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Regional video link for small business seminar

August 30, 2005

PHutchinson.thumb.jpgThe latest communications technology will allow people in 10 centres throughout north-west NSW to participate in a seminar on small business development conducted by international experts.

The “Travelling Experts Seminar”, coordinated by The University of New England, will bring together, via videoconference, people involved in developing and promoting small businesses in this part of regional NSW.

Sponsored by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development, the seminar will consist of short presentations by the “travelling experts”, speaking at UNE in Armidale, followed by a panel discussion open to the audiences at the Armidale campus and the UNE Tamworth Centre, as well as at UNE Access Centres in Boggabilla, Coonabarabran, Gunnedah, Inverell, Moree, Narrabri, Quirindi and Tenterfield.

The seminar, on the afternoon of Wednesday 28 September, will be just after the conclusion of the 18th Annual Conference of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand (SEAANZ), to be held at UNE, beginning on Monday 26 September. The overall theme of the conference will be the role of small and medium sized enterprises in rural, regional and urban development.

One of the international experts on the seminar panel will be Professor David Audretsch, Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University in the United States. Professor Audretsch directs a research program on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Another speaker will be Brian Morgan, Director of the Leadership, Enterprise and Economic Development Unit at Cardiff Business School in Wales, and Director of three Welsh businesses, including the Welsh Whisky Company. Both Professor Audretsch and Mr Morgan will be keynote speakers at the conference.

UNE’s Professor Patrick Hutchinson (pictured here), who chairs the committee organising the conference, said the seminar, while focusing on regional development, would give participants “a flavour of proceedings at the conference”. “The session will be targeted at small business owner-managers who want to grow, and to those involved in assisting them to contribute to regional economic growth,” he explained.

Running from 2 pm to 5 pm on September 28, the seminar will cost $35 for those attending in Armidale and Tamworth (including refreshments afterwards) and $25 for those attending at the other centres. Contact Professor Patrick Hutchinson (phutchin@une.edu.au) for more details about the seminar, and registration. Those interested in attending all or part of the SEAANZ conference should visit the conference Web site at: http://www.seaanz2005.org.

“This seminar will be a unique opportunity for interaction with international experts on regional economic development, and to network with small business owners in our region,” Professor Hutchinson said.


Media contact: Professor Patrick Hutchinson, New England Business School, UNE (02) 6773 3902 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.


Posted by Jim Scanlan at August 30, 2005 04:33 PM