Victor Vicario launches incubator for manufacturers; Tracey Bailey; Paul de Jersey; Andrew Liveris

PEOPLE with a good, innovative idea for a product often lack the resources to test it, let alone bring it to market. A new Brisbane venture aims to solve that.

Arc, Australia’s first hardware incubator, has opened in Brisbane.

ARC SPARK

PEOPLE with a good innovative idea for a product often lack the resources to test it, let alone bring it to market.

So, it’s encouraging that Brisbane now hosts Arc, Australia’s first hardware incubator where those good ideas can gain access to advanced prototyping and manufacturing equipment.

Arc is the brainchild of lawyer and intellectual property expert Victor Vicario who has opened premises in a 460sq m space in Fortitude Valley. Vicario tells your diarist that start-ups in the advanced manufacturing sector have a difficult time accessing equipment where prototypes can be made and tested.

He says Arc brings together everything under one roof, including electronic labs, 3D printers, laser cutters and moulding machines.

Illustration of Victor Vicario by Brett Lethbridge.

Once the prototype has been made there also is mentorship available to help budding entrepreneurs prepare to pitch their products to third-party investors. Arc can be accessed for as little as $25 a day and has received support from the Federal Government’s incubator grant program. We hear a device to help the hearing impaired is one of the products on the drawing board there. Stay tuned for a lot more.

GRAVE SITUATION

A LOT of people are doing it tough these days so it is probably not surprising that your diarist on assignment last week in one of Brisbane’s major cemeteries (for a story, I might add) noticed signs of someone sleeping rough on one of the tombstones.

Not the best place to kip if you are scared of ghosts, but a cemetery is not a bad choice if you are desperate for some peace and quiet. Your diarist is not suggesting the annual Vinnes CEO sleep-out relocate from the Brisbane Powerhouse to the local boneyard this year, but it’s worth remembering that we all don’t have a warm bed to sleep in every night. A staggering 20,000 people in Queensland are experiencing homelessness, according to social workers.

TAKING A STAND

A SMALL Brisbane retailer of water bottles, lunch boxes and beauty products is taking a stand against gun crime in the US. Biome, which operates an online business and four shops around Brisbane, says it will no longer stock Camelbak water bottles because the firm is owned by Vista Outdoor, one of the largest ammunition manufacturers in the US and the maker of semi-automatic assault rifles.

“The Biome team cannot support a company that produces assault weapons and is not taking leadership on solutions to prevent gun violence,” the company says. Biome was founded in 2003 by former public relations consultant Tracey Bailey and husband Robin. US-based outdoor equipment company REI announced earlier this year that it decided to place a hold on future orders of products from Vista until they announced a plan to combat gun violence.

NICE MELONS

WE hear Betty Windsor’s local branch manager Paul de Jersey held an impressive soiree as part of International Women’s Day last week with guests scoffing down cucumber and salmon sandwiches, tomato tartlets, battered prawns and calamari at a Government House garden party. But our republican spies tell us plates of rock melon were left untouched at the gathering as guests fretted about the fruit’s connection with a fatal outbreak of listeria in southern states. The fruit remained on the plate despite caterers reassuring guests “they were Queensland rockmelons.”

DOW AND OUT

SO, farewell Dow Chemical boss and UQ alumni Andrew Liveris who has announced plans to step down next month, ending a nearly 14-year term with the US chemical giant. Brisbane-educated Liveris visited the city last year to speak at the University of Queensland’s UQ ChangeMakers lunch and to call for more support for Australian manufacturers. You might recall the plain-speaking Liveris headed Donald Trump’s Manufacturing Council before it was disbanded last year.