News

Dr Euan Tovey is Head of Allergy Research at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. Euan describes himself as a ‘boy who likes to play with particles’. He participated in the Workshop in ’07 to examine commercial options for small nasal filters to assist with hayfever with the potential to protect against flu viruses.

The SMH article of 23 September provides details of another of Euan’s inventions - a novel mask that can be used to sample viruses exhaled by infected people, is currently being developed.

Download the article:

Click here to hear interviews in the Entrepreneur Series by Boardroom Radio. Boardroom radio is a simple and effective tool that enables companies to speak directly with investors. The Workshop is a partner of Boardroom Radio Australia – Entrepreneur Series.

In this issue…

• Workshop 'grads' on their way...
• Heading into 2009!
• The Workshop is in Boardroom (Radio that is!)
• Pitch '08 - Wildcard Prize winner
• 2008 Winter Program - teams, projects & mentors
• A word from our Sponsors...

Welcome to our latest news-mail – where you can discover:

• news, and
• advertisements.

The regular format with work insights, tips and tricks will be back late January / early February 2009.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas & New Year break with your family and loved ones. Let's all look forward to 2009, regardless of the challenges that it throws our respective ways!

Workshop expertise leads to export revenue

Sue Hoban
3 December 2008

A commercialisation project driven by a team of aspiring entrepreneurs from the peninsula as part of a business training program could soon be generating valuable export revenue in Australia.

Forestville residents Phil Gehringer, Katherine Phillips and molecular biologist Donna Lai were part of the five-person team that developed the plan to take a revolutionary medical diagnostic device to the world market.

It was their core project for the NSW Enterprise Workshop, a four-month mentor-based business training program, and earned them an award for the best operational plan.

The Enterprise Workshop is a non-profit organisation run by experienced senior business people who volunteer their time to guide participants through a structured business analysis and planning process.

Mr Gehringer, general manager of biotechnology company Neomedix Systems and partner Ms Phillips, the company's head of sales and marketing, signed up for the program with a very real project in mind - to develop an export plan for Neomedix's flagship diagnostic device.

The company, founded on the peninsula 30 years ago but now based in Hornsby, has spent the past two years developing the next generation of its Acquidata system, already widely used in Australia for pre and post-operative assessment in fields such as urology and gynaecology.

Mr Gehringer said with the help of the three other workshop participants who came on board to work on the project, the team had developed a plan that would see it ready to begin exporting the Acquidata systems to the US early in the new year.

He said the expertise and connections made available to the program had been invaluable.

"It is a very hands-on, practical program that deals with the realities of business," he said. "It also opened the door to business people we would just not get to see or talk to normally, like the head of Resmed. These are people who could charge $5000-a-day to give advice and yet they are giving up their Saturday mornings to mentor a new generation of entrepreneurs."