The visit to Mission Beach was for the AGM of Charley's Chocolates - an innovative agricultural/ tourism/ R&D early stage business. Your scribe is a shareholder in the company along with a few others, including Fred, former patent attorney who is domiciled at Point Gloucester. Fred, owner of a marvellous cellar of French wine, reported to the AGM that he has recently had his crab pot ravaged by a crocodile.
I can well believe this is the case as, on the way to Atherton I visited Port Douglas. What they don't tell you about Port Douglas is that crocs are seen swimming along the beach from time to time. Let’s salute the brave lifesavers who were patrolling the beach, including its netted area.
At Charleys AGM the conversation turned to innovation and crowd sourcing. WOB is very interested in the world of innovation and supports a Marketplace group which will be seeking additional members in early 2017.
So for Ruth's Review this week here are three innovative ventures. Two are in the agricultural sector - where Australia is VERY GOOD - and the other the inspiration of a WOB member.
Innovation 1 -
Flow Hive,
www.honeyflow.com.au
Father and son apiarists invented a way to drain honey without taking the hive apart. They raised >$US13M via
crowd funding using INDIEGOGO after only seeking a fraction of that amount. A neat way to upscale the business. But for the honeyflow business the funds raised have caused their own good problem in that they then had to supply so much product that they had to increase production. A great news story for bees, so much so that the ABC's Australian Story have featured them twice.
Innovation 2 - Charley's Chocolate Factory,
www.charleys.com.au
The Australian chocolate company (Charleys Chocolate Factory) has implemented a bean to bar operation at Mission Beach using a quick growing trellising system. After 18months the business had made chocolate from its own beans – the Mount Edna Mission Beach Premium Single Origin Dark Chocolate brand. Mount Edna won a Gold Medal in the Chocolate category and Trophy at the 2016 Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show. Having reached full capacity with their current equipment, Charleys plan to use the Honeyflow crowd sourcing approach to chocolate production, but with staggered delivery. As an aside, Lynn and Chris (of Charleys) prior business was selling ladies handbags online.
Innovation 3 – Ideas Spies,
www.ideaspies.com
Ideas Spies is closer to home and the inspiration of WOB member Lynn Wood. Its purpose is to encourage innovation by focusing on noticing the clever ideas around us. The ideas posted on the website are inspiring, novel, sound bites. They’re shown by category: artistic, dining, healthcare, NFP and wellbeing.
All GOOD IDEAS and INNOVATIONS. Please get in touch with your scribe for any more.