MIT entrepreneurship bootcamp coming to Queensland in 2017

One of the world’s most respected universities is coming to Brisbane next year to run a week-long intensive bootcamp for budding entrepreneurs, thanks to a Palaszczuk Government led partnership.

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy and Minister for Small Business Leeanne Enoch said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp would be hosted by QUT from 26-31 March 2017.

“MIT, ranked as the number one university in the world in the recent QS World University Rankings 2016-2017, is also regarded as a leader in entrepreneurship education,” Ms Enoch said.

“Having MIT come to Queensland to run a bootcamp is a huge feather in the cap for QUT and Queensland.”

The bootcamp condenses a one-year MIT course into an intensive, one-week learning experience.

According to 2014 report Entrepreneurship and Innovation at MIT, MIT alumni have launched more than 30,000 active companies, creating 4.6 million jobs and generating US$1.9 trillion in annual revenue. The cumulative result is the equivalent of the 10th largest economy in the world.

Ms Enoch said the Palaszczuk Government, through Advance Queensland, had worked with QUT to secure Australia’s first MIT Entrepreneur Bootcamp.

“The bootcamp is rarely held outside the US. The most recent one was held in Seoul in South Korea this year and was hugely popular, attracting more than 800 applications, out of which 75 people from 40 countries qualified to attend,” Ms Enoch said.

“We can anticipate the same sort of interest for Brisbane. The selection process is run by MIT and by all accounts is quite arduous, but for those who get through, they get to be involved in one of the top business training programs in the world.

“The week includes classes led by senior MIT business lecturers. Participants have to come up with a solution to a major challenge, find customers, start a company and then present their work to an international panel of venture capitalists from Brisbane, San Francisco and Boston.”

Ms Enoch said she was delighted that QUT, will offer three scholarships to attend the bootcamp, including one specifically for an Indigenous Australian.

“The MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp aligns perfectly with our Advance Queensland initiative by bringing together entrepreneurs, industry, universities and government to collaborate to turn ideas into commercial products and businesses that create jobs.

“It also underlines our desire to generate a vibrant business culture in Queensland that prizes entrepreneurship as integral to the cultivation of a high-tech, knowledge economy,” Ms Enoch said.

QUT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Coaldrake said that QUT was proud to have been selected to host the bootcamp.

“We have been building an entrepreneurial focus across the university for some time now and staging the bootcamp at our Gardens Point campus will allow us to take this to the next level,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“Our considerable strengths in business education through the internationally accredited QUT Business School, our commitment to STEM disciplines and our world class facilities made us a strong contender to host the bootcamp.

“The partnership with the Queensland Government through its Advance Queensland initiative to drive an innovation and entrepreneurship culture in the state was instrumental in bringing the bootcamp to Brisbane,” Professor Coaldrake said.

Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Managing Director of Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Bill Aulet said the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp was an outstanding opportunity for both institutions and the region.

“Demand for entrepreneurship globally is exploding and in turn the demand for high quality entrepreneurship education is as well.

“In this arrangement QUT will benefit from MIT's proven methodologies and in turn, MIT will benefit from gaining additional experience in a different context. The region will benefit by having a new crop of superbly trained entrepreneurs,” Mr Aulet said.

For more information see www.qut.edu.au

Media contact: Daniel Lato 0438 830 201