Member a Speaker at NAB Small Business Summit - Australian Businesswomen's Network

Published: 18 August 2011

Member a Speaker at NAB Small Business Summit

Shauna Upson

Australian Businesswomen�s Network member Shauna Upson of Secret Secretary recently participated in a discussion panel led by Debra Templar of The Templar Group at the NAB National Small Business Summit.

Australian Businesswomen's Network member Shauna Upson of Secret Secretary recently participated in a panel led by Debra Templar of The Templar Group at the NAB National Small Business Summit.

Shauna discussed 'Stories from the Real World' with other small business owners, with topics including work/life balance and the difficulty of running your own business.

Shauna's own words of her experience at the Summit

I was fortunate enough to participate in a discussion panel led by Debra Templar from The Templar Group at the NAB National Small Business Summit on 27 July 2011, a yearly event supported by Council Of Small Business Of Australia (COSBOA). I was in good company with two other small business owners, Bernard Fehon from Tactical Solutions and Julie Nichols from Handmade Canberra also on the panel.

I was quite humbled by the experience of those surrounding me and honoured at the same time.

Debra had assembled nine small business owners to discuss ‘Stories from the Real World’ over three sessions running concurrently with three other Seminar presentations by keynote speakers. To have many of the delegates attend our sessions was a great boost for all of us and shows that many small business owners and others attending the Conference would prefer to hear what the ‘real’ small business owner has to say. That's not detracting from the keynote speakers at all, just an interesting observation.

Bernard, Julie and I were from very different businesses and backgrounds so it was a good mix. Debra is an excellent interviewer and the 45-minute session was very relaxed as we all answered honestly and from the heart of a small business owner. Not only did we discuss the issues about how difficult it is to run a small business with all the rules and regulations, but we were enabled to add a personal touch to our answers by imparting ways we each manage a work/life balance... or try to.

I had intended to attend several of the sessions throughout the day, but spent the majority of the time either in the ‘Green Room’ meeting and networking with the Presenters or walking around the Exhibitors stalls and gathering lots of information to take back to my business. I did however catch Nick Bowditch from The Bowditch Group and Ed from ThinkTank Media co-present on 'Social Media: Is it the cutting edge marketing & communications tool that it is claimed to be?' A great presentation and some really key points delivered for small business owners. I also met lots of people I’ve been connecting with over the past year on Twitter! It was great to meet them in ‘real life’. Spending a lot of the time with Julie and Debra was great; we had a fun time and exchanged many ideas.

The highlight of the day was late in the day when Angela Vithoulkas, owner of VIVO Cafe Group gave her closing keynote address: 'R E S P E C T - Find out what it means to Small Business.' What an inspirational speaker, a natural. It was fascinating to hear how her businesses have grown over the past 20 years and how she is passionate about letting the big boys know what small business owners need.