Startup Grind conference to “put Melbourne on the map” in first major APAC event

Global startup community Startup Grind is bringing its conference to the Asia Pacific region for the first time, with a two-day conference to be held in Melbourne in December this year.

The conference, run in partnership with MYOB, will run on December 6 and 7 at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. Previously, the event has been hosted in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and London.

Speaking at the announcement event last week, general manager of Startup Grind in Australia Chris Joannou said the conference will “put Melbourne on the map”.

He revealed that speakers at the conference will include Seek and Square Peg Capital co-founder Paul Bassat, Vinomofo co-founder Justin Dry and Canva chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki.

“We’re just going to keep adding to it … We’re going to have big, big high-profile speakers,” Joannou added.

The event is planning to welcome 4,000 attendees in a bid to bring startup founders together with investors, while exhibitors will be able to showcase their startups.

Also speaking at the announcement event, Jane Betschel, head of customer marketing at MYOB, said the small business services provider has been working with Startup Grind on the conference for “about a year”.

The event “will bring a lot of entrepreneurs out from around Australia and Asia Pacific and bring them to Melbourne and inspire them to do more”, she said.

“Big ideas, they take inspiration and passion and vision and hard work,” she added.

Founded in 2010 as a community for educating and connecting entrepreneurs on a global scale, Startup Grind is now represented in more than 50 Asia Pacific cities, including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Auckland, as well as a newly-launched space in Perth.

Ticketing and data analytics company TEG is also partnering with Startup Grind on the event.

“Having Startup Grind in Australia is like hosting the World Cup of the hottest innovations in business development and latest insights and trends going around,” TEG chief Geoff Jones said in a statement.

“We will have some of the world’s most successful innovators and thinkers mixing with industry leaders, investors and the many ambitious Australian startup entrepreneurs who are our future,” he added.

Startup Grind founder and chief executive Derek Andersen said in a statement the community has seen “incredible growth across the [APAC] region”.

“Melbourne is one of the most vibrant and beautiful cities in the world with amazing companies that have supported us over the years including our friends at MYOB and TEG,” he said.

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