Collaboration Over Competition

CONNECTING THE INDUSTRY, ONE CITY AT A TIME - On Saturday night, the 2nd of April, AREA Academy brought their “RE: CONNECT” fundraiser for the Jack Reed Foundation to Adelaide, SA!

Over the past few years, the team at AREA have brought their “RE: CONNECT” show across Australia to bring the industry back together in a fun and collaborative way. Starting in Melbourne, then to Brisbane, Sydney and most recently Adelaide. Raising $15,000 along the way for the Jack Reed Foundation!

The Jack Reed Foundation is an organisation that is creating opportunities for life transformation. Through their “99 New Beginnings” initiative, they are giving underprivileged youth from the disadvantaged areas of Brisbane a life-changing opportunity at a fully funded apprenticeship in barbering.

Giving them a sustainable pathway into our industry where they wouldn’t have had the chance before. The initial idea was that they would train the students from on-site shipping containers in Brisbane, but their biggest obstacle was finding someone to teach and run the container as a barbershop.

Eoin McCarthy from AREA had the idea to connect The Jack Reed Foundation with The Barber Academy, based on the Gold Coast and a new relationship was formed. The Barber Academy will now be taking on the students and training them by giving them a scholarship pathway to a Certificate III in Barbering.

This news was announced in Adelaide on the 2nd of April, hence The Barber Academy’s involvement with RE: CONNECT.

They have recently collaborated with the team at AREA to provide their certificate III students and trainers with access to ‘The Network’ which is AREA Academy’s online education platform. This newly formed relationship has broken down traditional barriers within the industry and is led from a place of collaboration not competition - with the ultimate aim of providing a better future for our industry.

The event in Adelaide saw roughly 60 stylists within the Adelaide hair community come hang out at Attaboy Barbershop in Kent Town to “Network, Socialise and Learn”. 10 of Adelaide’s finest kindly donated their time to share their knowledge and expertise with the attendees whilst all raising much-needed funds for the amazing initiative that is The Jack Reed Foundation.

The line-up included: Biftu Gudina, Leigh Winsor, and Eoin McCarthy of AREA. The current AHFA Australian Men’s Hairdresser of The Year, Luke Munn. Tom Wynn and Emma Marie from Attaboy. Johnny Georgiou from The Barbery - The Craft of a Barber. Kieren Kuzyk from The Barber Academy in Gold Coast, who is originally from Adelaide. Celine from Chop Chopp’s Barbershop and Lisa Robertson from Pipsqueak in Saigon.

Everyone helped to raise $3500 which will go towards supporting the next generation of the industry. This was helped by the amazing donations from the event sponsors Motion, Dyson, Andis, Kofer, Osaka, Pivot Point, Barber Brands International and ‘The Network’ by AREA Academy themselves.

The Jack Reed Foundation and AREA Academy would also like to thank Robby Lippett from Attaboy for providing the beautiful space for this awesome event.

Stay tuned for the next “RE: CONNECT” event later this year. The team at AREA have every intention of bringing the event to Perth and New Zealand!

BE THE NEXT FLATFORM ARTIST/ EDUCATOR

Wait WHAT? That’s right, fancy yourself as the next big thing, got skillz you think could help make our industry a little more complete with them in it? This is like ‘Open Mike Night” or “Australia’s Got Talent” for budding Barber educators/ artists. What an insane opportunity! We talk to Eoin…

Eoin, I believe AREA Academy will be running the “Barber Hub” at Hair Festival. What can we expect?

Yes, we are running the Barber Hub in support of our friends, the Jack Reed Foundation. Dyson, The Barber Academy and Motion Lab will be collaborating with us on this project. Our goal is to make the Barber Hub a collaborative space in which we can connect with everyone in the industry.

It’s another attempt by us to bring the hairdressing and barbering worlds closer together.

You can expect to see the next generation of emerging talent being given an opportunity and platform to propel their career to the next level.

Events like Hair Festival have been a pivotal part of my journey through the industry. It was at these events that I got given the opportunity to share my work and education so now I want to pass that opportunity on to the people who deserve it!

We will be accepting expressions of interest until the 31st of May & announcing the line-up on June 1st…

How can expressions of interest be submitted for participation on the stand?

We will be selecting some people to join us not only based on skill but how they will align with our purpose, mission, and values. We are big on our “why”, hence why we called our education show at Hair Festival “The Wonder of Why”.

If you are interested or know someone who might be - scan the QR code below and follow the appropriate link, fill out the form and hopefully it’s YOUR time!

Where else can we find you at Hair Festival & beyond?

As mentioned above, we are also presenting our education show “The Wonder of Why” on Monday at 4.45pm. This will be a very interactive keynote type presentation delving into all the aspects of our lives that have helped us achieve in our careers.

We want to help people in discovering their power through personal brand which will allow them to live a life by design.

This is a once off - so we don’t recommend missing this one!

I will also be representing Dyson on the RealTalk technology panel, and we will also be judging the Barberstreet competition.

You can follow us on our journey beyond Hair Festival by scanning the QR code below…”

@area_academy

@jackreedfoundation