In this workshop James McKee (CEO of Regional Development Australia - Tasmania) and James Riggall (Senior Industry Fellow with the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics at the University of Tasmania) will run through a guided design thinking process to help generate new ideas for businesses in regional Tasmania.
This fast- paced session will be a helpful primer (or refresher) for how to apply design thinking to real world challenges, and all participants will walk away with some new ideas and some potential next steps for trying those ideas out in their own region.
Facilitators
James Riggall
Senior Industry Fellow with Tasmanian School of Business and Economics at the University of Tasmania
James Riggall is a Tasmanian entrepreneur and academic who is based in Launceston, Tasmania.
James is the founder and managing director of Bitlink, a technology education company, and a Senior Industry Fellow with the University of Tasmania where he teaches entrepreneurship.
In addition to his roles with Bitlink and the University of Tasmania, James also travels to the United States each year to teach extended reality (virtual and augmented reality) technology at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington State, USA, where he has helped to establish the Bellevue College Extended Reality (XR) Lab in the campus library.
James is a member of the Regional Development Australia Tasmania (RDA Tas) committee, chair of the Queen Victoria Museum Governance Advisory Board, chair of the Pearcy Foundation in Tasmania, and a director of Enterprize Tasmania. James is a Fulbright Scholar, a winner of the Benson Award for Entrepreneurship, and was one of the first Ambassadors for Public Education in Tasmania.
James McKee
Chief Executive Officer & Director of RDA Tasmania
James is the CEO and Director of Regional Development for Regional Development Australia – Tasmania.
James has held a wide variety of senior professional and board positions across a range of sectors, most recently leading the Innovation and Performance Team at the City of Launceston, previously as the Director of Northern Transformation for the University of Tasmania, CEO of NRM North and Director of Northern Cities for the State Government along with board roles including the Chair of Tourism Northern Tasmania, AusCycling Tasmania, Anglicare Tasmania and Chair of the Launceston Airport CACG.
James has a particular interest in regional development, innovation and strategy. His primary background is in agricultural science, he is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Murray Darling Basin Program and has been part of community development programmes in the USA and India.