ArtLife, an app that integrates into a smartphone camera and gallery settings to sort and organise photos by life event, took out the top prize at the QUT Creative Enterprise Australia creative tech Startup Weekend.
Beating out ideas including 3D printing for affordable houses and a system to automate artists booking venues, the ArtLife team has won $10,000 worth of prizes, including legal advice, accountancy support, video content strategy workshopping, and tech mentorship from Microsoft.
Majella Edwards, cofounder of the all-woman ArtLife team, said the app looks to change the way we look after our digital memories.
“So many of us have thousands of photos of our phones, which means that when you’re looking for one particular memory it can be really difficult to try and track that down,” she said.
“We become so emotionally invested in our digital photos because they are how we now track our memories. Whether it’s photos of your baby, a friend’s wedding, or even the artwork your kid brings home from school, people want to have easy and reliable access to those memories.”
101 entrepreneurs attended the hackathon, the second creative tech-focused Startup Weekend to be run by CEA.
CEO Anna Rooke said, “Around 90 per cent of attendees this weekend have never even been to a startup weekend before, which really goes to show the interest and gap when it comes to creative tech.
“We’ve had entrepreneurs from Sydney, Melbourne, and even central Queensland come to this year’s Startup Weekend, so we’re really glad that we can help mentor and educate the new entrepreneurs in the creative industries.”
The potential for entrepreneurs in Australia’s creative industries has also been recognised by marketing and communications group GroupM, which has launched a collaborative innovation program partnering clients with employees to come up with new solutions to clients’ business problems.
The program, mSpark, will launch through a six week pilot, with clients including Nespresso, KFC, and Foxtel taking part.
As part of the program, GroupM has partnered with Sydney-based coworking space Vibewire to house the teams and connect them with Vibewire members.
Jack Smyth, innovation director at Mindshare and chair of NCo, a committee of young employees from GroupM Australia’s companies, said the mSpark program has been designed to give clients the skills and perspective to look for new solutions in every brief.
“Where most agencies treat innovation as a black box or act as an intermediary between clients and startups, I wanted to set an example with a transparent, collaborative relationship where that agile approach could feed into every brief after the sprint finished. It’s about working with clients to explore what’s possible,” he said.
Image: the ArtLife team. Source: Supplied.
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