Murray Now

Businesses in Albury Wodonga and surrounding regions of the Murray certainly felt they got their two bobs worth at the inaugural Albury-Wodonga Manufacturing, Innovation and Business Week held last week. Kerryn Arnold, Manager of the Albury & Northside Chambers was very pleased with the cross section of business that attended, and also the support and encouragement she received from regional business and industry that demonstrated their support of this inaugural cross-border event.

“Businesses that attended love to hear about other business journeys, the issues they face and how they overcame these hurdles. Educating owners and operators on topics that assist them with their daily running operations is what these workshops are about” explained Ms Arnold.

The organizing Committee comprised of Tim Farrah – Enterprise Connect, Kerryn Arnold – Albury Northside Chamber and Ben Foley – NSW Business Chamber were very aware that while it was a manufacturing week, the idea of broadening this event to target all types of industry was much more beneficial for regional business and as Tim Farrah said, “A lot of the processes that you learn in business applies irrespective, if you’re a professional running your own business, tradesperson, manufacturer or corner store owner those principals are all the same. Another benchmark the committee wanted to meet was to make sure people weren’t sitting at a conference feeling they were wasting their time and to take back ideas that they could implement straight away, we felt we achieved that”.

Industries who attended the event ranged from Professional Health Services, Construction, Engineering, large manufacturers, family based retail business, family based service businesses and start up business.

The event took place on intermittent days which seemed to allow businesses the opportunity to attend. John Tresize from Yarrawonga Manufactured Housing in Mulwala explained “We are so busy on the job that it’s hard to get away to attend these events, taking two core people out for a week to attend is just not viable, the way the Albury Wodonga event was structured it gave us an opportunity to attend the workshops that were of interest to us and not be away from our business to long, when these events are held in Melbourne or other metro areas over a full week we just can’t get there, having a regional event certainly was worthwhile going to. As a rapidly growing business we need the right kind of information to take the next step, the Albury Wodonga Manufacturing Week certainly assisted us with these processes, I’m really pleased that I attended”.

Due to the success and demand from industry, the organisers of the Albury Wodonga Manufacturing and Innovation Business Week are on track to make it an annual event.

Workshops this year featured:

• Lean Management processes

• Supply Chain management

• Sustainability advantages

• Succession planning strategies

• Industrial Ecology

• Converting Strategy into action

• Making the shift from trade/technical skills to business skills