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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
Connecting, Sharing, Supporting
The G8 Ladies gather to share and discuss takeaways from networking events which they attend
during the month. By sharing we keep our group informed and connected.
Agenda:
16:00 Meet & Network
16:15 Overview, introduction & announcements
16:30 Mini-workshop: 15 minute sessions:
 Maribel Pegler - Committed to developing talent and building supportive high performing
teams and businesses.
 Emma Haller - Digital Strategist with significant experience in architecting and delivering
digital solutions
17:00 Discuss the two-minute takeaways NB. The person who posts the takeaway will present the
discussion.
18:10 Wrap up and Raffle Draw - 3 vouchers for deep grey professional portrait gift cards
18:25 Thanks, next meet up & close
18:30 Networking
19:00 close (strictly closing at 7pm)
TWO MINUTE TAKEAWAYS:
1) Women in STEM on Ada Lovelace Day
Dr Diane Harner
Four very talented Women in STEM made up a Q and A panel :
• Professor Jenny Martin - Director of the Eskitis Institute, Griffith University
• Dr Richi Nayak - Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems, QUT
• Anne Brant - SPARQ-ed Coordinator, UQ
• Mibu Fischer - Marine Ecologist, CSIRO
Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron and due to her work on Charles
Babbage’s "Analytical Engine" is also known as the world's first computer programmer.
The panel gave a brief summary of their background and then took questions from the audience.
Main takeaways:
1. The academic system has been set up "by men for men" so women have quite a few barriers
to success including the need to balance their masculine and feminine traits. ie too feminine =
weak and inferior; too masculine = "b#*ch"
2. Maternal barriers still remain an issue. There needs to be more flexibility in the working
arrangements for men and the cultural acceptability of men taking long term leave following
childbirth
3. Being a woman in a male dominated industry mean that women can be isolated by the
organisational culture which makes it even harder for their voice to be heard.
4. Women need to seek out mentors and be willing to mentor other women around them
5. Gender quotas sometimes encourage the promotion of those who don't have the skillset, then
if a female in that position fails, it opens up the response of "See, I told you!"

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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
6. We need to redefine merit. Merit is defined by the “in group” which in male dominated
industries is usually men. If your track record has always been affected by discrimination or
your journey has been slowed or fractured due to your family commitments, you will never be
able to be accurately evaluated based upon this.
7. Furthermore, there is no such thing as demerit. If somebody behaves poorly then it should be
taken into account when someone is being considered for a role or promotion. This goes for
both men and women.
2) Career tips from the top (female) tech leaders
Kaisu Christie
I had the absolute pleasure sharing a stage last week with six other amazing female leaders in
technology at @CloudExpoAsia in Singapore. Although we all have different backgrounds, differences
in our career paths and education etc - it was amazing how much we shared in terms of what
challenges – and opportunities – we all had faced throughout our careers. And how much we all love
technology! Yes, the #geekgirls.
I learned a lot from my fellow panellists, and would like to share what I thought were the top career
tips from our session. As you will notice, many of them apply to any gender!
• “Be willing to take risks, and put your hand up for opportunities that arise – take roles that
challenge you, even "scare the pants off you" - as that is how you grow”
• “Support the next generation of leaders - and always bring diversity of talent up the ladder. Be
the ‘change agent’ that ensures diversity actually happens in your organisation and industry.”
• “Be clear what you are passionate about, and what your strengths are, and play to them. Your
passion drives you forward - and people notice it.”
• “As a female leader, you have equal right to be ‘at the table’ as anybody else. Make your
voice and opinions heard, and seek allies to support you.”
• “Build networks in and out of your organisation. The higher you go, the lonelier it gets. Your
network will support you, and you will be able to get and share advice with your trusted
network of peers.”
• “Balancing family and work demands isn’t always easy, but it’s up to you what choices you
make - just make sure they align to our own values. If you can, pick a supportive partner -
share family/home chores and get some external assistance.“
• “Seek sponsors in your organisation. The higher you go, the more important it is to have really
good visible and ‘invisible’ network to support and champion you."
3) Take time creating the right foundation for growth
Emma Haller
Dr. Glen Richards, shark tank judge and executive for Greencross urges us to lift our vision and aim
higher, have a clear vision of where you could be and listen to others stories and importantly never be
afraid to ask the bigger questions.
Glen recommends patience in creating the right foundation for growth, this can take time but that is
ok. It is quicker to get it right than have to do it again. Glen resets his Business plan every 90 days
and seeks employee feedback to ensure they remain on the correct path, a key to success is finding
the right people for his company, those that share his core values and have a passion for the
purpose. This develops the culture & values which in turn benefit Customers. Glen supports his team
but also holds them accountable, teams thrive when they are involved in strategy, know they are
valued and feedback is encouraged.

