Our Mission Statement
We believe that empowerment comes through awareness. That awareness
comes through hearing all sides and exposing conflicting interests. The Quitober Challenge is a positive awareness campaign month that empowers smokers to quit in the workplace.

The Inspiration
As a non-smoker I was concerned at seeing the same old TV advertisements trying to
scare smokers with dramatic and negative emotive scenes but very little in the area of positive support other than a number to call someone or a link to their website brochure.
I thought that there must be a more positive, focused and supportive way to help smokers quit using the internet and social networks. Campaign-months like Movember, Dryjuly and Febfast inspired me along with quit smoking challenges run in Ontario and Quebec, Canada with 46,000 smoking members this year. The Quitober Challenge is a mashup of all of these movements.

Together We Quit & Win...
By creating a groundswell of smokers quitting together we are tapping into the same social network forces that got them started in the first place. >>social proof
Having no ties with the government, pharmaceutical companies and no call centre we can be straight with smokers. ie. Most ex-smokers quit unassisted without counselling or nicotine replacements. All they need is awareness, the desire and a date. >>more on unassisted cessation.

Our Successful Pilot
We ran a successful pilot in October last year with four Australian universities including the Uni of Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide. and Southern Queensland, where 26 staff smokers participated and 10 (38%) managed to quit for the month. In 2010 all Australian & New Zealand universities will be invited to participate through our involvement with the AUSA - Australasian University Safety Association.
Of course any other organisations or businesses are also welcome to participate. Students and unsponsored smokers can also take part but are not eligible to receive a Quitober info pack or to win any incentive prizes.

Warwick Bennett, Uni of Canberra Safety Officer
"Quitober is a great initiative & a low cost way of providing Uni of Canberra staff the
  opportunity to quit smoking. Keep up the good work"

Our Team
Our latest member to the team is Lindsay Stainton, our Wellness Advisor.
Lindsay worked for the University of Southern Queensland as their practice manager in the Health Service for 10 years. Lindsay is now a partner in Quitober and advises us on wellness information.

Desmond Sherlock is trained as an industrial designer, entrepreneur and philosopher.
He has founded a number of online start-ups the last one being Oodles.com that he co-founded with his brother Steve. Has considerable experience in the organising of events. His philosophy is that design is as much about helping people quit smoking as it is about creating a better egg slicer. Des is founder & CEO of the Quitober Challenge.