Nothing like a fun evening in Melbourne’s CBD. As an informal catch-up, some of our IITAV members got together on Wednesday, 18th June at The Elephant and Wheelbarrow in Melbourne.
Thanks to Nikhil for organising the venue. It was the best of our informal networking city venues so far. Picking a Wednesday was a good idea, the place was not crowded and a quiet area allowed the participants to relax and have a chat. Along with our members, we were delighted that Peter Cai of Eureka report and Manjith Lekhi attended and shared their views.
As always, the discussion was objective, constructive and broader than our immediate activities. Suggestions included:
- Follow up on our previous events like iDEA to iNVESTMENT and Opportunity to Success with an event on obtaining investment, grant applications, execution of strategy etc.
- Hold a big event with sponsorship to raise the profile and impact, building on what IITAV has done so far.
- Champion social issues like sexual abuse, family violence in India etc – feedback on this was supportive, however IITAV needs to be in a differentiated space compared to other community organisations and NGOs, perhaps helping to show how technology may be applied to help tackle these important issues.
- Hold more social events rather than professional events. It was noted that we have been trying to do this through several of our events and will aim to improve the mix.
We invite you to attend these informal events which are proving to be popular and appreciated as opportunities to get together and exchange experiences and consider future activities for IITAV.