Q and O Collective

10/10/2026

Our first Q&O Collective sponsored podcast is LIVE! 🎙️🎉

Hear how Fred, Ike and Uche, together with an amazing team of volunteers, turned an idea into Australia’s largest African festival, bringing over 50,000 people together each year.

We’re so proud to help share their story!

If you haven’t experienced the African Music and Cultural Festival, join us at Fed Square from Friday 20 – Sunday 22 November for three days of music, food, dancing and culture! 💃🏽🥁

If you’d like to explore how podcasting could work for you or your business, send us a DM. We’d love to chat!

🎧 Listen now! Available on all major podcast platforms. Simply search African Music and Cultural Festival Podcast or listen on Spotify 👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/0LdLCrbwylORgKs3XMKw0v

01/10/2026

Built a Custom GPT in a Q&O workshop or afterwards? OpenAI plans to retire Custom GPTs on 11 December 2026.

Don't Panic ! Your 🧠 Brand Brain 🧠 still matters and is imensly useful. The time you spent capturing your organisation’s audience, voice, services, processes and boundaries is useful beyond one ChatGPT assistant. That’s the foundation you can take into your next setup.

OpenAI plans to retire Custom GPTs on 11 December 2026. If you rely on one, check the account or workspace where it was created for the migration options.

The latest published instructions and knowledge files can move into a new Plugin as a Skill and reference files, but past chats, sharing settings and custom actions need separate attention.

Your next step depends on your account. Business users can check for migration and Skills access. Pro users can use a Project to keep instructions, files and related chats together. Our blog explains the routes for Business, Pro and Enterprise.

First, save your Brand Brain Form and Folders somewhere you control. If we set them up for you, make a copy in your own workspace.

That’s why our course starts with the Brand Brain. Platforms evolve. Your Brand Brain goes with you 🧠.

Read the practical guide in the blog below:

https://www.qandocollective.com/blog

22/09/2026

You know the tasks.

The email you still haven’t replied to.
The post you keep meaning to write.
The follow-up that slipped your mind.
The website update that has been waiting for weeks.

You spend the whole day working, yet the important things still get pushed to tomorrow.

It’s not that you’re unproductive. Too much of the business still depends on you starting every task from scratch.

Used properly, ChatGPT can help you plan, organise, draft and move through repetitive work faster, without losing your voice or handing over the thinking.

You don’t need to fit more into your day. You need a better way to manage what is already on your plate.

What’s the one task you keep moving to tomorrow?

14/09/2026

Think you’re already using ChatGPT to save time? You could be missing the best bit. 👀

You’re probably already using it to write emails, create captions, brainstorm ideas or polish your words.

Useful? Absolutely.

But that’s only scratching the surface.

The real shift happens when you look at how you actually run your business and identify the repetitive, clunky processes ChatGPT can help you simplify.

That’s when ChatGPT stops being something you occasionally ask a question and starts becoming a tool that genuinely makes running your business easier.

There’s a much smarter way to use ChatGPT. You just need to know what’s possible.

If you could get one hour back in your week, what would you stop doing? 👇

04/09/2026

🤖 What if ChatGPT actually understood your organisation?

Not just a few clever prompts, but your purpose, programs, audiences, priorities and communication style.

Join us for ChatGPT Made Practical for NFPs & Small Organisations, a hands-on Q&O Collective workshop designed for people who want to use AI confidently, practically and responsibly.

You’ll learn how to:

✅ Customise ChatGPT around your organisation
✅ Create content in your own voice
✅ Strengthen funding applications
✅ Draft stakeholder communications
✅ Support research and administration
✅ Build repeatable workflows that save genuine time
✅ Choose the right setup for your ChatGPT plan and sharing needs

You’ll leave with a practical AI toolkit built around the work you actually do, plus the confidence to keep developing it.

No technical wizardry required. Just bring your laptop, your questions and a willingness to experiment.

📅 Saturday, 10 October
⏰ 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm
📍 Hampton Community Centre
👥 Limited to just 8 participants

Ready to make ChatGPT genuinely useful for your organisation?

👉 Reserve your place:https://www.qandocollective.com/event-details/chatgpt-training-nfps-small-organisations

Join Q&O Collective’s practical Melbourne ChatGPT workshop for NFPs, community organisations and small teams. Build a tailored AI toolkit and work smarter.

