Charters Towers producer and family farming advocate, Emma Robinson, was one of four Queenslanders awarded scholarships to attend the highly-acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bootcamp this week.
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The internationally-renowned innovation bootcamp condenses a one-year MIT course into an intensive, one-week learning experience led by MIT’s most respected business lecturers.
Ms Robinson said she would use the opportunity to explore how technology can assist farmers to improve collaboration, productivity and reduce the cost of production through more sustainable supply chains.
“Farmers are innovative by nature and have to be solutions-focused and practical to solve everyday problems and find ways to optimise production systems,” Ms Robinson said.
“The MIT Bootcamp will enable me to do a deep dive into the innovation process and continue to progress ideas through a collaborative project I’ve set up for graziers known as the Beef Collaboration Project – a project by farmers, for farmers.
“My vision is to see family farming prosper through innovation, ideas and technology, and to find new ways to leverage the very best of family farming but with the scale and opportunity of a larger corporate.”
The bootcamp is being hosted by the Queensland University of Technology for the third year in a row and will welcome 97 budding entrepreneurs from 30 countries to Brisbane as part of an initiative supported by the Queensland Government.
The recipients will get a chance to collaborate with some of the world’s best up-and-coming innovators and learn how to turn great ideas into successful business ventures.
