Dear Colleagues,

Enactus Australia held our second National Online Showcase on the 5-8th of July.

Again we ran  the program over a four day period, and my congratulations go to all our competing universities for another inspiring event.  Our teams continue to develop and implement projects addressing key issues facing our country as well as current issues in the world.  Some of these projects include working towards contributing to sustainable solutions in areas such as Disadvantaged Youth/Communities, Social Enterprise Development, Indigenous Development ,Ageing Population Issues, Mental & Physical Disability,    Health & Well-Being, Homelessness ,Recycling and Re-Use ,Refugees and Asylum Seekers and Food Security. A number of teams including our winners UNSW also developed and implemented projects relating to Covid.                                

Over 201 people attended our online event this year including more than 86 students,10 faculty members, over 25 Observers and 80 judges from several companies, including partners, alumni and academic leaders.

Our social media reached over 6,672 people.

This year we had ceremonies and workshops running throughout our event with the first being Meet the Board where the students had an opportunity to meet all the current board members of Enactus Australia and ask questions related to board members' roles and priorities. We also held a Faculty Advisor Symposium and a very well received workshop run by CSIRO focusing on Climate change Net Zero and Plastics.

You will find more information about our many activities, including our workshops later in this Newsletter.

The World Cup will again be held this year online due to the current circumstances around the world.  This event will run from the 14-21 October. 

Visit https://enactus.org/worldcup  to learn more about the event and register to attend. You may register as an Opening and/or Semi Final Round judge or as an observer and cheer on our National Champion University of New South Wales.  I hope you will join us for this unique experience.

Thanks again to all of our stakeholders for your on-going support of the program here in Australia.

Events and Happenings

Our Newsletter as always in August concentrates on the activities and excitement of the National Showcase. A full run down of the week's events will follow.

National Online Showcase  5-8th July 2021

Warm congratulations to the team from University of New South Wales who are our National Champions for 2021. The team is now preparing to represent Australia at the World Cup in October.

On Monday the 5th of July we commenced our second online showcase with the Welcome Ceremony to start our order of events.  Our Ceremony introduced all our teams competing in the National Showcase, either in the main or early stage competition. We announced the teams  allocated to our two opening leagues - CSIRO League and Chartered Accountant Australia and New Zealand League. The leagues were judged using the Launchpad 6 platform.  Judges were allocated a specific time to view the presentations, annual report and the Q and A. The outcome of our Opening Round saw the following teams progress to the Semi Final Round of Competition.

The Semi-Finalists were The University of Melbourne , Queensland University of Technology. University of New South Wales, Griffith University, Macquarie University, The University of Western Australia, The University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney. 

Our Faculty Advisers also participated in an Academic Symposium which was facilitated by our Program Manager, Donella Caspersz and myself on Wednesday the 7th of July via a Zoom Meeting. Quite a few issues were discussed including recommendations and suggestions as to how best to align their academic and Faculty Advisor KPIs in the future. We would like to thank all who participated in this session.

We also held our Early Stage Competition on Tuesday the 6th with Edith Cowan University and Monash University presenting their projects in this league. This competition is designed for the New Teams or teams who could not compete in the main competition. We were pleased to announce that Monash University was the winner of the competition this year.

On Wednesday the 7th of July we started the day with our Semi- Final Round of Competition which was followed by an interactive workshop by our partner CSIRO.

CSIRO conducted an interactive workshop for students and on the topic “Climate Change, Net Zero and Plastics.”

This workshop discussed the key priorities in research and scientific studies which affect these major issues. There was a very detailed overview of sustaining a project from inputs through to outcomes which resonated strongly with our Enactus design thinking process. Once again, the questions posed by the students were very incisive and feedback was excellent. Our thanks to the presenters from CSIRO Margie Atkinson, Anne-Maree Dowd and Alex Holt for conducting this session and Prashan Karunaratne for co facilitating this session.

We held our Finalist Announcement Ceremony late afternoon on Wednesday the 7th which saw the following four teams progress to the Final Round of Competition.

The University of Sydney, Macquarie University, Queensland University of Technology and University of New South Wales.

The HSBC Championship Round was held on Thursday the 8th of July with many senior executive judges who viewed the presentations online using Launchpad6 . All projects were outstanding especially in that they were still able to make a considerable impact and difference this year even under the unusual circumstances relating to Covid and all the lockdowns within Australia.

As always, the Closing Ceremony provided an opportunity to recognise and reward many of the stakeholders in our Enactus program.

Our Most Outstanding  FA winner for 2021 was Prashan Karunaratne the Faculty Adviser from Macquarie University.

Our Most Outstanding Student was Samantha Yun from the  University of New South Wales.  The University of New South Wales also took out the Best Practice Business Advisory Board award taking two out of the three awards and winning this year's competition - a fantastic result for UNSW.  We also had a new award this year that recognised our Alumni of the Year, this went to David Ky who not only has been a great mentor and help on the UNSW BAB team but has taken a leading role on some major  strategic focus areas for Enactus Australia.  We thank David for all his hard work as a student, an Alumni, BAB Member and Board Member.

Our congratulations to these people and thanks for all they contribute to Enactus Australia.

Of course, the climax of the evening is always the announcement of our Runner Up and Winner of the National Showcase.

We were very pleased to announce Queensland University of Technology as Runner Up, and University of New South Wales as the 2021 National Champion Team.

You can view the final four presentations from the finalist universities on our website www.enactusaustralia.org.au under National Showcase / Watch Presentations or under Archive for 2021.

We hope you enjoyed the  online showcase again this year and look forward to seeing the projects grow over the next 12 months.

Once again we would like to wish  University of New South Wales the best of luck at the World Cup in October and we know you will do Australia proud.

For those who did not see their reaction have a look on our website when the winning team was announced.

https://www.enactusaustralia.org.au/national-competition/enactus-australia-national-showcase-2021/watch-online

Any enquiries regarding the 2021 National Competition  or information on the World Cup please email Kylie Smith at - ksmith@enactus.org 

National Champion Team Audit 

We are very pleased to announce that University of New South Wales team successfully passed their two day audit and are now well underway with their preparations to attend the World Cup.

Alumni 

For all those students who are graduating or moving on don't forget to keep in touch by joining the Enactus Australia Alumni Association.

To become involved please visit  https://www.enactusaustralia.org.au/alumni 

Enactus International 

New CEO 

On Behalf of Enactus International, we are pleased to announce that Robyn Schryer Ferhman will join Enactus as the next President and CEO  effective 7 September 2021.  Robyn brings a passion for social entrepreneurship and non profit leadership experience to Enactus students around the world. 

We would like to thank Rachael Jarosh, who in January announced her intent to stepdown after a successful 5 years with Enactus. We send our special thanks to Rachael and for her strong leadership and what she has achieved for Enactus over the past 5 years.  Enactus Australia wishes her all the best for the future.  Rachael will be staying on as a member of the global board and will support the transition.  

World Cup 14-21 October 2021

The main news from International is of course the lead up to the World Cup in October with this year's World Cup also being a virtual event.  We have attached a link to view the agenda and look forward to being involved in this spectacular online event. 

https://enactus.org/worldcup/