Amy is a key an intrinsic part of the Global Procurement team at EY (Ernst & Young), a team of 450 procurement professionals engaging with suppliers and organisations to support EY and their clients.

With a strong focus in Australia and New Zealand on Indigenous procurement, she has researched, listened, learned and sought opportunities to collaborate with organisations on a collective mission. 

Working with Indigenous Australian entrepreneurs like Dwayne Good from Inspire Travel Management, Mundanara Bayles from the Black Card and Laura Thompson from Clothing the Gap and alongside organisations like Supply Nation, Amy has supported in facilitating key sector practices to enable growth and future prosperity. 

Knowing that we all have a role to play to recognise our past injustices, to working towards closing the gap and identifying that we still have significant work to do to change the disparities of our economy.

Working for Westpac many years ago, he was thrown out of the traditional 9 - 5 corporate role to spend 18 months out in the "real world" to understand customers needs, pain points and what it was like to run a small to medium sized business. But when Westpac decided to discontinue this model, John stayed on to lead Western Sydney Business Enterprise Centre for which he has been Executive Director for the last 30 years.

WS Business Centre supports Australian small businesses to reinvent themselves through time of change, advise on the future needs of Australian small businesses and supports with activating the digital capabilities of businesses.

Managing the Business Connect contract with the Australian Federal Government in Western Sydney, the government increased their contract by four times to support over 42000 organisations in an 8 month period. Something that they wouldn't be able to have done without transforming their digital capabilities.

With 40% of Australian small businesses still not enabling digital capabilities, John encourages businesses to seek support from trusted advisors to support in navigating the future path of doing business in Australia.

Before our podcast recording for TradeSquare hosted by Catherine van der Meulen, Victor Perton had been dishing out his daily dose of optimism, to thousands of people across the world in 69 countries, which as you will hear, is incredibly infectious. 

After returning to Australia from the US, Victor recognised a change in language of Aussies to be more pessimistic and often negative and launched the Australian Leadership Project and the Centre for Optimism to listen, learn and activate change. 

Through the leadership of unlocking optimism, Victor recognised that it is the human choice to stay stuck or move forward. 

And through our freedom as Australian’s to communicate, have a voice and shared through humour we can maintain our freedom for the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.

As the Chief Digital Transformation Officer at Deloitte and the Chair of the Australian information Industry Association, Rob is passionate about technology, innovation, the future of Australia’s Digital economy underpinned by valuable digital infrastructure.

As both a realist and an optimist, Rob recognises that 2020 has been an "interesting" year where all organisations have needed to learn the art of stretching their digital muscles, enabling further knowledge and skills and taking risks to be able to accelerate. 

The shift to a digital world has enabled new and productive ways that in 2019 we may have seen as near impossible. From retail, supply chains, manufacturing and primary industries all have re imaged what economic freedom looks like for the future through digital capabilities.

Although the globe is working through periods of uncertainty, digital infrastructure, cloud transformation and cyber security are key attributes for certainty for a functional and successful economy.

After 30 years in business, Anne began to see a high failure rate of small businesses and wanted to create a voice for them. 

Knowing that Small Businesses need to keep up to date with a high volume of obligations, they often go into a state of overwhelm all while wanting to conquer the world with unique products and services. 

Anne believes that the basics of having the guiding framework of a sound business plan can enable business to step forward with intention and create clear objectives and structures for the future prosperity of the business. 

As advocates, digital champions and leaders of small business, the SBAA believes that through a mobile responsive website, being ATO compliant to get support, and enabling layers of software and digital capabilities to propel small businesses to the forefront of their industry. 

As an entrepreneur, Laticia grew up in regional Australia and has a strong driving passion to see the emergence of unsung heroes and heroines of regional and remote Australian businesses to be brought to the forefront of the Australian business community. 

With a strong focus on Mind, Body and Business, Laticia believes the culmination of all three are what is needed to propel forward with success. 

Knowing that there are barriers in regional Australia including businesses not wanting to embrace the digital economy, connectivity and digital infrastructure, Laticia is focused on empowering businesses through education, accessibility and building connectivity in communities. 

She feels that often businesses are trapped by overwhelm and a lack of time, which she believes regional living and business opportunities allow people and organisations to step into a new role of purpose and meaning.

Reggie Cabal is leading, driving, shaping and responding to the needs of the ORIX corporate and small business customer through curating services and providing bespoke solutions. 

Through listening to their customers they have designed a Subscription based and Pay as you Go, financial services and car leasing service through innovative thinking enhanced by innovative technology. 

By creating an innovative organisation culture, failing fast when needed, being adaptable and not make assumptions have propelled ORIX to the forefront of their fleet.

Following a career in the corporate world, John has spent the last 10 years dedicated to providing support to Australian Small and Medium sized businesses, and particularly through his role as Executive Officer at Bayside Business Enterprise Centre in Sydney.

Knowing that disruption creates opportunity he believes that small businesses have the opportunity through personalised service, having a strong interpersonal aspect to the business combined with a holistic approach to digital capabilities, will support their future growth and economic development. 

By fostering innovation, accelerating collaboration, creating meaningful partnerships, up skilling and re skilling, addressing market needs and shortages will create competitive advantages for scale and new markets.

For more information on Bayside Business Enterprise Centre - https://www.baysidebec.com.au