Business Wagga Wagga

Economic Development Conference

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2009

The 2009 Riverina Murray Regional Economic Development Conference 'Building Resilient Economies' held in Wagga Wagga in March 2009 was a great success. The Conference was hosted by Wagga Wagga City Council on behalf of the wider Riverina Murray Region.

"Successful communities play to their strengths. They take advantage of their opportunities. They're extroverted and market themselves beyond their city limits. They link up with other communities. They know that their cultural, education and communal assets are what creates their economic strength, sustains them, and makes them resilient. After all, a healthy community generates wealth. But not all wealthy communities generate health".

Key Note Speaker (Late) Richard Pratt - who passed away shortly after his attendance at the conference

The Conference was held in Wagga Wagga on the 5th and 6th of March.The purpose of the conference was to bring together regional economic development and business stakeholders for two days to focus on building the resilience of the Riverina Murray region. The timing of the conference couldn't have been more appropriate, at the very time when economists were debating whether Australia was officially in recession.

The 136 delegates attending the conference represented a broad spectrum of private and public sector enterprises.

The conference was supported by the following sponsors: Bendigo Bank, Wagga Wagga City Council, Albury City Council and Griffith City Council.

The conference also introduced the first in a new annual Big Business Breakfast series for Wagga Wagga, sponsored by the NSW Department of State & Regional Development and GHD.

Through leading-edge presentations, strategic discussion and case studies of some of the region's outstanding businesses, the conference considered the regions economy from all perspectives in a national and international context.

Presenters at the conference included:
• (Late) Richard Pratt, Chairman of Visy;
• Dr Keith Suter - economic and social commentator, radio and TV personality
• Gilbert Rochecouste, international speaker on place-making, resilient communities and environmental sustainability;
• Kim Houghton, from Strategic Economic Solutions, specialising in helping regional communities understand and prosper from economic changes happening around them; and
• Also addressing the conference were representatives from some of the region's top performing businesses, including Precision Parts, Cargill Beef, Casella Wines of Yenda, TAFE NSW Riverina Institute, FlavourTech Technologies of Griffith, GEO Fabrics of Albury, Renewable Metal Technologies and Indy Group.

Key messages emerged consistently throughout the conference. These included: What defines a resilient community and economy; Positive strategies and leadership; Opportunities; Responsible, informed planning; Community engagement and ownership; Importance of social capital; Sense of place; and Being adaptable and flexible to economic, social, cultural and environmental "tipping points". Throughout the two days, speakers emphasised a general recognition that resilience for the long term is about the full bottom line of profitability, environmental and social responsibility.

Resilient Economies Defined

The definition of a resilient economy was addressed from a number of angles. The following key attributes of a resilient community were provided by (Late) Richard Pratt.

Resilience is about:
• Trying to understand what helps a city, community, a nation or a business deal with the unexpected;
• How we can plan to withstand external impacts - environmental, economic or social;
• How we can recover and rebuild when those impacts do hit; and
• Building capacity for bouncing back.

From this basis, the features that distinguish successful regional communities include:
• A community that displays self belief and self reliance, and no expectations;
• Team work and collaboration - a strong sense of local identity, a shared common vision which cuts across territorial assets; and
• Foresight and strategic vision.
Source: Adapted from presentation by Richard Pratt

Kim Houghton set the key attributes of sustainable, resilient economies in the context of four business principles:
• Know your market;
• Play to your strengths;
• Be different; and
• Be passionate.

Emerging Themes

Opportunities and Positive Strategies

(Late) Richard Pratt's address began by quoting poet PJ Hartigan "We'll all be rooned said Hanrahan" - Hanrahan ever since being the father of all Australian doom and gloom merchants. (Late) Richard Pratt's presentation firmly acknowledged devastating floods, catastrophic bushfires, a Country bracing itself for recession, businesses struggling to stay afloat and job losses. He stressed however, the importance of a positive approach and attitude of resilience, of rejecting ‘rooinism', of being prepared for the long haul, of confidence that Australia will come out of the bad times and recover and prosper again - agreeing with the view that of all the Countries struggling to deal with the economic crisis, Australia is still the best place to be.

Opportunities for rural and regional communities were highlighted at the conference, with these communities encouraged to be confident and forward-looking. Dr Keith Suter highlighted opportunities for these communities through ‘Blue Ocean Strategies', and as lifestyle options, (stressing the key role that reliable medical services play in the ability of these areas to attract and retain population growth).

Responsible, Informed Planning

The importance of responsible planning in the face of major chance and trends at both the micro, individual business level and the macro levels of strategy was highlighted strongly through the conference presentations. This included the importance of scenario planning as a management tool - "the need to think about the unthinkable" (Dr Keith Suter).

As a part of responsible, informed planning, conference presentations emphasised the importance of knowing your markets and your economy and the ability to adapt and plan and also realise opportunities. Michael Campbell and Kim Houghton in particular focused the conference on knowing the economy and awareness of changing demographics, and with that, awareness of a changing customer base and potentially new markets: "the better the understanding of the dollar base, the better the positioning to make a dollar in somewhat difficult circumstances" (Dr Kim Houghton).

Responsible, informed planning also demands recognition of key trends and tipping points. Gilbert Rochecouste highlighted the importance of acting sooner rather than later and of resilience and the need to be adaptable and flexible to economic, social, cultural and environmental ‘tipping points', of climate change, peak oil, the economic corrections that we're now in, and demographic shifts. This presentation referred to the theme of the period we are now in as things getting "better and better, worse and worse, faster and faster".

Strategic Leadership and Support

Under this theme, conference presentations highlighted the importance of good leadership in the community and the need for some bold steps. Regional leaders were urged to stay confident despite the downturn.

The conference presentations identified very specific ways in which leaders can
support and build resilient economies, including:
• Understanding change - and leading responses;
• Business investment support - local or relocation - understanding the market;
• Boutique industries - understanding growth / networking issues; and
• Land supply - business / residential.

Focussing specifically on regional authorities, the following support mechanisms were
identified:
• Pro-business environment - internal processes and smart planning;
• External processes;
• Soft infrastructure and demand aggregation; and
• Business relevant information.
Source: Conference presentation by Dr Kim Houghton

Outcomes

The conference highlighted passion and commitment to work together and build the region's economy. It collectively recognised the importance of wider understanding of the economic power in the region's people, industry, university and armed forces. It highlighted strong self-belief as a wider region. It achieved a commitment to meet again on an annual basis to continue the momentum.

The 2010 Economic Development Conference will be hosted by Griffith City Council. For more information click here.