The Bendigo Inventor Awards are looking to celebrate failure, or at least the importance of learning from failures on the path to ultimate success.
The Awards are now in their seventh year and focus on the advancement of new inventions in emergency services and disaster management. Past winners have included a collapsible structure that can be erected in disaster zones and is designed to collect rainwater; and a ride-on trailer for bushfire prone areas that can sense fire and deliver up to 1000 L of water autonomously.
The Chairman of the Bendigo Inventor Awards committee, Paul Chapman, is Executive Chairman of the Australian Turntable Company. He says failure is a part of life, but it is how we perceive and respond to failure that determines our ultimate success.
"I have taken many, many products to market," he said. "Some have worked, many haven't. But each time, I reflect, I learn and I try again."
He believes the fear of failure holds some people back from achieving their full potential as inventors and that is why this year they have introduced a Festival of Failure, including two events, one in Bendigo on July 20, followed by another in Melbourne on July 27.
The Bendigo event will be hosted by the ABC's Paul Kennedy and will include innovation specialist Andrew Jones, toxicologist Dr Jamie Seymour, environmentalist Rob Gell, comedian Dion Williams, and Christian Wagstaff, the creative force behind the recent House of Mirrors installations.
The Melbourne event will also feature Jones and Seymour plus Engineers Australia National President John McIntosh, international entrepreneur Yanir Yakutiel, IP lawyer Michael Cooper, and artist Bindi Cole Chocka.
"The response we have had to this event has been overwhelming" said Chapman.
"Almost everyone we have spoken to has agreed that we need to change our perceptions around failure, to simply view failure as a temporary set back and to brush ourselves off and to keep going."
[Photo: Pixabay]