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Forum Home > Better Future Forum > Open Comments & Burning Questions > Business Forum

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johncozzi
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Registered: 30/07/2008 Warnings: 0

Business Forum
First I want to congratulate the BMCC on this forum. It was most constructive and useful.

I think it will be most useful if we can organise some form a regular meeting opportunity to further the broad outcomes from yesterday and distill a program of action to take forward.

I think as many people who want to need to be able to participate in the developemnt of economic growth for our region.

Deciding on whether we have an incubator or an EDC is far less important at the moment than seeing if we can move ourselves forward by learning as much as we can about our business community and identifying what might be the really golden threads of opportunity that can be exploited through more sophisticated programs.

You know just bringing a group of business people together in related industries who think they have nothing to gain from working together and help them discover they actually have much to gain can take us a long way forward in stimulating economic growth.

there are other issues such as those raised relating to Council and regulations - umbrella issues which need to be worked on immediately and then promoted so that the whole of the community can see that council is leading the way in making economic growth a reality which does not compromise the things we love about our region. In fact economic growth - well shephered - enhances our community experience.

I look forward to being able to assist.

30/07/2008 12:25

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vcostello
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Registered: 8/08/2008 Warnings: 0

Better Future(s) - keep it going
I think it would be a good idea to revisit the Better Future Forum that was held 29 July. It was inspiring and Prof. Blakely’s presentation was insightful and inspiring.

The Mountains is unique. Each village/town is unique. Big nature surrounding us imbues us with something special that we can’t quite name but it’s definitely there. We have diverse people living along the corridor, and we tend to be self-reliant and independent, etc.

We’ve started something different here in the Mountains, in Katoomba in particular perhaps – experimenting with how we make a life and a livelihood – we say “it’s the lifestyle” and choose ‘to live’ rather than be dictated to by a material existence. Well, I can only speak for myself but it’s been a conscious effort over a decade to find a better way to live, from the inside out, starting with feeling good, taking the ‘drivenness’ out of the livelihood scene, making each moment of living something to be valued, to be enjoyed. And the result of that is to have a ‘good life’ for me individually. And we want to spread that ‘good life’ out in ever widening circles to include the whole planet if possible.

I agree with Prof. Blakely that we can build on what’s here. For me, in Katoomba I have a particular focus on a different paradigm of doing things that comes from a re-thinking how we ‘make a life/living’: doing business but with the whole in mind, living well and being mindful of how we impact on the earth, creative livelihood lifestyle that affords us more quality time to do the things that enliven us.
But what’s hard here is for things to come together and thrive. We can do this on an individual scale and then we can do it more collaboratively and it has a different effect.

I guess I take from Prof Blakely’s presentation that there is a need to create clusters and/or incubate things that bit more than what’s already happening. Incubators are not a new concept, doing things collaboratively is not new, living creatively and off one’s wits in Katoomba is not a new thing, but maybe by coming together with the aim of spreading ‘a good life’ to visitors who are drawn to Katoomba, who knows what is possible??

__________________
Vera Costello

8/08/2008 20:54

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