Tropical Innovation Festival: Where the only thing warmer than the weather is the people

“When are you moving here Dickie?”

This was the question I heard over and over again at this year’s Tropical Innovation Festival.

“TIF”, as the locals affectionately call it, is Australia’s largest regional innovation event. It’s hosted in majestic Cairns and boasts a mammoth five-day schedule, which culminated last Friday, much to the dismay of its loyal attendees.

I managed to make it to the last three festivals and still fielded this question over 15 times – each time it’s the inquirer wearing the same straight face and wry smile, despite the fact I laughed it off as a joke.

For context, I’m a global citizen, currently residing alongside my fellow British expats in Bondi Beach, though dig a little deeper and you’ll find a secret Melburnian masquerading as a Sydneysider.

Why would I want to move to far north Queensland? I’d pose, though only in my head so as not to offend.

After all, the clue is in the name, it’s really far and it’s in the north!

But by the Friday morning of TIF, I was asking myself “why wouldn’t I want to?” Let me tell you why…

Queensland is having its moment in the sun

In the innovation world, the Sunshine State ranks third behind the more populated New South Wales and Victoria, respectively.

However, recent success stories suggest Queensland is picking up momentum and that gap is closer than it’s ever been:

• A recent investment from the Queensland and Australian government into US-based quantum technology leader PsiQuantum, which will see the world’s first utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer in Brisbane creating up to 400 highly skilled local jobs;
• A landmark partnership between Advance Queensland and First Australians Capital to invest in the best Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses in Queensland, was announced at this year’s Tropical Innovation Festival by Leanne Linard MP;
• An $8 million Female Founders program, again from Advance Queensland. The Accelerating Female Founders Program provides grants worth between $50,000 and $200,000 for business support initiatives; and
• Not to mention the excitement and investment that will come from the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympic games. With Queensland already positioned as Australia’s leading sports tech and innovation precinct.

It’s an exciting time to do business in the Sunshine State. Though let’s not kid ourselves that this is a new thing, with two of Australia’s meagre nine unicorns (SafetyCulture and GO1) already spawning out of Queensland.

The people are the salt (water) of the earth

I’m a firm believer that the character of people of a particular city or region is defined by that location’s topography.

Cairns is a laid-back city that seems to find the perfect balance between merrymaking and wellbeing. The esplanade that surrounds the city lends the perfect opportunity for its residents to train for their iconic annual IronMan triathlon. And its pristine waters (though full of crocs) scream adventure, with the magnificent Great Barrier Reef a short boat ride away.

The people of Cairns are the epitome of this balance: business on top and party on the bottom.

Where else in the world would you be donning shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and sipping on cocktails by a poolside Tiki bar with the founders of global brands like Xero, Go1, and Functionly?

And the beauty of TIF is the people who travel in from across Australia, instantly match this energy as soon as they walk through the doors of the festival. This makes for a space where serendipitous connection is perfectly natural and where there is no hierarchy of ego.

People have time, and therefore they have the time for you.

Gillian Gardiner, executive director of innovation operations at the Queensland government said it best in a recent LinkedIn post summarising the people of Tropical Innovation Festival:

“For starters, there’s a former Governor-General, a Paralympian and a guy from SpaceX. There’s also a reef dive boat, and a daily schedule of yoga, startup pitches and water zumba. Throw in a couple of rocket scientists, a few investors, an astrobiologist, a vicarian, an ultramarathon swimmer or three, loads of amazing First Nations innovators like Rainstick Deadly Coders Iscariot Media Pty Ltd”.

This relaxed attitude to doing business meant that you were just as likely to be sat eating a DIY poke bowl next to a multi-millionaire as you would be an aspiring founder.

And importantly, you wouldn’t be treating them any differently.

Tropic like it’s hot

Now in its fourth year, alongside SomethingTech (a part of Something Fest in Brisbane), Tropical Innovation Festival is the flagship Queensland Innovation event and as someone who does the national circuit annually, it is easily the most unique across the country.

Sitting with my feet dipped in the Cairns swimming lagoon on the final Friday, nursing a Gilligan’s-induced hangover, it’s not the content I remember, but the feeling that the event left me with.

Don’t get me wrong, the programming was world-class. It certainly fed the brain. But the people and the setting of TIF fed the heart and soul.

And ultimately, that’s what we’re all craving right? Experiences that we’ll remember for a lifetime, surrounded by incredible and inspiring people that we’ll never forget.

So the next time someone asks me, “when are you moving to Cairns Dickie?”

I’ll tell them in June 2025. Just in time for the next Tropical Innovation Festival.

Dickie Currer is the hype man for the Australian tech and innovation ecosystem.

This article was first published on LinkedIn. 

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