EP 31 | From Frustration to Innovation Hub: George Hedon, Visionary Founder of Pause Fest

This episode of That's Audacious is a captivating conversation with George Hedon, the visionary founder and CEO of Pause Fest and the esteemed Pause Awards. 

Dubbed Australia's flagship innovation festival and a recognised innovation capital, Pause Fest, under George's guidance, has drawn over 80,000 attendees and established itself as a significant benchmark for business excellence. We eagerly delve into the origins and inner workings of Pause Fest and the Pause Awards, uncovering the passion and perseverance behind this remarkable platform.  

George recounts his journey, sparked by a post-university sojourn in Europe that ignited a creative fire within him. Upon returning to Melbourne, he identified a crucial gap in the landscape: a space where individuals with side hustles, nascent ideas, and unconventional projects could connect and share. In a pre-startup boom era, Pause Fest emerged as a "moment in time" for these audacious thinkers to converge.

The conversation beautifully illustrates the evolution of Pause Fest from its initial focus on animation, screen film, and digital culture to the dynamic hub it is today, championing creativity, technology, and business. George candidly shares the challenging early years, navigating the complexities of building something entirely new and finding its commercial footing.

Key Insights from George Hedon:

• Identifying the Gap: Pause Fest's inception highlights the power of meeting unmet needs and creating solutions where none exist.
• The Importance of Community: The festival's foundation was built on the desire to connect like-minded individuals, creating collaboration and shared growth around the many breakthrough moments in a successful journey.
• Embracing Evolution: Pause Fest's journey demonstrates the necessity of adapting and expanding a vision to achieve broader impact and sustainability.
• Celebrating Incremental Breakthroughs: The Pause Awards uniquely focus on the significant, small steps of innovation within businesses, rather than solely celebrating major events and achievements.  
• Transparency in Judging: George shares the clear criteria and rigorous two-round judging process of the Pause Awards, encouraging entrants to articulate their breakthrough moment, implementation tactics, results, and market impact.  
• Focus on Relevance and Impact: The Pause Awards are for recent achievements (within the last year) and tangible results, moving beyond mere concepts. 
• An Infinite Number of Winners: Unlike traditional awards, Pause Awards celebrates all entries that meet their criteria, with unlimited finalists and winners - a spirit of recognition for genuine innovation.
• The Power of Curiosity: George's personal journey and advice underscore the vital role of curiosity in driving innovation and personal growth.

For those contemplating entering the Pause Awards, George offers a clear directive: articulate your breakthrough in under 1000 words, focusing on the situation before, the tactics employed, the results achieved, and the broader impact. Honesty and a clear articulation of your "interesting" and impactful work are key to standing out.  

As the episode concludes, George leaves listeners with a simple yet profound call to action: "Just be curious. Look up things, engage, go to meetups, find out stuff slowly, meet people. It starts with small steps, and there's this saying, small steps lead to big things." His words resonate with the core ethos of the podcast – to embrace the audacious journey of innovation, one step at a time.

Step into your creativity, be curious, and dare to be audacious!

Ready to explore the world of innovation and perhaps even be seen and noticed for your own breakthroughs? 

Discover more about Pause Fest and the Pause Awards here:
https://www.pausefest.com.au/
https://pauseawards.com/