The Woz Effect
LEIGHTON Wells is an emotional guy.
In the closing moments of Geelong’s tech juggernaut Pivot Summit last year, he struggled to keep them in check.
His baby had grown legs and the tears welled up uncontrollably in front of his friends.
When a personal vision becomes real, it’s a big moment.
Some of Australia’s biggest tech names had graced a lavish stage at the Arena, not the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
They flew into Avalon, not Tullamarine.
They talked about Geelong’s fledgling start-up accelerator Runway not the Melbourne Accelerator Program.
A regional city like Geelong, Pivot founder Wells would say to anyone who would listen, could bat above its weight and put on an event with a global profile equal to SXSW in Houston, Texas.
And Geelong, not Melbourne, would be etched with passion into every element of the media and marketing campaign.
Later, at the after-party in the freshly reimagined Geelong Regional Library, Wells was still shaking off relief when people started talking about next year.
“How will you top that?” they said. “No pressure.” Of course, there is pressure. Events such as Pivot Summit live or die on the talent they attract.
And an event that pitches itself glimpsing the future must be cutting edge as Geelong’s lack of a convention centre raises the degree of difficulty for success (more like shackling entrepreneurs with a ball and chain). But innovation loves constraint.
In its first year, Pivot seated 300 around tables on Cunningham Pier. Last year, the Arena hosted 550.
This year, the event moves to the Federal Woollen Mills site where the main theatre can seat 1200.
Everything about Pivot Summit has the urgency and palpable risktaking of a start-up. Smart entrepreneurs make their own luck, breaking shackles and convention as a rite of passage. This is a good thing. While Pivot is building its reputation, it can afford to be bold and relentlessly ambitious.
Signing up Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak as the keynote speaker is the thrilling achievement that really should have the rest of Geelong rethinking its place in the world.
We all live in a hyper-connected environment, but we don’t behave in a way that takes full advantage of what the world has to offer.
We consume stuff that comes from everywhere, but how often do we truly reach out?
And what might happen if we did?
Signing up the “Woz” has al- ready transformed Pivot Summit this year. “The ‘Woz Effect’, for want of a better term, has meant the interest level in the main session has been enormous,” Wells says.
“Pretty much from the moment we announced him, we haven’t had to search that hard for speakers.
“On average, we’ve been approached every second day, sometimes twice a day, by speakers interested in sharing the stage with him. “We’ve sold out our corporate tables, the exhibition space is sold out and that space is bigger than it has been in previous years. “We’re thinking of expanding it.” Thinking big, taking a calculated, but adventurous risk, leveraging the networks available to them, reaching out to the biggest names in the business — that’s how the Pivot team is redefining global success in a local market. If you do attend the event in December (and I highly recommend it based on last year) think about the event itself as a story that matters to you. Beyond the razzle dazzle of virtual reality and life after smart phones, how Pivot Summit has emerged almost overnight as star attraction is a lesson in a vision and persistence. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, will be keynote speaker at Pivot Summit, Federal Woollen Mills, Geelong, on December 8.