A Presentation at SEGRA

Pic from Kevin Turner, AusIndustry. Thank you!

Timekeeping was of the essence in ‘How we built Community in Seedlab Tasmania in a Pandemic, Via Zoom’, presented by Hazel at the SEGRA: Sustainable Economic Growth for Regional Australia Conference in Devonport this week.

My 5 key points? All supplied by our participants, in terms of how they saw community develop and what was important to them:

  1. Leadership: Energy, honesty, giving people a voice, accountability, authenticity, humanity.
  2. Management – of time, technology (Thanks Darren), training, the chat box, people). Couldn’t have done it without an amazing team.
  3. Hybrid model: Mix of Zoom and face to face, group and 1:1, formal and informal sessions (how else would we have met Charlie pug, Ray?), making networking real by sharing snacks etc.
  4. Connecting by storytelling – especially sharing struggles which was somewhat easier for some via Zoom. Also sharing stories more widely on socials and in mainstream media.
  5. Making it Personal – checking in (R U OK?); Seedlab on Tour where we went to their place1:1; mentoring generally; The Potting Shed – where the whole team met each business for formal mentoring; personalising the watch list in the Seedlab Academy; and ALWAYS REPLYING TO EMAILS!

Learning to build community via Zoom has enabled us to take our program even more regional and focused in Seedlab Sisters, and far wider than we would ever have been able to do face-to-face – via Seedlab Australia.

This was a fabulous conference, well organised and well attended by interesting people. It continues today. Well done Caroline Robinson and team. Also thanks to the Cradle Coast Authority and Devonport City Council.