicks in - this is when things get interesting)

What will you bring? Why will you not give up?

* Elevate words into values in action 

* Values are not created. They are uncovered

The CultureAmp values:

Remember values are a vessel. Tell stories about them. Bring them to life.

Thank you #SunriseIsland & all participating presenters for a great day. Here's to learning and sharing every day.