A young man with big ideas

By Roje Adaimy

Tom Dawkins is a self-confessed project junkie. One quick look at his list of achievements and you’ll find it hard to object: He’s published five magazines; hosted three virtual conferences; held five film festivals in six cities; helped young writers publish over 3,000 articles; and opened Australia’s first permanent space to foster youth-led enterprises and projects in Ultimo.
All of this under his belt, and Tom has only just celebrated his 29th birthday.
“I guess I’d describe myself as a naive but ambitious person who likes to create platforms to bring about social change,” he puts simply.
The young go-getter has been at the forefront of countless initiatives aimed at giving power to the youth of Australia – beginning with Vibewire Inc. Tom founded the non-profit, volunteer-based youth organisation in 2001 while still studying at university in Sydney, but didn’t anticipate how successful it would become.
“It felt like it happened quite organically,” he says. “As one project led to another, and one idea matured into something different and bigger, more and more people kept getting involved.”
The organisation quickly became national, as it established a number of local projects that brought together communities of enthusiastic young people. Not surprisingly, in 2005 Vibewire was awarded the United Nation’s World Summit Youth Award for Community Engagement.
“To be looking at quite a vibrant multi-state organisation that has received awards nationally and internationally, from places like the UN, is sometimes quite amazing to me,” Tom says.
Despite having won several awards himself – including a Future Summit Leadership Award by Australian Davos Connection and a Global YouthActionNet Fellowship from the International Youth Foundation – Tom downplays his role among the youth community.
“There’s young people all around me and many of them are incredible and accomplished,” he says. “I guess I’m very fortunate to spend a lot of time interacting with, working with, and exchanging with some pretty inspiring people. I don’t think I’m exceptional.”
With a small but growing team of staff, Tom’s organisation has initiated several successful projects including the popular youth-run website Vibewire.net, Reelife Short Film Festival, Election Tracker, and most recently the sQuareOne youth space in Ultimo. Dubbed Sydney’s basecamp for emerging culture makers and social entrepreneurs, Tom sees this as one of the most needed projects he’s done to date.
Unlike most local youth centres that serve those ‘at risk’ in the community, sQuareOne is a place where young and ambitious people make their big ideas a sustainable reality. The unique space offers permanent and semi-permanent residency to young entrepreneurs, providing them with the basics like accommodation, as well as access to fully-equipped computers and production equipment for a host of projects.
“In a city as expensive as Sydney, by providing really accessible and affordable space and resources, as well as creating a community of people who are all doing really exciting, interesting and self-motivated stuff, it becomes quite an inspiring environment to work in,” he says.
After eight years of hardwork as CEO of Vibewire, Tom is now about to hand over the reins to an even younger leader – Nathan Frick, at the age of 23. Although admitting the thought of not running the organisation was surreal, he says it’s a healthy time to give the opportunity to someone with a different outlook and strong skill-set.
“It’s really important that we stay a youth-owned organisation and for another young leader to show the amazing things that young people, in general, are capable of,” Tom says.
South East Asia is on the cards for the next six weeks for Tom, where he will spend time winding down before he heads of to Washington D.C. to further his career.
“I think it’s time for me to experience some new things as well, and learn things in a different context and from a slightly different angle,” he says.
In the meantime, Tom will continue to help Vibewire and all his other initiatives prepare for the challenges ahead.