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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
4) Wear a smile, it is great for Business!
Emma Haller
Ben Southall, the winner of the best job in the world, has now completed a mammoth overland trip
called the Best experience. Along the way Ben researched Happiness and related that back to
business in a recent Business Depot event.
Ben says “Happiness comes from getting through the hard parts of life”, by feeling accepted and
feeling part of something larger. Ben believes happiness in the workplace can be achieved through
asking yourself:
• What do I do to help others
• Who matters to you most and when do you connect
• When do you stop and take notice
• What new things have you tried recently
• What are your important goals
• How do you bounce back in tough times
• What are you feeling good about
• Be comfortable with who you are
• Be part of something bigger
Wear a smile, it is great for Business!
5) Reduce your risk profile with statistical success predictions
Emma Haller
Thomas Thurston wowed us with logic in a recent Depotnext event.
Thomas, a data scientist from the states who has recently relocated to Brisbane, has developed an
algorithm to predict market behaviour and quantify innovation. This enables companies to obtain
unique market insights about where to focus the fewest efforts for the biggest market impact.
The background to this science stems from a venture capital company in partnership with Silicon
Valley legend Bill Hambrecht that takes a wide range of data about an innovation, trends past and
current data to predict the likelihood of success. Traditionally 70 – 90% of innovations fail.
Thomas partnered Machine learning with Human experience to select investment opportunities
placing his company in the top 1 – 2% of VC funds in Silicon Valley.
Thomas works regularly with some fortune 500 companies to save time, effort and financial
investment.
Risk Managers are going to love this - Watch this space for great successful innovations! #DepotNext
6) Game Changer series with James Chin Moody
Gail Creighton-Davies
The Game changer series is held at the Queensland State library and the last one for this year is on
3rd Nov.
James' early career is impressive to say the least, these notes are from the most recent years:
Problem - Most items rarely remained with the original owner throughout it's lifetime, how can we
simplify sharing?
James founded an organisation called 'TuShare' to simplify the act of transferring ownership but soon
identified that people would share more and further afield if they didn't have the hassle of standing in
line at the post office to ship their items.
Problem - transfer of ownership is low due to the poor experience of waiting in line at the post office.

