Bond University has officially opened the doors to The Hub – its new 24-7 dedicated coworking space for entrepreneurs and startups – on level 3 of the Bond Business School.
The Hub, which is centrally located at the heart of campus, is a funky open plan office kitted out with high-speed WiFi, a 79 inch ultra HD screen, comfy soft furnishings, soft warm lighting, and of course – as any good startup space has – the ubiquitous ping pong table.
Bond Architecture alumni, Rory Spence and Joel Hutchines of Studio Workshop Design Group, designed the stunning bespoke timber furniture for The Hub. The high benchtop tables are made of natural timber – a material known to be conducive to creativity – and can be morphed into over 20 different configurations, ensuring maximum movability and flexibility of use.
The Director of the Bond Business Commercialisation Centre, Assistant Professor Baden U’Ren, said The Hub is the ideal meeting place, and learning space, to facilitate cross-faculty and interdisciplinary collaboration.
“The Hub will be Bond’s HQ for innovative students, academics, alumni and visiting entrepreneurs and will provide the perfect working space for startups to form, storm, norm and perform.”
“A lot of effort has gone in to the design of The Hub to ensure it caters for the different outcomes required: there are engaged active spaces; more relaxed collaborative spaces; structured workplaces and a low-lit ‘hideaway’ space which serves as a place to decompress or simply chill out.
“We’ve visited, and drew inspiration from, some of the world’s most innovative and successful startup spaces – Stanford’s d.school, Rocketspace, the Cambridge Innovation Centre – they’ve all influenced the design of the space.
“Over the past few years, Bond has established itself as a major centre of innovation on the Gold Coast, and with the launch of The Hub, we now also have a best-in-breed coworking space.”
Bond University was recently named the Gold Coast’s regional ‘Hot DesQ Host’ as part of an $8 million Advance Queensland government initiative to encourage startups from across the country, and the globe, to relocate to Queensland.
The Hub will become ‘Hot DesQ HQ’ for those startups who choose to base themselves on the Gold Coast.
Dr U’ren said Bond was the perfect choice of ‘Hot DesQHost’ for the Gold Coast region.
“We are an international university with a strong focus on global commerce and have one of the most active commercialisation centres in the region, backed by our own accelerator program – the Bond Business Accelerator.
“Bond is a breeding ground for young entrepreneurs, not just through the Bond Business School’s Entrepreneurship subjects and our Accelerator program but also through our strong ties to the South-east Queensland startup community.
“Additionally, we are highly engaged in a number of regional entrepreneurial initiatives including Gold Coast Demo Day, Ideas Camp, the and the Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards.
“Beyond The Hub, the University has incredible resources and facilities at startups’ disposal including the Macquarie Trading Centre, the Global Links Room for international networking, videoconferencing and collaboration, and a fully-functioning film and television studio.
“These startups will have access to cutting-edge entrepreneurs from Bond and beyond, plus staff who can connect them to academics, researchers and students who are experts in their relative fields, be that health tech, e-commerce, tourism or law – to name just a few.
“Our students will also benefit from having a direct connection to cutting-edge business and thought leaders from all over the world, and the opportunity to gain insight, work experience and internships with these aspirational new businesses.”
The Hot DesQ program is modelled on successful international programs such as Startup Chile which has been running since 2010 and the French Tech Ticket launched just last year.
Applications for international and interstate startups to participate in the program are now open on www.HotDesQ.com.au.
