EarlyBirds Supports Indigenous Leadership Summit

Open innovation ecosystem company EarlyBirds Earlybirds.io is pleased to be participating in and supporting the Indigenous Leadership Summit. It also looks forward to working with indigenous leaders to better understand the value and importance of leadership for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and contribute to helping them with their roles and to engage with multiple stakeholders.

An article published by the National Indigenous Times discusses how Australia’s Indigenous population has a vital place in the history and culture of the nation; however, there is still an enormous journey to go in Bridging The Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. An essential element is supporting Indigenous business to overcome barriers to success, particularly those businesses in early establishment. This work is the responsibility of corporate Australia.

A huge step in this direction was when the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) commenced in 2015, creating a demand for Indigenous business at a level which hadn’t previously existed. The emergence of this government policy, supported by the corporate community, changed the game. This policy was the result of many individuals and organisations advocating for Indigenous business over an extended period of time and the government at the time making the decisive commitment to turbo charge the Indigenous business environment.

The Indigenous Leadership Summit, which takes place on the 15th to 18th of November in Sydney, Australia, brings together top leaders and Indigenous activists from Australian business and more to have difficult conversations about tangible action to change the career landscape for the Indigenous people of Australia across the board. There is a great amount of information about this summit on the website for the event, at https://www.theleadershipinstitute.com.au/indigenous-leadership-summit/.

The Business Council of Australia’s Raising the Bar initiative is an excellent example of how business can help grow the Indigenous procurement capability and impact on Business Council member companies. The initiative is delivered in partnership with Supply Nation. Over 5 years committed members will collectively spend over $3 billion to boost Indigenous businesses, create new opportunities and deliver greater economic participation. The Raising the Bar framework has four key components: an Indigenous procurement target of 3 per cent of annual influenceable spend with Indigenous businesses over a five-year period, the supporting systems and processes to achieve the target, reporting and monitoring of spend against the target, and activities to develop Indigenous suppliers.

An article published by Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer, University of Queensland, Business School expert called upon all Australians to work together to address the gaps that are well below parity in supporting Indigenous Australians in employment, business ownership, board positions and in senior leaderships roles. Dr Leroy-Dyer states that "culturally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are no stranger to leadership positions. As sovereign people of this country, Aboriginal people have always been leaders, especially women."

Kris Poria, EarlyBirds Cofounder and CEO said, “EarlyBirds is pleased to be able to assist Indigenous Australian business leaders to help close this gap by making use of its open innovation ecosystem platform and services.” The EarlyBirds platform allows innovators, who use new ideas to make the workable products, systems and solutions of the future, with early adopter organizations who want to put those ideas and technologies into use. Whether they’re designing better sensors for a variety of applications or comprehensive programs for encouraging and supporting Indigenous leaders in a nation’s businesses, EarlyBirds brings together problem solvers and the people who want their problems solved in order to build a better future for everyone.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about EarlyBirds.io or the Indigenous Leadership Summit they are partnering with can visit the respective websites to learn more about programs, speakers, events and more. EarlyBirds’ platform is open to innovators and early adopters worldwide who want to introduce their technologies to the world or find innovative solutions for their business or organization. EarlyBirds also runs a variety of programs helping both innovators and early adopter organizations do even more of what they do best - providing solutions to their clients.