Thank you all the speakers and participants for joining our offline Entrepreneurship Program 创业加油站 in Perth.
Two events held in July and August were mainly focused on increasing student engagement with the community and increasing student satisfaction with living and studying in Perth.
We invited students and professionals from different fields to come and participate. There were government officials from SBDC Andrew Maurice, who shared the current WA economy situation in WA, which gave confidence to students and graduates that WA has a strong economy and is a state that has a lot of potential and opportunities.
We also had professional service providers, such as lawyers, accountants, marketing specialists, insurance brokers, etc to share the professional knowledge about how to set up and run a business in Australia. They answered a lot of questions from the audiences and will provide continuous support through the Entrepreneurship Wechat discussion
group.
On top of that, we invited WA Chinese Graduates who are successfully running their own business in Perth in the retail and hospitality industry, tourism industry, real estate industry and professional service industry. They shared their stories on how they started the business, how they survived the COVID‐19 and the difficulties in their entrepreneurial journey. Their stories have given the audiences a lot of confidence in starting their own business in WA.
We invited some guests from the Australian local community as well, such as Megan Del Borrello - the founder of Behind the Brands, Andrew Maurice – consultant from SBDC, Helen Cripps – promotor of SBE Women Entrepreneurs program, etc. to network with the attendees.
They brought a lot of local resources and networks to the Chinese student community.
Overall, we received positive feedback from the audiences that they have gained useful information and knowledge about how to set up a business in WA. They now know where to seek further support, and have found their real‐life role models who were once international students from China, but are running a successful business in WA now. Both events provided audiences resources and networks, and to be more engaged with the Chinese student community, as well as the WA local community. They boosted current students and graduates’ confidence in WA’s economy and community support. Meanwhile, they promoted StudyPerth and ACAA WA Chapter, and let the current and future students know that both organizations are providing ongoing support to their study, living and work in WA.
