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Friday, 9 October 2015

For Mark Shelton, a fourth year Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) student, the Australian philosophy of 'having a go' has always been close to heart.

Mark is the founder of Bloom, a non-profit organisation that has just launched the BloomLab at St Catherine's College, an innovative co-working space dedicated to assisting young West Australians 'have a go' at launching startups, small businesses and social enterprises. It marks an exciting new stage in the development of innovation at UWA.

The idea to found an organisation to encourage students to engage in entrepreneurship originated during Mark’s experience as Deputy CEO of student-led charity Teach Learn Grow in 2012 and 2013. Mark realised that very few of his fellow students felt like they could start something, even though they had great ideas. He came into contact with a few other students who had experience with entrepreneurship and they started meeting up and helping each other out, a process that grew into Bloom.

For Mark, creating an innovation space was integral. “Since the beginning of Bloom we were looking for space. We saw how Spacecubed had acted as a catalyst for older entrepreneurs in Perth and realised that we needed something similar for the younger generations coming through”. It was sheer determination and a bit of chance that the collaboration between St Catherine's College and Bloom came about.

“I was invited to a graduate dinner at St Cat’s on the topic of entrepreneurship. I happened to be sitting on the same table as the Dean of Residents and explained to her how much we needed space. This message was passed on to Fiona Crowe, the Head of St Catherine's College, who had heard me speak a couple of times on the topic before. A few days later they emailed me with an offer!”

August  saw the official launch of the BloomLab, an event that Mark describes as incredibly positive. “We gained a lot of exposure across UWA which is important because entrepreneurship and innovation needs to be owned by the entire university. The attendees of the launch were really inspired by the energy of our young innovators”.

Dr Michael Chaney AO, Chancellor of UWA, is a key supporter of Bloom and spoke at the BloomLab launch: "It’s hard to overstate the importance of what's being launched here tonight. If Australia is going to prosper in the future we have to be participants in the disruptive, digital economy."

The BloomLab is now well established and runs regular events. Mark describes how 70 people filled the Lab at the recent Event Management: From Party to Profit workshop. “Most workshops are hitting those numbers and we never thought we would achieve this so quickly!

The BloomLab currently has around 40 young entrepreneurs working out of the space, including the BloomTech team, a group of young software developers who work on projects in-house. A submission form for tech project ideas can be found on the Bloom website .

Looking to the future, Mark is excited about the growth of Bloom. “From a physical perspective it would be great if we have these hubs across all of the West Australian universities and educational institutions and link it all up.”

Culturally, Mark’s aspirations for Bloom are far more wide reaching.

“In five years, we want it to be as natural for high achieving, engaged students to do a startup as to join a graduate corporate program. It is important for WA that we have a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation coming up through education”.

And the future for Mark? “I'm having a great time at the moment so I'm in no rush to leave Bloom. Eventually I’m looking to go over to China and learn Mandarin. I think fostering stronger relationships with Asia is critical for the development of Western Australia”.

Bloom is connected to UWA through the UWA Innovation Quarter, an initiative to foster innovation, industry engagement and entrepreneurship fro students, staff and the community.

If you'd like to help mentor or support Bloom and their young innovators, please contact Mark Shelton at [email protected] or on 0415 606 015.

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