“These business leaders who bagged the Telstra Business Awards have all demonstrated a unique and compelling combination of heartfelt passion and impressive business acumen.”
A Byron Bay bohemian fashion and lifestyle brand, Spell and the Gypsy Collective, has been named the big winner at the 2016 Telstra Business Awards.
The business also won the 2016 Telstra Australian Small Business Award at the national event, which was held at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney.
Spell and the Gypsy Collective is known for its unique, vintage-inspired designs, and boasts a celebrity following including the likes of Brazilian supermodel, Alessandra Ambrosio and singer, Katy Perry.
Telstra Business Awards Ambassador Mr Andy Ellis, praised this year’s winners of the Telstra Business Awards for their sound financial performance, innovative thinking and their dynamic attitude, which has potential to disrupt industries.
“I have been inspired and humbled by the high calibre of the 2016 Telstra Australian Business Awards winners,” Ellis said.
“These business leaders have all demonstrated a unique and compelling combination of heartfelt passion and impressive business acumen. It was a tough job for our judges to measure these successful businesses against a range of indicators, including innovation, corporate social responsibility, financials and potential for growth,” he added.
Ellis said that the 2016 Telstra Australian Business of the Year epitomises this excellence.
“Spell and the Gypsy Collective is a very exciting business. Not only are they showing significant innovation in the digital space, but they are turning the traditional business model of the fashion industry on its head,” he said.
Spell and the Gypsy Collective is the creation of sisters Ms Elizabeth Abegg and Ms Isabella Pennefather. Having come from a creative family, Abegg says they started the brand as an artistic outlet for their everyday lives.
“We’re demonstrating to the fashion industry how a female-centric small business can grow and flourish in regional Australia,” says Abegg.
A Canberra-based healthcare tech firm won the micro business category at the awards.
A monitor/defibrillator is a device used by health professionals to restart the heart when a patient is ill or the body goes into cardiac arrest. It can often be the determiner between whether someone lives or dies.
Defibrillators are literally life savers but they are expensive and cost prohibitive for training purposes. iSimulate sought to alleviate this problem by developing emergency, obstetric and stethoscope iPad simulator systems. The innovative software and bespoke hardware of the emergency system, ALSi, can turn an iPad into a simulated patient monitor or defibrillator, which is completely safe to use on a human actor or mannequin for educational demonstration purposes.
The iSimulate systems are more affordable, versatile and realistic than any other systems currently on the market.
They have grown in popularity worldwide, as they give health educators the tools to conduct simulations anywhere within minutes. In 2015, ALSi became the main teaching device for the European Resuscitation Council Advanced Life Support Course. Similarly, the systems have been adopted in Australia and New Zealand by The Advanced Paediatric Life Support Course.
“We believe that we are at the forefront of the ideas boom, as advances in technology increasingly influence our culture. We realised five years ago that an iPad was more than just a touch screen computer, it was a device that could be used to lead the way in medical simulation.” says Peter Mckie, Co-Founder and CEO, iSimulate.
Inside Small Business
