The Experience Collaborative
Systems that ship. Not slide decks about systems.
EXPCO plans and builds the operating layer for small Australian businesses and community organisations — the sites, the automations, the AI systems and the media that make them work — then hands you something running, not a proposal.
CAPABILITY 01
AI systems & co-design
Work out what should be automated, what should stay human, and what AI genuinely earns its place doing — designed with the people who'll use it, then built.
- AI system planning — Scoping, feasibility, and what a task actually costs to automate.
- AI operating systems — Intake, decision, action, record — with a human approving anything that goes out.
- Community co-design — Designed with the people it's for. Their vocabulary and workflow, not an assumed version.
- Data governance & consent — Consent at capture, aggregate by default, and the organisation keeping control of what flows upward.
- Workflow automation — Deterministic first. AI only where it beats a rule on cost or speed.
- Custom tools & internal apps — Portals, dashboards, quoting and booking tools.
- Chatbots & assistants — Including the ones with no model behind them, where that's the right answer.
CAPABILITY 02
Web & digital
Sites that are found, load fast, and turn visits into enquiries.
- Web design & build — Fast, accessible, mobile-first, and built to be measured.
- E-commerce, bookings & payments — Checkout, order flows, and the webhooks that keep them honest.
- Local SEO & Google Business Profile — Suburb and service pages, structured data, map-pack work.
- Digital marketing — Search, local, and email automation that runs without you.
- Analytics & tracking — Honest reporting on what actually converted.
- Graphic design — Brand marks, print collateral, ad creative.
CAPABILITY 03
Property & business media
Listing and business media, shot locally, delivered fast.
- Real estate photography — Interiors, exteriors, twilight.
- Real estate videography — Walkthroughs and listing edits.
- Business & team photography — Profile, premises, and content you can actually post.
AI gets used where it's cheaper or faster than code, and not otherwise. The people who'll use the system help design it.
How it works
01 — Co-design
We work out what the system needs to do with the people who'll be using it — their vocabulary, their workflow, their constraints. The brief comes out of that, not before it.
02 — Decide
Every decision gets made and written down before the build starts. Scope, stack, what's automated, what stays human, and what happens when something breaks.
03 — Build
Built against the decisions. No scope drift, no surprise invoices, no design-by-committee halfway through.
04 — Hand over
You get the running system, the credentials, and a document explaining how it works. Ongoing support if you want it — not because you're locked in.
Who we work with
Small Australian businesses
Owner-operators and small teams across the Hunter and Central Coast who need the thing built and running, not a retainer and a roadmap.
Community organisations, NGOs and funders
Programme work where the system has to survive poor connectivity, shared devices and real accountability — and where the community, not the vendor, owns the record.
Where it lands hardest
The second job we take off you
The businesses that get the most from us share one shape: the owner is also the admin department. Quotes written at the kitchen table, invoices chased between jobs, a phone that rings while you're on the tools. We build what we call an AI operating system — intake, decision, action, record, with you approving anything that goes out — and hand it over running.
Trades & field services
Electricians, plumbers, roofers, landscapers — the work happens on site while the quotes, callbacks and paperwork bank up at the desk.
Calendar-driven services
Cleaners, repairs, mobile and appointment businesses — the ones that live by bookings, reschedules and reminders.
Owner-operators & small teams
One to a dozen people and no office manager — the structure where every unanswered voicemail is the owner's problem at 9pm.
Calls missed while you're on the tools
AI voice answering takes the call and turns it into a transcribed, triaged work item — quote request, booking, or something that comes straight to you.
Quotes that go out days late
A drafter builds each quote from your rate card and your templates — your prices, your words — queued for your tap before anything sends.
Chasing money is awkward
The ledger is watched for you: polite, escalating reminders go out under your name, each one approved by you first.
Everything lives in six places
Every call, quote, booking, approval and reply files against the right job and the right person — one record the whole system writes into.
Nothing goes out without your approval, and AI is only used where it beats a rule on cost or speed.
Work
SharpenIt
A mail-in and door-to-door knife and tool sharpening business, built end to end: bookings and checkout, payment integration, lifecycle email, a custom support widget, and fourteen location and service pages with structured data. Live and taking orders.
AusLocal
Australia's local services directories — one directory per trade — built end to end: verified listings, reviews from confirmed customers, free quote requests, and a self-serve dashboard where business owners claim and manage their listing. Live now with cleaners and dog care across NSW.
Pony Fund
An online store for handmade custom-printed heat packs, filled with Australian-grown lupins in organic cotton — built end to end: shop and checkout, a create-your-own design flow, customer accounts, and a fundraising programme for schools and clubs, with wholesale and affiliate channels.
More work on request.
About
EXPCO is The Experience Collaborative — a small core with specialists brought in per project, working out of Lake Macquarie.
Emile's background is in humanitarian technology and community resilience, building systems for organisations delivering programmes in low-connectivity settings. The same principles apply to a sharpening business in Warners Bay: work out what the system actually has to do, automate what's worth automating, and hand over something the owner controls.
Start a project
Tell us what you're trying to build. If it isn't something EXPCO should be doing, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.
On-site work across the Hunter and Central Coast. Remote work Australia-wide.