Building on the success of our symposium last year (SMEs and COVID-19: Just Surviving or Thriving?) as well as our 2019 White Paper (Inspiring Future Workplaces), we are turning our sights this year to thoughts as to what the future may hold for small business. While recent years have been traumatic, they have also highlighted the critical role small to medium enterprises play, not just in increasingly complex value chains – but as the bedrock of everyday lives.
Building on the success of our symposium last year (SMEs and COVID-19: Just Surviving or Thriving?) as well as our 2019 White Paper (Inspiring Future Workplaces), we are turning our sights this year to what the future may hold for small business. While recent years have been traumatic, they have also highlighted the critical role small to medium enterprises play, not just in increasingly complex value chains, but as the bedrock of everyday lives.
What we found last year was that while there were many ‘doing it tough’ and going out of business, there are also those who are not just surviving but thriving and looking to the future with hope and optimism. Our symposium this year thus provides the opportunity to explore this richness and diversity together. We envisage that the symposium will provide the opportunity to learn with and from each other as well as to strengthen SMEs. Symposium papers are invited but not limited to the following topics:
What is happening in the Australian (and other) SME labour market?
Have the events of the last two years changed how SMEs work forever?
What do young people want from work and how can SME employers engage them?
What tools can help SME practitioners, policy makers and researchers to plan for an uncertain future?
How can we work together to build healthier, happier SME workplaces?
