Held at the Mingara Recreation Club and hosted by the NSW Business Chamber Central Coast, more than 100 of the Coast’s leading businesspeople and civic leaders were joined by Member for Robertson Lucy Wicks and Mayor Jane Smith.
Attendees heard presentations from a wide spectrum of speakers covering everything from analyzing their own brains to planning for the consumers of the future and using today’s emerging technologies to enhance their businesses.
There were two main threads that drew a lot of attention on the day: the possibilities for medical research on the coast and the problem of getting thousands of commuters off the trains and the freeway and into local jobs.
Gosford Hospital has a vision of developing its new Central Coast Medical School and Research Institute into a world leader in discovering new treatments for patients around the globe.
Ideal opportunities
Central Coast Local Health District administrator Dr David Montague said the Research Institute had already attracted interest from distinguished scientists and doctors.
He said the Coast was an attractive location for researchers with its great lifestyle. “We see a very bright future for the centre as a world recognized leader in medical research”.
Dr Montague said the Summit had also made him realize there were ideal opportunities for collaboration with coast industries such as food research and production which were already flourishing in the region.
Futurist Mark McCrindle said 65% of students starting Primary School on the Coast would be employed in jobs that don’t even exist yet.
He said they would work in fields involving thinking skills because robotics would have taken over all other jobs. One in two of those students would attend University to learn those skills, as against one in four currently.
Mr McCrindle said today’s young generation was visual, social, global and digital. They were more likely to use Youtube as a search engine than Google because they wanted to watch videos rather than read.
“Businesses have to learn to be visual, not verbal and the keys to success are to be innovative, responsive and collaborative.”
CEO of About My Brain Institute Silvia Damiano said stress was a major factor in bad business management. She said today’s successful manager was more likely to be a team leader than a tyrant, creating a vision and inspiring staff to embrace the concept.
Ms Damiano said today’s young employees weren’t as committed to the “one job for life” concept of years gone by.
She said manager’s once asked their staff why they should keep them on and promote them?
“Now they have to give them a reason to stay by providing them with a vision they can embrace.”
She explained the role of neurobiology in “turbo charging clarity, decision making and capability building”.
Ms Damanio encouraged business owners and managers to train their brain to be relaxed and calm and to overcome their self acknowledged weaknesses. “It may take a week, a month or years, but you can do it.”
