Small Business Summit program confirmed

National Small Business Summit 2016

The Small Business Summit will be officially opened…by Greg Tonner, CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys, who will be joined by other guest speakers to celebrate the power of small business.

The line-up is now confirmed for this year’s Vodafone National Small Business Summit – taking place at Brisbane Hilton Hotel from 6-8 July – that will shape the future of small business.

The Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer will be joined by other influential speakers in the world of small business, including Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell, Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James and Acting Commissioner for the ATO, Neil Olesen, plus many more ministers, policy makers and business leaders from global brands such as Vodafone, Google and American Express.

The Small Business Summit will be officially opened at the Summit Start Up, on the evening of Wednesday 6 July, by Greg Tonner, CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys, who will be joined by other guest speakers to celebrate the power of small business.

Hear him discuss the importance of innovation and the similarities between managing a premiership winning club and a small business – passion, spirit, dedication, endurance and hard work.

The program for the summit itself is as follows:

Thursday 7th July

Who are the innovators?

  • Andrew Chanmugam, General Manager of Enterprise & Business at Vodafone Australia, will be joined by Robert Gerrish, Founder of Flying Fish for a panel discussion and Q&A to uncover who are the innovators in small business

Mental health of the small business owners

  • Nick Arvanitis, Head of Research & Resource Development at Beyond Blue and Leanne Faulkner from COSBOA’s Heads Up Campaign will talk about the critical need to address the mental health of small-business owners

Case Study: Australia Made Campaign

  • Ian Harrison, CEO, Australian Made Campaign, will discuss leveraging country-of-origin branding, which can provide Australian small businesses with a powerful competitive advantage, both in Australia and overseas markets

Fair Work Ombudsman introduction and session: Contractor or employee?

  • Natalie James, the Australian Fair Work Ombudsmen will talk exclusively about penalty rates, employment and the government’s roles for small business

Friday 8th July

Critical Business Infrastructure

  • Dan Lloyd, Chief Strategy Officer and Corporate Affairs Director at Vodafone and Martin Southgate, Head of Audience Strategy at ABC Regional get to the bottom of the issues of critical business infrastructure

Regulator Update

  • Dr Michael Schaper, Deputy Chair at the ACCC provides an industry update at this exclusive plenary session

Case study: How NOT to deal with small business

  • In a switch on the traditional format, learn from Kate Carnell, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and Matthew Munro, Executive Director, Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association on how not to deal with small businesses