Melbourne’s hottest creative thinker’s festival- ‘The 8 Percent’

The inaugural ‘The 8 Percent Festival’ (www.festival.the8percent.com) will be held in Melbourne on 10-11 October where Australia’s budding entrepreneurs will come together at Melbourne’s Plaza Ballroom this October to celebrate the biggest thinkers and leaders who aim to disrupt and provoke social change.

Keynote speakers will include, lead singer of rock band Everclear, Art Alexakis; undefeated martial arts artist, TEDX Sydney speaker and Cancer survivor, Nadine Champion, South Sudanese refugee and law graduate Deng Thiak Adut as well as author, journalist and television presenter, Indira Naidoo Hosted by one of Australia’s top marketers, Leela Cosgrove, the two-day festival will invite the brightest minds in business and the arts to discuss live on stage, problems facing the health, film, media, education and business industries, designed to prompt thought, question and debate on industry specific topics.

The festival will run across two days from 10 October and consists of four keynotes, 8 Think Tank panels and a number of breakout workshops.

The company behind the festival is The 8 Percent, a group of unique thinkers and industry trail blazers whose end goal is to make the world better through pioneering advances in science, the arts and literature.

The 8 Percent is not only home to the world’s leading game changers and innovators but acts as a platform for business consulting, marketing as well as book publishing for those who want to make a positive impact on their industry.

The festival’s creator, Leela Cosgrove has since been named as one of Australia’s top 25 female entrepreneurs under the age of 40 and was nominated for the Veuve Clicquot “New Generation” entrepreneur award. She has also spoken at TEDX about her Identity Principle and has presented on marketing, identity and The 8 Percent throughout Australia, the US and Asia. A self-proclaimed Apple fanatic, Leela credits the name of her new thought provoking project to the well-known fact that when the up-and-coming computer company first entered the marketplace it only held 8 percent of Microsoft’s market. Now leader in its field, Leela believes Apples success is credited to the 8 percent of people who recognised the company’s potential, sparking Leela’s own desire to recognise a clique of unique people who think differently.

“These 8 percent are the creators, the game changers, the people who go out of their way to buy the thing no one else is buying. They want to be different, to ‘think different’- they are the ‘crazy ones,’’- Leela Cosgrove.

The 8 Percent Festival will welcome Melbourne businesses, entrepreneurs and executives to discuss with an expert panel a central question that is affecting an entire industry. Guests will be encouraged to not only to provide their opinion on the topic but to collectively agree on a new business model that will help drive the industry forward. The festival aims to promote thought provoking discussion that can be put forward to industry leaders for the brightest future possible.

Tickets can be purchased for The 8 Percent Festival at http://events.the8percent.com/home.html