King Island Capers
Last week the Seedlab Sisters Cradle Coast team island hopped to King Island for 5 days of workshops, sight seeing and catching up with new and longer standing members of our Seedlab Village. We loved every minute of our King Island sojourn, from dodging the showers to make videos with lighthouses and rainbows in the background, to meeting the art and craftspeople at Reekara Primary School (Hi Sharelle), and the Cultural Centre (Hi Alison).
We explored the length and breadth of the island, particularly falling in love with the big sky, the big waves and the rich birdlife: we saw Sea Eagles, Cape Barren geese, Hawks, Satin flycatchers, Tasmanian Moorhens, and of course the obligatory turkeys, pheasants, peacocks and Muscovy ducks. We also enjoyed a bountiful taste of King Island Cheese both at the Dairy and at the Boathouse for our impromptu picnic, plus a working ‘breakfast’ at the Brewhouse, lunch at The Larder, and dinner at the KI Hotel, Legs and The Oleada. King Island is delicious!
More than 20 people from a diverse range of businesses, with some still at the dreaming and planning stage, joined us at the King Island Brewhouse on Thursday the 4th August to learn about ‘Unlocking the Potential in Your People’, led by Amanda Hinds, and on Friday the 5th, we were ‘Saying it Simply’ with myself and the team.
The aim of the Seedlab Sisters Cradle Coast program is to inspire, inform and connect women in North-West Tasmania, who may want to be more entrepreneurial, or, who are already entrepreneurial enough, but who may want to grow their business further. The program is being evaluated and learnings recorded by Deanna Hutchinson, a PhD student at Swinburne University.
Sarah and Corey Brazendale of King Island Brewhouse participated in Seedlab Tasmania Bootcamp 3 in May 2021. At that time, the 6 week program covering business, consumers, products and how they are made, sales, marketing and pitching, was enough for where they were at, now they are considering whether they have time to do Cultivate, our 4 month Accelerator program. “Bootcamp was a whirlwind look at all aspects of business that we needed to know (and many that we didn’t know we didn’t know about), and one of the most valuable parts for us, were the conversations it stimulated about many topics we hadn’t considered yet.” Sarah said.
Last week was the first time we have actually met Sarah and Corey (and William) face to face, and saw their welcoming Brewhouse. Corey was telling us about the draught beer he has created from local heritage hops found on King Island, that were over 100 years old and sounded like they hadn’t had the usual tending and care. We love a story like that!
Sarah said “It was great to finally meet the crew who make all the Seedlab magic happen. The workshops were well attended by a bunch of passionate business people (or future business people) who showed their love for King Island and their drive to share this with others through their business ideas. ‘Unlocking the Potential in Your People’ was particularly beneficial for me. It provided me with some great tools to help make working with family more rewarding and sustainable.”
One of the other aims of our Seedlab Sisters Cradle Coast Workshops was to inform and enthuse participants to apply for the Seedlab Sisters Bootcamp Programs, which are the only Seedlab Tasmania Bootcamp Programs running this year. All Tasmanians are welcome to apply for this program, although if places become limited, women from North-West Tasmania will be given preference.
Our Seedlab Sisters Bootcamp Program is open to people with a dream, a passion or a purpose to create a future for themselves doing what they love, but they may not have established a profitable, sustainable business before. The businesses concerned could be making jam, raising alpacas, or setting up a retreat for yoga. You name it.
Seedlab has a unique, proven program of training and support, and connections to a community of entrepreneurial people all over Tasmania and farther afield, too. We’ll provide you with tools, info and support to start, scale and grow your business. Seedlab Bootcamp is a FREE program thanks to the funding from the Department of Communities and the Cradle Coast Authority. Applications are open til early September, and the program will start in the third week of September.
Seedlab Sisters Bootcamp will be run online, so as long as you can find an internet connection, you can dial in from anywhere. There are two options, with live discussions once a week for 90 minutes around lunchtime, and another option in the early evening. All the other info is available online for viewing and thinking about in your own time. And we’ll be there to guide you through it. You have nothing to lose except your dreams…so go on… apply.