Lot Fourteen innovations infuse into corporate culture

RAA CEO Ian Stone, SAFECOM Director of Emergency Management Brenton Keen, and 11point2 co-founder George Freney, with the FireFly prototype.

Lot Fourteen tenant, 11point2, has done just that by teaming up with RAA, the State’s largest member-based organisation, and the State Government. Working in partnership, the team has been able to introduce a founder-entrepreneur mindset and agility into the corporate environment to tackle the impact of bushfires and other natural disasters head on.

A “co-founding” team, working with RAA’s executive, insurance and innovation functions, identified and validated cutting-edge technology to determine the potential for reducing the impact of bushfires in fire-prone areas, like the Adelaide Hills. The team focused its efforts on the hyper-local layer which is particularly challenging for emergency and other services to assess and access, and is central to reducing fire-related risks for homes and businesses.

The private-public team conceived and validated FireFly – an enhanced drone-based environment monitoring, detection and response system for RAA Members and the community.

When it comes to solving today’s problems with leading-edge tech, it pays to think outside of the box to drive innovation.

The 11point2 CoLab is a Collaborative Entrepreneurial Innovation capability that helps industry, government, entrepreneurs, universities, and investors collaborate. The CoLab enabled RAA to:

• Conceive and validate a new idea that would otherwise not have been found;
• Rapidly move from concept to working prototype;
• Remove technology constraints;
• Challenge people’s perceptions of the brand and demonstrate long-term strategic focus and forward-thinking capability;
• Build and demonstrate social and community value and stakeholder relationships within the problem space; and
• Create impact, and potential community safety improvements, through tangible technology.

Another key outcome for the co-founding team was the development of a deep understanding of the problems relating to bushfire risk and resilience in South Australia and the role RAA could play in helping to protect lives and livelihoods.

RAA benefited from the use of an entrepreneurial mindset and agility to conceive and rapidly validate ideas they would otherwise not have found. They now think differently about approaching large complex problems to solve.

Through the process they also discovered how, by validating an idea in this way, relationships, and knowledge developed, informed future activity in the problem space.

Ian Stone, Managing Director at RAA said the trial was the first step in evaluating the possible use of drone-captured data to mitigate the threat of bushfires and help safeguard communities in high-risk areas.

“RAA has more than 770,000 members and they are at the heart of everything we do. We are trusted to advocate on their behalf and to help make their lives better – and safer.

“FireFly is a great example of how we’re doing this through innovation. We’re partnering with organisations like 11point2, and working with state and local governments, to find ways to use technology to help protect homes and communities in fire-prone areas,” said Mr Stone.

George Freney, co-founder at 11point2, said FireFly demonstrated the benefits of community-focused ‘co-lab’ innovation.

“It is a privilege to be working with the RAA to find and validate innovative ideas like this. Improving bushfire resilience and response is an incredibly important mission for Australia.”

“This idea will contribute to achieving the ambitious goals of the Minderoo Foundation Fire & Flood Resilience initiative and the Fire Shield mission.

“Collaborating with SAFCOM & CFS enables us to quickly understand how to validate the idea and how the greatest impact can be made.”

RAA, through 11point2, has also engaged with other Lot Fourteen residents such as the MIT Bigdata Living Lab – as a space for collaboration and enabler of connection with relevant government departments and other organisations – and Stone & Chalk as a link to the start-up ecosystem.

Find out more on their website.