BOFA FILM FESTIVAL FOCUSED ON CREATING REGIONAL INNOVATION

A Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival Action Session on Friday 7th November of the 2014 festival has grown into an ongoing movement which will be a part of future BOFA Festivals.

The Action Session, Regional Innovation, State Growth, was officially opened by Tasmanian Minister for Information Technology and Innovation, the Hon Michael Ferguson MP, who spoke on The Role of Innovation in creating State Growth. The session was led by Dr Anton Kriz from the University of Newcastle, developer of the Regional Innovation Management (RIM) model which is transforming the Central Coast of NSW.

More than 80 people attended the day-long BOFA Action Session where Dr Kriz outlined his vision to build an innovative culture and community of practice in Tasmania at the enterprise, regional and a sectoral level.

Festival Director Owen Tilbury believes that the Regional Innovation, State Growth project is a good example of BOFA in action and something that sets BOFA apart from all other film festivals.

“BOFA is all about using film to show people how they can make positive changes at a personal, local and global level,” he said.
“Tasmania abounds in innovators but often fails through parochialism and a ‘silo mentality’”.

“The Regional Innovation, State Growth Action Session brings those innovative people together to look at ways that Tasmania can grow through regional innovation.”

Twenty of the participants met the following day (8 November) to form a Working Group to take the project further in their region. The three regions will focus on projects relevant to their region but will interact with the other regions on plans that have a state-wide significance:

The NW group will focus on investing in the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs and in particular, collaborating with Cradle Coast Innovation to expand on their successful local introduction of the national Club Kidpreneur Program, which aims to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in primary school aged children. While the initial focus is in the Cradle Coast Region it is envisaged the program will have state-wide implications.

As well, the NW Group plan to support the development of a Regional Innovation Summit 2015. This will provide a forum to celebrate what has been achieved by innovative people and companies in the region and to explore how we can harness innovation to have a major impact on social and economic outcomes for the region.

The Northern group recognized a need to map what innovation is taking place now, as a number of valuable, scalable innovations were in train that only became apparent to the broader group during the BOFA Action Session. Their project will be to “create a sustainable future (growth) through collaboration” to overcome the regional ” silo mentality” and to help create collaboration and synergy within the region and statewide.

The Southern region will focus on creating a Centre for Applied Creativity, looking to:

• Connect and support creative people with manufactures and producers
• Create tangible and profitable impacts through applied creativity
• Become a focal point for tourism and inbound study and learning on applied creativity
• Unlock the commercial potential within the arts community
These actions all lead to greater economic impact and a higher understanding of the “value” of Applied Creativity.

The regional groups will work on these projects through 2015 and have agreed to meet annually at the BOFA Film Festival to report back on progress and develop plans for the year ahead.

A documentary film crew will follow the working groups and their innovative projects, with the documentary to be shown at BOFA 2015.
The Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival 2015 will be held from November 5 to 9 in Launceston.

If you’d like to become involved in the Regional Innovation, State Growth project, contact Owen Tilbury on 0407 501 287 or owentilbury@bofa.com.au
Matt Fraser | Communications Manager