Entrepreneurial Australia:
Future Australia
This 2-day event gathered the cream of Australian innovation in Melbourne on the 30th and 31st May 2001 at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne.
Three ministers participated. David Kemp and John Brumby both gave keynote addresses and Nick Minchin hosted a gala dinner function “Backing Australia’s Entrepreneurs” to celebrate entrepreneurship attended by over 200 people at which the success of a number of entrepreneurs was recognised. Over $70,000 raised in sponsorship.
What do we have to do to celebrate entrepreneurial endeavour the same way we celebrate sporting endeavour?
Entrepreneurial Australia: Future Australia was a milestone event. It brought together an outstanding collection of leaders, opinion makers, entrepreneurs, activists in government, education, research and business - all contributing in the discussions about how to build positive attitudes to entrepreneurship and support for a culture of creativity and innovation in Australian society.
We received many expressions of thanks and congratulations from delegates. By all accounts, the Event achieved one of its primary purposes: establishing a community of leaders who are putting in place the changes needed for Australia to become a nation of Entrepreneurs.
The Event was successful in many other ways as well, attracting more than 150 participants as well as 45 panellists and guest speakers. The diversity and geographic spread of delegates ensured a vibrant and stimulating environment for the sharing of experiences. Presentations from panellists and guest speakers were all of an excellent standard and stimulated discussion during the many opportunities provided for networking.
From responses to the feedback survey, everyone saw the networking opportunities as valuable while every second person claims to have identified future business opportunities. And while these may have been secondary aims of the event, the most important result was everyone indicating their interest to participate in future activities!
Highlights of the event
Dr Jim Fox from Vision Systems – giving his address live from London via a video conference hook-up. His commitment to be part of the event was matched by his well thought out list of actions that we all need to pursue.
The quality and variety of the panellists ensured each topic was well fleshed out, while the questions and comments from the audience demonstrated passion and understanding for the issues.
Addresses by two ministers, Dr David Kemp (Federal) and John Brumby (Victorian), showed clear, bipartisan support from governments for entrepreneurship and the development of an entrepreneurial culture.
Guest presentations from George Lewin, who recounted his own inspiring story of the successful commercialisation of an invention and his vision for a foundation to assist new inventors, and from Shell Australia’s, John Simpson, who outlined the Shell sponsored Livewire program.
“Backing Australia’s Entrepreneurs” Gala Dinner – an entertaining and enjoyable evening hosted by Senator Nick Minchin, where a number of Australia’s young Entrepreneurial Hero’s were presented and celebrated. The entire event was recorded on video and a comprehensive proceedings paper developed. In this report, the many proposals for further action were presented.
A look at the One.Tel failure
If there was one criticism of the event, it was that so little media coverage was obtained. While every effort was taken to introduce the media to the many issues being discussed, it was clear from reports that the One.Tel failure has provided the media with anti-entrepreneur material once again.
However, this negative spin on very un-entrepreneurial businessmen can be turned into an advantage as it opens the door to argue the case that entrepreneurs are not “blind optimists” but in fact they are great evaluators of opportunity, superb planners, and excellent managers. As Professor Hindle of the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship wrote, “they are particularly good at risk management. They use these skills to turn innovations into new businesses. In fact none of these attributes apply to the One.Tel case. The business was not innovative. It was clearly not well managed. Most importantly, management seems to have been more attracted by risk taking than risk management.”
The virtual community created by the Entrepreneurial Australia: Future Australia Event contains the leaders and enthusiasts needed to progress the outcomes and B-HERT is uniquely positioned to take on the role of facilitator to keep the momentum going.
