Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia has launched DKAc­cel­er­a­tor, a new pro­gram to sup­port the devel­op­ment and growth of First Nations enter­pris­es in Cen­tral Aus­tralia. The pro­gram – fund­ed by the North­ern Territory’s Depart­ment of Indus­try, Tourism and Trade – will sup­port a cohort of five Indige­nous entre­pre­neurs to accel­er­ate the growth of their busi­ness through hands-on oper­a­tional sup­port, respon­sive men­tor­ship, project-based learn­ing, peer-to-peer lead­er­ship, and dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy innovation.

The pro­gram will be deliv­ered over six months between May and Novem­ber 2021, where entre­pre­neurs will progress through four stages of devel­op­ment: (i) dis­cov­ery and plan­ning, (ii) foun­da­tion and scal­a­bil­i­ty, (iii) growth and accel­er­a­tion, and (iv) automa­tion and future planning.

The entre­pre­neurs will work along­side the Pro­gram Director/​Business Coach, a Dig­i­tal Growth Part­ner, and spe­cial­ist con­sul­tants to achieve sus­tain­able and scal­able growth through dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy innovation.

The five select­ed Cen­tral Aus­tralian busi­ness­es are:

• Spinifex Skate­boards; an East­ern Arrernte skate brand and youth program
• Kere to Coun­try; a dis­rup­tive social enter­prise address­ing food security
• Stan­d­ley Chasm; a lead­ing Arrernte cul­ture tourism enterprise
• Framed in Alice; cus­tom pic­ture framers of local art and memorabilia
• Stick Mob Stu­dio; a graph­ic nov­el group cre­at­ing sto­ries inspired by lived experiences

Each busi­ness has access to a work­space at DKA’s Busi­ness & Inno­va­tion Cen­tre as well as growth fund­ing to invest into build­ing dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy capa­bil­i­ties with­in their busi­ness. The entre­pre­neurs can attend week­ly coach­ing ses­sions and reg­u­lar peer-to-peer lead­er­ship activ­i­ties on-coun­try, at their place of work, or at DKA, ensur­ing cul­tur­al safe­ty and a pro­duc­tive work­space with access to dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy facilities.

The design and devel­op­ment of DKAc­cel­er­a­tor is sup­port­ed by research and analy­sis of Abo­rig­i­nal busi­ness­es and busi­ness sup­port ser­vices in Cen­tral Aus­tralia. The com­bi­na­tion of the growth fund, inten­sive coach­ing and men­tor­ship, oper­a­tional sup­port from dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy experts, as well as col­lec­tive peer-to-peer lead­er­ship activ­i­ties is designed to build self-con­fi­dence, momen­tum and ulti­mate­ly accel­er­ate the growth and devel­op­ment of these five businesses.

“There are plen­ty of grants, busi­ness plans and con­sul­tants that peo­ple can access here, but not enough inten­sive, on-the-ground, oper­a­tional sup­port. Our job is to roll up our sleeves, work togeth­er and learn from each oth­er.”
- Jamie Toyne (Pro­gram Director/​Business Coach, DKAccelerator)

“We are super excit­ed to be a part of this pro­gram. This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to enhance our knowl­edge around dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing but also around soft­ware devel­op­ment – pur­pose­ly fit for our unique busi­ness mod­el, and some­thing total­ly out­side our exper­tise.”
- Jes­si­ca Wishart (Co-Founder, Kere to Country)

The pro­gram com­menced on 4 May with 1‑on‑1 coach­ing ses­sions, where the entre­pre­neurs began strate­gic plan­ning and goal set­ting for the pro­gram and beyond.

DKAc­cel­er­a­tor web­page
https://​www​.dka​.com​.au/​a​c​t​i​v​i​t​i​e​s​/​d​k​a​c​c​e​l​e​rator

The DKAc­cel­er­a­tor team
Jamie Toyne, Pro­gram Director/​Business Coach: Jamie grew up in Mparn­twe (Alice Springs). He is the founder of an inter­na­tion­al dig­i­tal con­sult­ing group and has been coach­ing and advis­ing small busi­ness­es for over a decade.
Jane Aran­de­lovic, Dig­i­tal Growth Part­ner: Jane is a start-up founder, with over 15 years of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing expe­ri­ence, work­ing with small busi­ness­es through to lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies, media and adver­tis­ing agencies.

Media inquiries
Tra­cy Jones; DKA Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
tracy.​jones@​dka.​com.​au | 0460 703 186