timgentle

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Saxton Corporate Business Luncheon at the Sofitel Melbourne as a guest of Small Business Victoria, via the Masterclass for Growth Program.

The Theme of the lunch was "Business, it ain't what it use to be" hosted by Ita Buttrose with guest speakers Steve Vamos, Theresa Guttang and Brad Howarth, entertainers and a packed room of around 300 or 400 guests.

It's hard to incapsulate all the thoughts I have flying around in my head, but my take on the speakers is that;

- Empowering staff to be their best is the way to go, there is no "one" person who can run a business anymore, be a captain
- The Internet Economy and Digital Economy are no longer buzz words, but very real and very powerful
- That the National Broadband is a good thing and will continue to phase out geographical boundaries
- That Information Technology is reflected in society, for example, the move to 'cloud computing' and sharing resources can be paralleled to social media and sharing opinions
- some bloggers have more power than print journalists due to their followers eg. Fashion bloggers are seated front row at the fashion parades
- 50% of Australian businesses don't have a website

This post is more to clear my head as It's late and I can't stop thinking about the potential of the web. It's great to know that I (we Design Experts) are tracking down the right path and helping our clients to do the same thing.

I even purchased Brad's book "A Faster Future' www.afasterfuture.com

Final thought, and one which Brad Howarth raised; Who in the last 12 months has taken a film down to be processed? You?I doubt it very much, it just goes to show you how powerful the digital economy is and how it can literally wipe out an industry that has been around for more than a hundred years so fast...