Last week, a SmallBiz Week’s major event – SmallBiz Forum called attention the future of small business in Australia with a range of topics consisting of digital trends and grow opportunities, emerging technology, funding options of SMEs in 2022, and cybersecurity trends.
Presented by Commonwealth Bank, SmallBiz Week’s aim is to assist business to learn, engage and grow through a series of business events, networking functions and informative conferences. The SmallBiz Forum was moderated by Chess Julia Winter.
With the economy and business bouncing back post-Covid the landscape and opportunities have changed but the goal of small business has remained the backbone of the Australian economy. The program began with a keynote of SmallBiz economic outlook for 2022 and the next 2 years, presented by Clare Morgan, Executive General Manager, Small Business Banking of Commonwealth Bank and Alexi Boyd, CEO of COSBOA.
From blockchain to biotech, business innovation and technology is transforming and spearheading growth in the SME sector. Innovative IT solutions, future-thinking business ideas and industries, and cutting-edge business tech were discussed in details by:
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Grant Shoebridge PhD, Special Counsel Patent Attorney, Pearce IP, The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA)
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Harry Godber, Head of Strategy at Flare, Director of Fintech Australia, Former Fintech Adviser to the Australian Government
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Sunny Bhatia, Director, 5G Edge and Innovation, Optus
Followed by a fundamental concern – funding and grants for small business. In particular, short-term and long-term financing, digital banking and neo-bank lending, and BNPL and fintech solutions for SMEs were discussed by industry experts:
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Ruchi Gupta, Founder & Principal Consultant, The Launch Pad Co.
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Elizabeth Huxley, General Manager Working Capital, Commonwealth Bank
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Ross Simon, CEO, BidFin
