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Julianne McKeon, the new coordinator of the Coffs Harbour Innovation Centre is excited about the rollout of the National Broadband Network across the Coffs Coast and what it means for the business community. "The NBN rollout will not only help the Coffs Coast attract new businesses from elsewhere in Australia wanting to tap into faster broadband, it will also help new and established local businesses to grow by taking advantage of faster internet," Ms McKeon said. Ms McKeon, in partnership with the Technology Park partners, Southern Cross University, North Coast Institute of TAFE and the Coffs Harbour City Council is planning a series of workshops in 2012 to educate interested businesses about growth opportunities and new business innovations. "We want to raise awareness of the Innovation Centre and as a result will run 'Lunch n Learn' information sessions where we will be covering useful topics for small businesses such as grant applications, energy efficiency, accounting for small businesses and how to use social media etc," she said. The Chair of the Technology Park Warren Grimshaw said there would be a push over the next 12 months to grow CHIC and its offering to the business community. "We would like to see the Innovation Centre act more as a hub for new and innovative businesses with a number of tenants being offered associate and virtual tenancies," Mr Grimshaw said. "CHIC also wishes to work with current business clusters and small business owners, particularly in the technology space, to identify synergies with the Technology Park objectives and opportunities for shared learning." Ms McKeon said there were currently eight tenants at CHIC which represented a diverse mix of business and community organisations. For further information about CHIC and the public seminars planned for 2012 contact Julianne McKeon on 6658 8199. CHIC is the centre for incubating businesses and is the first stage of the Coffs Harbour Technology Park located at the Coffs Harbour Education Campus. |
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