Last night we held what we believe to be our final digital Awesome Newcastle of the year! As the clocks kicked forward, we kicked back and enjoyed good ideas and afternoon sun. We welcomed three guest board members: returning guests Marty Spiers of Approach Accounting, and Aleeta Cliff of Hudson Street Hum. We also welcomed first time guest board member, Melanie Sargeant of Newcastle Podcast Station.

Everyone got busy at home watching the pitches.

First we had Victoria Lewis of RizeUp. RizeUp assists families fleeing domestic and sexual violence and provides support. It started in Queensland and is now all over Australia. Victoria is launching RizeUp in Newcastle. The money would go to buy groceries for 20 families that are starting over.

Next we welcomed Kim Perks of Sunflower Services. Sunflower Services is her brand new initiative to start psychosocial recovery coaching. She would use the money for advertising and to adopt an NDIS software for report writing.

And our final finalist for the evening was professional Hula Hoop artist Hannah Indigo of OMGWTF. She told us about her idea to create a livestream version of her show. This would create more work for artists (a local videographer), and also create accessibility for those who can’t get to the physical show.

The judges watched the videos and then a few of us discussed all the wonderful finalists over a delightful Zoom call. After some thoughtful observations, we all said goodnight and emailed our votes.

At the end of the night our winner was Hannah Indigo of OMGWTF! Congratulations Hannah, we are excited to see your show as soon as we can, in person or perhaps via screen. Thanks again to all our awesome finalists and supporters; we couldn’t do it without you! Remember, applications never expire, so we might see you again at another Awesome Newcastle!