NSW government to offer ‘concierge style’ service to entrepreneurs and inventors

The NSW government’s soon to be launched innovation strategy will include a ‘concierge style’ service for entrepreneurs and inventors, Victor Dominello, the state’s minister for innovation and better regulation said on Friday.

Speaking at a CEDA event in Sydney, Dominello said the NSW government will do the “ugly work” of coordinating agencies for entrepreneurs and inventors, which is a complex task.

“You will get a concierge style service where instead of knocking on a thousand doors you can knock on one,” he told attendees.

The strategy will be focused on greater collaboration between government and enterprises, he said.

“Collaboration is critical. Government will never, ever, ever be able to keep pace with the startups. The only way of staying relevant and in the game is through collaboration. And that’s going to be very very key in terms of the innovation strategy,” he said.

Consultation on the ‘whole-of-government’ NSW Innovation Strategy closed last month and the government received 177 submissions. Dominello said the government was hoping to publish the strategy in the months ahead.

Tripadvisor for data

Dominello also said the government was pursuing a ‘Tripadviser platform’ for the data sets it would be making available as part of its Open Data Policy, which launched in April.

“We are going to do that in relation to open data. We’re going to have a Tripadviser platform for data, the first of its kind in the country. So you can comment on the data sets that we open up,” he said.

Wearable wallet

Dominello, who was appointed to the role in April last year, revealed the NSW government had been pitched a “wearable wallet, a Fitbit essentially” that could store an individual’s Opal card, Mastercard, and digitised driver’s licence.

The inventor of the device – called the Enamo – was put in touch with a number of relevant agencies but struggled to be seen.

“It is so frustrating. We gave him a whole lot of doors to knock on and either the person’s not behind the door, the person’s not interested or the person doesn’t open the door at all,” said Dominello.

“We have people with great ideas … that can use the power of that tank of government in terms of our procurement, in terms of our reach, in terms of our regulatory footprint to trial a product like this. They just need someone to talk to.”