Aside from addressing the current dire economic predicament, the Small Business: Big Vision event, run by the IPA Deakin SME Research Centre on 4 and 5 September 2019, pushed for a more concerted effort to boost SME productivity. The event brought together Australian and international experts to explore the creation of a sustainable ecosystem for SMEs, based on the five integral pillars financial capital, innovation, regulation, trade and internationalisation, and human capital.
While some say that small business is the engine room of the economy, we believe that is an understatement; we believe that small business is the whole factory, plant and equipment. Unless we stoke the fire beneath it, our future generations will suffer the consequences, the IPA CEO, Andrew Conway, said in announcing the event.
The full auditorium of policy makers, business people and accountants also heard from Eugene Cornelius Jr., senior adviser to the US Office of International Trade at the Small Business Administration; Dr.Winslow Sargeant, former chief counsel for advocacy appointed by and reporting direct to President Barack Obama; and Charles Matthews, Fulbright Scholar from the University of Cincinnati. (Read more…).
