During a year of significant adversity, SEVENmile Ltd has made an even greater impact than in 2020.
- Our Startups secured well over $6m in early-stage funding.
- Multiple Grant programs successfully delivered.
- Hundreds of northern beaches high school students trained in entrepreneurship.
- Founders made good use of our co-work space at Seaforth Village.
- We also managed to host several meetup events in between periods of lockdown.
We acknowledge our community, who've been instrumental in helping our mission to upskill our community to explore the dream of their venture. At SEVENmile, you've found an organization and a community that supports entrepreneurs to succeed, to collaborate with people who've launched their venture and know how incredibly awesome it feels to see entrepreneurial dreams become a reality.
Your journey as an entrepreneur is guaranteed to include challenges, big and small. The best chance to realize your potential is to join a community of like-minded people who know how hard entrepreneurship is and who how to help you avoid the traps that can easily lead to failure.
With many thanks to our Directors; Hwei Oh, Nigel Abbott, Rob Forsyth (Chair), Mitchell Filby, and Greg Twemlow.
Big Thanks to our Sponsors and Supporters
Our supporters in Northern Beaches Council; Ray Brownlee, Felicity Shonk, Deb Kempe, Nikki Griffith, Sue Heins, Mayor Michael Regan.
NSW MP for Manly James Griffin.
Our pro-bono sponsor; Michael Zhu from Blueprint Accounting.
We are very grateful for the funding support by Matt Ward from Forward-IP, who sponsored a desk in the co-work space in 2021.
2020 AGM was held 20-Jan-2021
Seaforth Village Co-Work Space
Our co-work space has operated for all of 2021. We typically host four to six entrepreneurs who pay $300 per month, making our space the best value on the northern beaches.
How We Started in 2021
Our first Meetup was held February 25th in the Grassroots Canteen at Seaforth Village. The focus was to hear from several entrepreneurs that we have helped. Pictured below is SEVENmile Director, Nigel Abbott, and Lorraine Gannadicknam, Founder of FoodSt.
Successful Grant Applications
In March, we were awarded a Grant from NSW Department of Communities and Justice for International Women's Week 2021. Our proposal title was, "Empowering all women to step up, speak up and show up with confidence in their local community". The delivery method was a 1-day workshop held at our Seaforth Village campus. A summary of the event can be viewed below.
In March we applied for the Anzac Community Grants Program with NSW Veterans Affairs. The project title was, "Our proposed project promotes appreciation and understanding of the service and sacrifice of military service personnel in particular for young people to appreciate what it means to serve their country".
We received notice in May that our Grant application was successful. The video we produced focused on Veterans who were all members of Avalon RSL sub-Branch. We wish to thank the veterans who participated and the Barrenjoey High students who interviewed the veterans. A big thanks to Tamara Sloper-Harding from the sub-Branch and Ms Lani Blackman, HT Learning & Engagement, SRC Coordinator, HSIE Faculty at Barrenjoey High School. The video was a joint production of SEVENmile Ltd and Lunar Media Studios.
Vale Wal Edwards, OAM
During our 2020 Veterans project we had the honour of meeting 103-years-old Wal Edwards, OAM. Wal was a veteran of WWII. We videod an interview with Wal in August 2020 in his home in Manly. Wal turned 104 in November 2020 and passed away on 25th July 2021.
Even though we only spent a few hours with Wal, he left us with vivid memories of a very special Australian patriot.
The full report of our August 2020 interview will Wal can be viewed here.
Northern Beaches Council COVID-19 Community Response Grants
SEVENmile was awarded this Grant in late 2020, however due to COVID lockdowns we could not complete the work for the Grant until June 2021.
Here's the full report we prepared for Northern Beaches Council.
Northern Beaches Council, Arts and Creativity Grant
In November we were notified that our Grant application to support the launch of Publishers Studio was approved. This Grant is from Northern Beaches Council, Arts and Creativity Program for 2021-2022. Our Grant application project description was, "Publishers Studio is where creative young writers hone their craft and where young people can publish their writing. The aim is to help young writers improve their creativity, communication, and soft skills, find and grow their audience, whilst connecting readers with the stories they most care about, and enrich cultural diversity on the Northern Beaches".
This project will launch in February 2022.
Enterprise in the Community - NSW Education
Our work teaching high school students about life and entrepreneurship skills continued in the first half of 2021. The 2020 pilot was a great success for everyone involved, including our program sponsor, NSW Education.
A summary video of the programs at St Paul's Catholic College Manly and Balgowlah Boys High, can be viewed below.
SEVENmile is very appreciative of the support of our MP for Manly, James Griffin.
The full report for Enterprise in the Community 2021 can be viewed here.
Everything Changed in Late June
In the last few days of June everything changed, and we all commenced a period of great uncertainty. Our monthly meetups were cancelled until further notice and the co-work space had just two people, who sat about five meters apart.
Spark Tank Youth Entrepreneurs
SEVENmile was invited to co-sponsor the 2021 Spark Tank event and to coach the six teams chosen as finalists for the pitchfest event.
SEVENmile Directors, Hwei Oh, and Greg Twemlow, had a wonderful experience working with the six teams of students ranging between 10-years-of-age and 20-years-of-age.
Information on the teams and the funding they received can be viewed here.
Videos of the pitch by all six teams can be viewed here.
Helsinki Education Week
Our CEO, Greg Twemlow, was invited to present to the Helsinki Education Week conference. His presentation was titled, "Experiential Learning Programs for 15 to 18-year-olds".
A video recording of Greg's webinar can be viewed here.
Thank You to our Community
In concluding our report on 2021, as we reflect on what has been achieved this year, it's very important to acknowledge the people who have contributed to ensure the impact we made has been wide, deep and measurable.
I'm continually delighted to see how our community supports each other. This was very clearly on show at our 3rd birthday event.
We held a wonderful celebration for our 3rd birthday on November 25th at the Seaforth Village campus in Christine Alcorn's Grassroots Canteen. A capacity group of 55 people enjoyed great company, tasty food, and even a whisky tasting.
Just When We Were Feeling Normal Again - COVID Omicron Emerges
At the time of writing this Post, the morning of December 22, 2021, we are clearly in the grip of COVID Omicron. Infections increase daily and we're again living in an uncertain world. A third consecutive year of COVID will surely test our resilience.
CEOs Summary Report
If you have read or even scanned the report you'll appreciate that it has been a highly productive year which is particularly impressive given 2021 was the second year that COVID stopped the world. Yes, we weren't impacted anything like the northern hemisphere, but COVID did upend our daily lives.
As we approached our 3rd Birthday event, I was feeling proud of what our SEVENmile community has achieved and particularly proud of the role SEVENmile has played in supporting entrepreneurs.
Earlier in this Blog Post our direct supporters and sponsors were listed and I restate how important their assistance has been since our incorporation in November 2018.
I do often reflect on the lead-up to starting SEVENmile Ltd and the LinkedIn Post that was the catalyst. That Post went up in Mid-2018.
SEVENmile Ltd exists to support, mentor and develop the entrepreneurs who bravely explore their full potential in life. We don't want you to reach a mature age and wonder whether you might have been capable of achieving more than you did.
Someone very famous once said, "Don't die wondering". Let's find out together just how amazing you really are.
Our very best wishes to you and your family for a safe and happy holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in 2022.