09/08/2026

We were lucky enough to have the founders of the African Music and Cultural Festival in the studio today, recording their very first podcast! 🎙️

The story of how this incredible festival came together absolutely blew us away. 🫶🏾

This conversation is a beautiful reflection of the passion and dedication of the volunteers, their incredible committee, and the many sponsors, partners, stallholders, musicians, storytellers and dancers who come together to celebrate and showcase African culture in the heart of Melbourne. 🌍✨

So many people. So much passion. One incredible celebration of culture and community.

🎧 Episode 1 of the podcast coming very 🔜 - we can’t wait to share their story with you!

Ikenna Nwokolo Fred Alale Uche Njoku

27/07/2026

Imagine starting your day knowing the jobs you’ve been avoiding no longer have to land on your desk.

That became a reality during our recent Customise Your Own AI Assistant course.

One of our students built her own AI Assistant, watched it take on the tasks she’d been dreading… and broke into a happy dance. 💃

It wasn’t about learning another AI tool.

It was about leaving with an AI Assistant built specifically for her business. One that understands her brand, writes in her voice and helps with the work that had been taking up so much of her time and energy.

That’s why moments like this are so special.

If you’re ready to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time growing your business, we’d love to show you how 👉 https://www.qandocollective.com/event-details/customise-your-own-ai-assistant-sunday-13-09-1-1

24/07/2026

Some of the most important business decisions you make aren’t about strategy. They’re about people. This photo of the two of us was taken back in 2012.

Neither of us knew then that one day we’d become co-founders and build Q&O Collective together. We were simply building something even more important first , a friendship.

Looking back, I’ve realised the best businesses aren’t built on clever ideas alone. They’re built on years of trust, shared values, honest conversations, plenty of laughter, and knowing someone will always show up when it matters most.

Yesterday was Claire’s birthday, and it feels like the perfect opportunity to publicly acknowledge someone who is an exceptional founder, business partner and friend.

Claire, thank you for being one of the most patient, fair, hardworking and genuinely kind people I know. You lead with integrity, stay calm under pressure, and somehow manage to make even the busiest days enjoyable.

What amazes me most is everything you juggle. While co-founding and growing a business, you’re also raising three beautiful children, including a very energetic four-year-old and, as if that wasn’t enough, you’ve also been studying for a cybersecurity qualification. Your discipline, resilience and willingness to keep learning are genuinely inspiring.

We often celebrate founders as individuals. But the reality is that many of the best businesses are built by partners who trust each other enough to share the risks, the setbacks, the victories and everything in between.

I couldn’t ask for a better person to build this business with.

Happy belated birthday, Claire.

Here’s to everything we’ve achieved so far and to the next chapter of our journey as friends, co-founders and business partners. I have no doubt the best is still to come. 🥂💜

Who’s someone that’s made a lasting impact on your business journey? Tag them below and let them know. We don’t do it often enough. ❤️

14/07/2026

What a great day in the city attending the Australian Marketing Summit at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC).

Hosted by Ethan Donati, with guest speaker Jane Lu, Founder and CEO of Showpo, the summit was packed with practical insights into marketing, AI and business growth.

One message came through consistently. Great businesses don’t grow by chance. They grow through strategy, consistency and a deep understanding of their customers.

Some of the biggest takeaways included:
✔️ Build trust before asking for the sale.
✔️ Create content that genuinely educates and adds value.
✔️ Use AI to increase productivity while keeping the human connection at the centre.
✔️ Make decisions based on data, not assumptions.
✔️ Understand that strong brands are built through consistent visibility, not occasional marketing.

The day sparked plenty of ideas to reflect on and put into practice. One thing is certain. The world of business is changing rapidly, and so is AI. Staying curious, continuing to learn and being willing to adapt has never been more important.

A big thank you to Ethan Donati and Jane Lu for generously sharing their knowledge, experiences and practical lessons from their entrepreneurial journeys.

02/07/2026

“We need an AI strategy!”

We hear it all the time.

But here’s the reality…

If your passwords are written on sticky notes, your files are scattered everywhere and your business knowledge only lives inside people’s heads…

AI isn’t your biggest problem.

The businesses getting the best results from AI have one thing in common:
They’ve built the right foundations first.

Our workshop is designed for business owners who want practical results, not complicated tech.

You’ll leave with your own customised AI Assistant, trained on your business, ready to help with content, emails, proposals, marketing, customer enquiries and much more.

✔ No coding required
✔ Hands-on learning
✔ Build it during the workshop
✔ Use it in your business the very next day

Join our next workshop on Saturday 15 August 👉 https://www.qandocollective.com/event-details/customise-your-own-ai-assistant-sunday-13-09-1-1

Seats are limited, so book early.