Tag: queensland

Our NPD team started to dream about a way to take Australia's rainwater collection experience to the world. As people globally begin to see how they can contribute to the water cycle through the collection of rainwater we asked, "How can we get Australia's learnings over the last decade, put it all in one product and make rainwater simple? Let's make a product that people won't need to worry about, will find easy to use and will let them contribute to our water system."

A research team custom-built a 3D laser range sensor for mapping the environment from a moving vehicle. The research group had previous experience with 2D laser mapping and positioning, and when extending their work to three dimensions was required to overcome a number of challenges. Most significantly, acquiring a full 3D scan takes much longer than a 2D scan, and therefore the data is susceptible to distortions due to the vehicle's motion. A software solution was developed and tested with the sensor mounted on a Bobcat driven around our research facility.

This innovation initially came to life when a typically short snow season left the inventor thinking about how he could get the snowboard experience all year long. A love of extreme sport, a desire to ride a board off-road all year long and huge amount of ingenuity allowed the inventor to construct a proof of concept. It took 10 years from having the idea to riding the proof of concept in 2004. The outcome will be the best of skating / snowboarding / motoX all combined into one awesome electric powere off-road product.

Invoiceplace was born from the frustration of staying up late to create and send invoices. It was too much of a hassle and was something that ended up being put off, which is potentially disastrous for the cashflow of any business. This grew into a mission to provide a robust and professional online quoting and invoicing service, without being complex and intimidating. Invoiceplace is now used worldwide to help small business do what they do best and grow their business.

LEVESYS personnel were reflecting on development projects for annual software upgrades. Always aiming to deliver greater value to clients with each upgrade, we surveyed our clients to identify where they were experiencing costs and brainstormed ideas to lower these costs. The concept of Perspectives was born and we knew we were onto something as the idea grew and evolved and the benefits to our clients became more evident as did our enthusiasm for the project as an organisation.

We saw the need for Business to be able to access simple, clear web strategy consulting + planning, and thence order 'best of breed' related site/s and systems, for a low cost (less than half that of traditional processes), get it fast, and then access ongoing support and an ever expanding library of member's only 'how-to' content on Web Marketing (and anything that touches it), along with the usual 'how to use the system' type stuff and direct support. This is the advanced (revised) version of something I've been working on (albeit slowly) for 3.5 years.

The two founders realised that they weren’t alone with their struggle to learn accounting, particularly so in the business world where financial illiteracy is rife. In Melbourne, in 1992, Mark and Peter started to design a new sort of financial literacy workshop for businesses. Further development ensued in South Africa and we went global in 2000 with a two-day financial literacy workshop. We continued to refine our unique learning system and today this same workshop takes about 5 hours. We have other products with e-versions underway and will launch the Colour Accounting learning system as a product this year.

I was watching TV and the subject was a Singaporean ship had become stacked on the beach at Caloundra Qld. To refloat the vessel two Chinook helicopters were used to take containers off the ship, some with a weight of over 7,000 kgs and out of the blue the following crossed my mind: "If a 7,000 kgs-plus container can be easily lifted by a Chinook, a water tank can be easily lifted as well...If the biggest fire chopper can lift only 6,000 litres or kilograms...Bingo! I got a new idea and long research begins."

The 2010 Australian Innovation Festival celebrates its ninth anniversary by again focusing on the 4Cs of Innovation -- Creativity, Connections, Collaboration and Commercialisation. This year’s Festival theme “Building Sustainable Businesses” highlights the importance of innovation during this period of regeneration from last year’s global economic uncertainty.

A Queensland entrepreneur is hoping Chinese demand will solve one of northern Australia’s most pressing natural problems: cane toads.

A Queensland entrepreneur is hoping Chinese demand will solve one of northern Australia’s most pressing natural problems: cane toads.