Australia’s first hackathon for creatives set to “disrupt the way physical and digital worlds interact”

Australia’s first startup weekend for creative industries will be held in Brisbane this month with high-profile figures from the community set  to head the judging panel.

With Australia’s creative sector valued at more than $35 billion, the CEO of QUT Creative Enterprise Australia Anna Rooke says the weekend will focus on  inspiring people to start up ideas in this  space.

“We combine tech with fashion, multimedia, robotics, advertising, psychology,”  she tells StartupSmart.

“We’re trying to disrupt the way the  physical and digital worlds interact.”

With the aim of developing more immersive, personalised and multi-dimensional user experiences, the weekend will see groups of “hackers, hustlers and hipsters” develop MVPs to pitch before a judging panel including Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter and Elaine Stead from Blue Sky Venture Capital.

Priced at $49 for students and $99 for everyone else, Rooke says she hopes to see a diverse mix of brainpower colliding at the 54-hour event.

“It’s open to anybody curious about what it takes to build a startup,” she says.

QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) will host the event from March 18th to 20th and registrations are still open.

With a maximum capacity of  80 people, participants will be sorted  into groups of eight to 10 people.

“We assign them to different teams so we a get a good balance of skills and at the end of the weekend they’ll have a MVP they can pitch,” Rooke says.

Rooke says she  wants the event to serve as  a launch pad for new startup ideas and experimentation.

“The reason we’re doing this is we really see the value in harnessing talent in the creative tech industries,” she says.

“This is very much being delivered for the community.”

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.