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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
He founded Sendle, using the exiting logistical organisations, renting the empty space in their vehicles
on the return journey, he offers a simple product offering, collect from and deliver to door for 25kg for
$25.
Key takeaways:
• Keep your offering simple
• Find the problem to be solved
• 3)know when to pivot if you find a bigger problem to be solved
• Know your own positive and negative risks, keep a handle on your negative risks which frees
you up to push the boat out on your positive risks
• maintain humble determination
• at the start of your startup you wear many hats, to be successful you must know which hats to
delegate
He then discussed his new book - the 6th wave (Waves of innovation)
The tide of progress is not linear, you get waves of innovation historically lasting 35 years each, at the
start of each wave there is a lot of innovation, in the middle you start to see the big organisations
settling in and at the end there is global depression. GFC was at the end of the 5th wave.
• Industrial revolution - humans leveraging human strength
• 5th wave IT revolution - Humans leveraging human intellect
• 6th wave - what does it mean and look like to leverage human intellect even further?
7) Is your business stuck coz of lack of funding?
Gail Creighton-Davies
Speaker 1 - Damien Rossiter - ONGC systems
 Don't be a commodity service, add real value
 There is a big difference between millennials, Gen Y and Gen Zs, they want to do business
differently and they are either our customers or our employees
 Surround yourself with smart people
 Love what you do
 Go beyond service - don't just provide, be great and memorable, what makes you different
than your competitors.
Speaker 2 - Melissa Anderson, Director of the entrepreneurs program a government initiative
Eligibility for the programme - in the last 3 yrs have a turnover $1.5M - $100M of earned or burned
A lot of people in attendance felt that this them didn't apply to them however Melissa has many
successful companies and gave advice to the smaller companies:
 There are online self help web sites out there
 Seek out the SBAs small business advisory service - federal government
 Build your advisory board from day 1. seek out a groups of friends who will support you and
your endeavour and be honest with you. You don't have to pay them but if you shout them a
dinner party for each meeting that normally goes down well.

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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
8) Using big data and math to pinpoint growth opportunities and
manage market risk
Vanessa Robb
Iconic Silicon Valley investor Bill Hambrecht, who has financed around 700 startups including Apple,
Google, Amazon, and Salesforce, graced Brisbane with his presence and extensive knowledge of
growth and innovation. He was joined by Thomas Thurston, founder of Growth Science, a data
science firm that helps businesses grow.
Like Silicon Valley in the late 1960s, Australia is at the start of its own innovation revolution so it was
extremely interesting to learn a few things from Silicon Valley’s triumphs and pitfalls.
Key takeaways:
About Bill:
 Known for innovating in investment banking and venture capital e.g. using an Open IPO for
Google’s capital raise
 Uses quant (maths, statistics and data) to pick investment deals which have given his funds
the highest performance rankings of all VCs in the U.S.
 Forged a path for crowdfunding
 Famously used big data to predict both the rise and the demise of some iconic global brands
Learnings:
 85% of consumer products fail in the first 2 years
 96% of innovations fail to return their cost of capital
 Historically corporate and VC accuracy has been around 10-30%
 Bill uses computational algorithms that simulate future market environments and predict an
innovation’s success with 67% accuracy. Before any time, resources are money are spent!
 The same algorithms are used by Fortune 500 companies to manage their R&D portfolios and
identify high potential opportunities for growth, either by organic innovation, M&As or venture
capital). These tools are now accessible to Australian businesses.
 Knowing your market (customer pain points, competitors, macro and micro trends) is
absolutely key to any business – build it and they will come no longer works!
Events coming up:
 The Gumption Trigger The Gumption Trigger book launch 7th Dec, Telstra building George
Street 5-6pm VIP party, 6-8pm General Admin for the main event
 Click Digital Expo Nov 11th BCEC
 Leadership HQ Be Brave, Stand Tall & Own it 3rd December
 Governance Institute Your employees on social media: your liability for bullying - Free event
Friday, 11th Nov 7:30 - 9:00
 WIT Entrepreneurs & Executives Panel Event 7th Nov 10am-11:30am
 Governance Institute ASIC 3 vs Directors 0 - Free event 10th Nov 12:30-14:00
 AHRI Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor: The Diversity Debate - 10 November, 2016 7:30-8:45am
Save the dates: February G8 Ladies – Venue TBC

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The G8 Ladies
Two minute Takeaways
The G8 Ladies is proudly supported throughout 2016 by:
Rhapsodate Consulting
Right projects at the right time in
the right way, with no surprises.
 Manage your portfolio effectively
and efficiently,
 Reduce frustration, scope & budget creep,
 Improve quality and agility between
project boards and delivery teams,
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Talent Path
Australian Computer Society ICT Women
Bank of Queensland
Deep Grey