Myriad Coast connection

INNOVATION and technology festival Myriad may be based in Brisbane, but the Gold Coast will still make its mark at the massive event next week.

Myriad kicks off on May 16, and organisers expect a crowd of 5000 to show up to hear from speakers including Google Ventures founder Bill Maris and Steve Jurvetson, who sits on the board of Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX companies.

This year Myriad has chartered a Qantas 747 — dubbed Myriad Air, which will fly heavy hitters from Silicon Valley to Brisbane.

The Gold Coast will play its part when The Star hosts an event called Gold Coast Way Ahead — a collaboration between Myriad and Gold Coast City Council for Gold Coast Business Week — the day before the festival kicks off.

Not only that but Bond University is a sponsor of Myriad and Adam and James Gilmour, the co-founders of Pimpama-based Gilmour Space Technologies, will grace the stage to talk about space technology during the festival.

Myriad co-founder Martin Talvari, who has lived at Burleigh Heads, said he remains a fan of the Gold Coast, where he has been based while organising both the first and second festivals.

“Icame to Burleigh, when I was organising the first year’s event. Most of my work is done online, via email, and being in Burleigh was paradise,” he said.

Mr Talvari said the Gilmour brothers will share the stage with Mr Jurvetson for a panel discussion during the afternoon of the second day of the festival.

“They’ll talk about space travel, city-to-city rockets and self-driving cars,” he said.

“The brothers are well placed there and it will be an exciting talk.”

Mr Talvari was the chief strategy officer for Slush, a major start-up conference in Finland, which began in 2011 and recently hosted 20,000 people.

He wants to build Myriad to the point where it plays the same role that Slush plays, except in Australia.

Mr Talvari said the festival was not a talkfest, but a place where start-ups and entrepreneurs could meet people who could transform their idea or business.

“The main KPI for us is: how many meaningful connections are made at the event? We’re building this new product we will launch at the end of Myriad. You give some information about yourself, what you do, what you’re looking for, then we not only just match you online, we find you a space where you can go and talk.”

Mr Talvari said he had seen a number of start ups succeed, and fail too.

He said start ups failed due to a number of reasons including a clash of visions, and a lack of financial skills.

“First time founders when they make money, they get an office, but they don’t manage the money properly and then the pressure comes. And then they’re forced to take bad investments or terms,” he said.

“My advice is to hire a chief finance officer as soon as possible.”

Mr Talvari said when it came to start-ups, there can be only one vision.

“A clash of vision is a time bomb,” he said.

“I would never start a company when there are two or three competing visions.”

Gold Coast Business Week runs from May 14 to May 18 while Myriad is held from May 16 to May 18.