Leaving your home town for greater opportunities in the big city is nothing new.
Quite often in Australia, leaving the country is the only hope of having a crack at the world stage.
These were the exact circumstances for Mullumbimby man Lindsay Roser. He moved to New York and fortunately became a very successful internet entrepreneur as founder and CEO of G3 Technology.
But interestingly, he would like to see young locals supported more at home.
‘Our community rightly celebrates the success of its young artists, sportspeople, dancers, writers, musicians and entertainers, but something very important is missing’, says Lindsay.
‘We don’t encourage, invest in, or publicly applaud anywhere near as much our brightest and best young scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technology achievers. Why not?’
Lindsay says our best and brightest will need to leave their home to find experience, work and make a living.
But with the world growing ever smaller, those goals could be achieved in our own backyards. ‘Where’s the annual Science Expo? Where’s the Technology Innovation Incubator and the Environmental Science and Engineering Centre of Excellence?’ he asks.
As part of the 2014 Mullumbimby Big Picture Show being held this weekend, Lindsay will ask the public to consider the creation of a local space for creative and talented young people.
He would like to see an incubator in the town for the purpose of promoting science and has suggested that the old Telstra building and site would be perfect.
‘The proposed Byron Shire Science and Technology Incubator at Mullumbimby that we hope to establish with everyone’s help sets out to address this gap in our creative industries.’
Lindsay hopes that the Big Picture Show will be the birth of something wonderful for science.
‘Individual, community and cultural prosperity go hand in hand’, he says.
‘The transformative businesses we want to encourage within our own community will make a direct and significant contribution to our town’s long-term social and economic prosperity, through direct employment and the creation of a technology- based economy.’
The Big Picture Show will be held this Saturday, May 31, at the Mullumbimby Civic Centre.
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