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Many small
businesses benefit greatly from training, coaching, and mentoring
during their critical start-up years. Some benefit just from having
someone to bounce ideas off and assist navigating the maze of
paperwork that exists for small business in Australia. During
12th – 15th September 2010 the three key
Australian associations representing business incubation, support
and training organisations Business Innovation and Incubation
Australia (BIIA), Business Enterprise Centres Australia (BEC
Australia) and the National NEIS Association (NNA) will host their
annual national conference. In addition, for the first time they
will be joined by the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and
New Zealand (SEAANZ), offering an opportunity for both the academic
and practitioner arms of the business assistance community to mix
and gain insight into business in Australia and the Asia-Pacific
Region.
The 2010 conference also
incorporates the 15th AABI General Assembly and the APIN 5th Asia
Pacific Conference on Business Incubation, thereby featuring
delegates who actively practice business incubation from
throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
The
conference aims to further professional development and to promote
best practice across the industry. The conference will present
challenging speakers at the forefront of the industry as well as a
range of practitioners willing to share their experiences and
expertise.
The
Conference Committee invites persons who wish to present at the
Small Business Development Conference 2010 to submit abstracts for
consideration.
This national
Conference will continue its tradition of excellence and
information exchange for the premier gathering of business
incubation and business development practitioners. It is not
necessary to be a member of BIIA, BEC Australia, NNA or SEAANZ to
present at the conference.
The topics, workshops and
sessions are being designed to deliver practical tools and
resources to those working in the industry, in an environment,
which challenges and extends their understanding. The theme for
this year’s conference is Recovery.
The theme and associated topics
will focus on providing delegates with the skills and knowledge to
assist our clients when their businesses need to recover from a
situation which is outside their control – be it global economic
conditions, natural disaster or personal trauma. In these times it
is imperative that businesses get their strategies right from the
start across all aspects of their business and therefore it is
essential that our facilitators have the skills, knowledge and
ability to both inspire and guide their clients through their
self-employment journey.
We also intend focusing on and
strengthening our network and utilising the skills and expertise
available in the network and its stakeholders. Specifically the
sessions will investigate ways in which we can build on our
proven performance, look at lessons learned and consider how
we lead the sector into the future.
Overall we hope the Conference
will achieve the following:
-
Improve practitioner skills and
knowledge
-
Improve understanding of regional
economies and the labour market and how these are changing in the
current economic climate,
-
Improve understanding of business
incubation and facilitation, and improvements that can be
made,
- Increase the
opportunity for development of small business assistance in
Australia,
Conference Theme
Recovery…
Proposed Topics
Lessons Learned...Helping Local
Businesses Recover after Fire and Flood
Dealing with Insurance Companies
in Times of Stress
Will Greening Your Business Help
the Environment to Recover?
Philanthropic
Funding
Consumer Trends and
Forecasting
NEIS-Incubator-BEC /SBC Business
Panel
How to run a Successful
Networking Event
Working with clients to secure
capital
Recovering Debt – Strategies to
Call in Accounts Receivable
Working with Indigenous
Entrepreneurs
Debate: Facilitation v/s
Advising
Governance Education
How to deal with difficult
Boards
Commercialising
Technology
Industry specialists and tips of
the trade
Business Advisory
Boards
Business Services
Training
Doing Business Online
Importing and Exporting with a
stronger Aussie Dollar
An introduction to Franchises and
Franchising
The
presentations and workshops submitted should reflect:
-
The interest of the industry
sectors
-
The practitioners working in
small business development, or areas of academic
research
-
The opportunities available to
small business
-
The national, state and local
government interests in sustainable enterprise establishment and
development
Although
presentations should relate to Small Business Development, Business
Incubation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, please do not feel limited by these
categories. The Call for Speakers and Presenters intends to
draw a diverse variety of
submissions that both stimulate and challenge conference
attendees.
Individuals,
organisations, and companies wanting to present at the conference
are requested to submit an abstract of 250 to 500 words.
Please specify the title of your presentation, three to five key
words on the subject and anticipated length of presentation in line
with options below.
The abstract
must include the contact person's name, title or position, company
or affiliation, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
Abstracts must clearly delineate their objective and scope, issues,
developments, and conclusions. An author biography of no more than
250 words and photo should be included.
Abstracts
must be submitted for all presentations and should be suitable for
a presentation of one of the following lengths; 30 minute
concurrent session, 30 minute panel presentation, 30 minute
roundtable discussion or 60-90 minute workshop
presentation.
Note that it
is a requirement of speakers to provide an electronic copy of their
paper for distribution to all conference delegates. This includes
resources such as spreadsheets and diagnostic tools promoted –
acknowledgement of IP will be provided. This must be provided two
weeks prior to speaking at the conference and a failure to do so
will result in speakers being dropped from the program.
All speakers
will be required to register for the conference. Reduced conference
fees will be applicable for speakers registering for the full
conference or complimentary registration will be extended for the
day of the scheduled presentation not including any social
functions. The conference does not reimburse speakers for their
airfare, accommodation or other expenses in relation to attending
the conference.
Abstract
Submission
The deadline
for submitting abstracts is 31st May 2010
Notifications
of acceptance will be sent by 11th June 2010
Please submit
an abstract for each topic you wish to present
The Committee
reserves the right to choose which presentations will take
place
Abstracts may be submitted via
email
to:
Paula Beare
Conference Coordinator
Small Business Development
Conference
conference@becaustralia.org.au | 