At the Canberra Innovation Network, we couldn’t be any more proud of this community of entrepreneurs. For their achievements. For their ingenuity. For the way they’ve turned challenges into opportunities and absolutely thrived. The Innovation Showcase is our way to celebrate the hardworking innovation and startup community in Canberra, highlighting those achievements and inspiring even bigger goals for the new year.

It’s a fun and interactive afternoon, enabling the community to come together, share stories and get energised for the next year ahead.

At this year’s Innovation Showcase Canberra startups will go head-to-head in a live shark-tank style pitching competition judged live by YOU. You’ll have the opportunity to meet new people, learn about the exciting things that came out of 2022 and get a glimpse into what’s in store!

We interviewed the innovators that will be head lining the showcase this year and discussed the meaning of innovation, the future and the event!

Introducing Chaturica Athukorala from Aurabox.

What are you pitching at the Innovation Showcase?

Aurabox is a cloud-based medical imaging viewing and storage platform which allows doctors to view complete imaging histories for their patients in one place. Aurabox enhances clinical workflow by facilitating seamless sharing of medical imaging amongst all doctors in a patient care team which optimises patient outcomes.

 If the sky is the limit, what is your ultimate goal?

Ultimately I hope to inspire others to build solutions for problems that they face in their industry. I believe that the intimate understanding that end-users have of the problems that they face in their day-to-day work needs to be acknowledged and used to frame the development of effective solutions.

What has been the high of the year for you?

The continuous high of the year for me is getting to work with the Aurabox team every day. They are amazingly talented and bring the best out of me.

Clever, Connected & Creative. Which of these words do you most identify with and why?

Connected.

My parents taught me to always take interest in and connect with everyone that I meet and value their talents. These connections are what builds success and Aurabox is a great example of that.

My co-founder Chris and I first met when our daughters were in pre-school together which was four years ago. I remember chatting to him about his work and he was the first person who I thought of to approach when I had the idea for Aurabox four years later. Adele, our COO, is also a mum from school who I chat to at school pick-up. I remember her telling me about her work in marketing and communications and so I asked her to be part of Aurabox as soon as we needed someone with these skills. Nigel, our VP of engineering, is a friend of Chris’ who he worked with in his previous job.

Being ‘connected’ is what allowed me to gather a team and build Aurabox.

What does innovation mean to you?

Dreaming of a way in which something can be done better – no matter how crazy or far-fetched the solution is.