BUSINESS IN FOCUS MONTH 2010—WRAP UP

September’s Business In Focus Month saw 54 activities presented by 34 organisations over 30 days. Feedback so far has been extremely positive, with a strong recognition of the quality and diversity of events held throughout the month.

Business and Industry Development would like to thank Principal Sponsor The Canberra Times for their generous support of the 2010 Business In Focus Month. Thanks also to AusIndustry, Austrade, B2B in Canberra Magazine and CIT for their support. Finally, BID would like to thank each of the event partners for their contribution – without them, Business In Focus Month could not be the success that it is. The program was packed full of a diverse range of events, which led to numerous highlights. 

Pathways to Success

More than 70 people attended the Pathways to Success seminar held at The Brassey Hotel. Feedback on the night was extremely positive, with many guests remarking that it was beneficial to their business. The panel of four local businesses shared their success stories and experience of government assistance with attendees. The panel discussion, facilitated by ABC Radio 666 Canberra’s Ross Solly, was extremely positive about the advantages of seeking government assistance and discussed the importance of asking for help, networking and taking the time to analyse their business to prepare for support applications. The panel members were: Joe Mammoliti, Chief Executive Officer, ICognition Pty Ltd; Mr Peter Lilley, Co-founder, Executive Partner and CEO, Stratsec Pty Ltd; Therese Fingleton, General Manager, The TEN Project; Justin Barrie, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Perkler Pty Ltd.

Small & Micro Business Forum

More than 60 representatives of ACT small businesses discussed skills issues at the second annual Small and Micro Business Forum held at the National Portrait Gallery. The theme for this year’s Small and Micro Business Forum, ‘Building Human Resource Capability’, stimulated much discussion amongst small and micro businesses, including issues of skills shortages, attracting the ‘right’ staff and training and development.  There was strong support at the Forum for business mentoring which will be a feature of the new Canberra BusinessPoint arrangements.  Many of the small business representatives attended a drop-in hour prior to the Forum and were able to engage with representatives of a range of government agencies including Procurement Solutions, AusIndustry, ACTPLA, LAPS, DECCEW and CIT.

ACT Young Tall Poppy Science Awards

The ACT 2010 Young Tall Poppy Science Awards were announced at a function at University House, The Australian National University. These Awards recognise the achievements of Australia's outstanding young scientific researchers and communicators. Dr Darren Goossens, Materials Science and Dr Rowena Martin, Medical Parasitology, both from the ANU, were announced as the inaugural ACT Young Tall Poppies. Dr Goossen’s research seeks to understand the interactions between molecules in crystals, leading to applications across the medical and IT fields. Dr Martin has made a major contribution to the understanding of basic biology and the mechanisms of malaria drug resistance. The winners will spend the next year reaching out to teachers, school students and the broader community around the ACT and across Australia as part of the Tall Poppy campaign.

TechNET 2010

ACT Deputy Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher MLA, officially opened the NICTA Canberra Technology Showcase (TechNET 2010). TechNET is an opportunity for researchers to demonstrate their projects and real life applications of their research to the community. Projects on display included the Bionic Eye, Australian e-Government Cluster, Smart Grid and Automap.

Electric Vehicle Festival

The second Canberra Electric Vehicle Festival was held on the lawns of Old Parliament House. The Festival was a great success, drawing around 10,000 people – double the number from the first Festival in 2009. The EVF featured displays and demonstrations by three commercially available production electric vehicles: the Tesla Roadster, Blade Electron and Mitsubishi i-MIEV.  There was also a range of exhibits on display including electric vehicle infrastructure provider Better Place, CIT, renewable energy suppliers and electric vehicle conversion specialists.

Going Green – What’s In It for You?

This forum, held at Hotel Realm featured a panel of three successful local business operators who shared their insight and experiences of integrating sustainable strategies into their businesses while maintaining a priority on their ‘bottom lines’. There was significant interest generated in the audience from the experience and information sharing of the panel presenters.

A Big Australia Means Big Business

The forum was held at the BAE Systems Theatre at the Australian War Memorial. Late Night Live presenter, Phillip Adams moderated the lively discussion which focused on the recent Australian population debate and the resurgence of talk of feasibility studies for Very Fast Train (VFT). The panel members were: Peter Anderson, Chief Executive, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Anne-Marie Huxley, Founder and CEO, Models of Success and Sustainability; Dr Graham Turner, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences (previously Sustainable Ecosystems); Dr Paul Mees, Senior Lecturer in Transport Planning at RMIT. The discussion covered a wide range of issues related to the VFT and its connection to population. The numerous engineering-focused studies and that have been undertaken surrounding VFT were discussed, which highlighted the need to investigate behaviour and purpose factors when considering whether a VFT would be feasible. The first hour of the discussion was recorded for ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, and broadcast to listeners and podcast audience of approximately 3.6 million people.

The Policy & Practice of Innovation: Has Australia got it right?

The seminar was moderated by Robyn Williams from the ABC and featured a panel of experts and business professionals who presented on the topic and responded to audience questions regarding our innovation policy, practise and its relationship to ACT businesses. Speakers included: Peter Hodgson from Deakin University; Sarah Pearson from ANU; Nick McNaughton from Blue Cove Ventures; Peter Devine from Uniseed; Tricia Berman from DIISR; Glenn Wightwick from IBM; and Mark Matthews also from ANU.

As we look towards the third Business In Focus Month we would appreciate your input. If you have any suggestions or comments, please contact:

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