Working with nature and innovation in Cairns
When Mallika Robinson relocated her eco-tech start-up to Cairns, she knew she was moving to one of the world's great bio-regions. What she didn't expect was how vibrant and connected the entrepreneurial community in Cairns would be. Now, Mallika cannot imagine running the nature-based gaming app Questagame by Earth Guardians anywhere else.
Inspiring: rainforest outside my window
"One of the things that is inspiring for me is that I look out the window and I see the rainforest. I know that whatever work we are doing is to protect that rainforest and to protect life as we know it on our planet. I can't think of a more inspiring way begin your work than to look at the subject matter you're trying to save and protect.
"I used to live in a community just outside Canberra. My children were young then and they were quite interested in video games, learning an awful lot about the potions and the magic stuff and weapons they could acquire in their game. But I couldn't get them to get out and learn about the land and about the birds and the butterflies and the bugs around us.
"I decided to build a small game. Unfortunately, they didn't like it at first. It was very boring compared to what they were playing. So I felt that was a challenge. That's how the journey began.
"We engage people to learn about biodiversity"
"Now, with our company Earth Guardians, we have the app Questagame. We engage people to learn about biodiversity through finding, photographing and identifying living things in the natural world. And we have a lab within the game where people can go and train themselves. We use a lot of the latest technology like augmented reality, machine learning, and visual matching to figure out what people are finding.
"No other place like Cairns for support for start-ups"
"Close to two years ago, we had an opportunity for my start-up to move to Queensland. Now, I can really think of no other place than Cairns. Being the biodiversity capital of the world, it made sense to me. I was really pleasantly surprised when I came here, witnessing this really throbbing ecosystem of tech start-ups. There's a lot of support for start-ups like mine that come to this place and want to expand and grow our community and technology.
"Everybody seems to be an entrepreneur here in Cairns"
"We are currently based in the JCU Ideas lab. In this facility everyone is building new, really cool technologies. I think that vindicated my decision to move here because we did have a lot of people asking us: ‘Don't you think it's a bit far away from the big metros?’
"Everybody seems to be an entrepreneur here, and they're open to new ideas, new ways of doing things. You don't often hear: ‘Well, that's not how we do it here’. It’s about the place and the people, the physical environment is teeming with life and biodiversity. And the people are really open to different ways of looking at things, which is where innovation really germinates.
"In Cairns, I feel like I'm in the right place"
"That's why I feel I'm in the right place. My company's in the right place. And we're doing the right thing."