‘Spotlight on…’  is our way of showcasing different teams across campus to increase engagement, cohesion and an understanding of who does what at Macquarie. This week, we talk to Ally Clarkson from The Incubator team.

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Who are you?

The Incubator is a community of like-minded innovators housed in a fabulous new co-working and event space available to staff members, students and the local community alike.

What do you do?

The Incubator provides entrepreneur training courses, a program of interesting events and a supportive innovation community where people come to turn their ideas into reality. We also provide co-working and hot desk space, meeting and event areas, and one-on-one support through our network of advisors and experts.

Why do you do it?

Our goal is to build a vibrant entrepreneurial community who share and contribute experience and resources. We want to help people turn their ideas into a tangible venture.

Who do you most frequently work with?

In short, we work with everybody! Including students, researchers, staff, small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), corporates, entrepreneurs and start ups, as well as the wider community. Within the University, we work with PACE, MPID, Future Students and all of the faculties.

What’s a recent achievement you’re proud of?

We have run two pilots of our academic mico-credential short courses; Start Here and Design Thinking, which both received an extremely high volume of applicants. They have been very well-received, and more modules are currently in the making! As these modules roll out, so will more opportunities to get involved. We also hosted Pitch@Palace with the Incubator being opened by HRH Prince Andrew. Most of all we are proud of the community who have had some notable early successes.

What’s planned for the future? Anything exciting on the horizon?

The Incubator runs weekly Speaker Series events every Wednesday night 5:30pm-7:30pm, and we encourage everyone to come along and get involved. We are also launching our Go Program which consists of weekly practical workshops every Tuesday night 5:30pm-7:30pm, along with the speaker events, to give an understanding of the key steps of the innovation journey. Participants can follow the entire 10-week program, or dip into specific topics that they are interested in, using it like a tool kit.

How do we engage with you? Where can we learn more?

The best way to keep up to date with everything at the Incubator is by becoming a member through our weekly newsletter, best part is it’s free! Sign up today.