SEAANZ Symposium Awards Practitioner 2022
JUDITH VAN UNEN PRACTIONER AWARD
Presented to
Dr Frieda Henskens
Sparkling Wine Maker & Co-founder of Henskens-Rankin Wines
For
Perseverance, innovation and success as a female entrepreneur

JUDITH VAN UNEN PRACTIONER AWARD
Presented to
Dr Frieda Henskens
Sparkling Wine Maker & Co-founder of Henskens-Rankin Wines
For
Perseverance, innovation and success as a female entrepreneur
Brian Gibson Best Academic Paper Award 2022
Blockchain Use: A Conceptual Paper to Address the Question on “What Tools Can Help SME Practitioners, Policy Makers and Researchers Plan for an Uncertain Future?”
Presented to
Dr Nagarajan Venkatachalam, Queensland University of Technology
Dr Raja Kannusamy, Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors Group
We are pleased to announce the publication of the revised paper in SER. Congratulations Nagarajan and Raja.
Tuesday, October 25th, 2022
Symposium Summary
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.
Full details are available here.
Registration form
9:00 am to 5:00 pm (AEDT)
Online and in person (Monash Business School, Caulfield, Building H, Room 9.02)
Symposium Summary
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:
Symposium Participants
Symposium Output
Key Dates
Submission
Submissions have closed.
Symposium Fee
Current SEAANZ members pay:
Non-SEAANZ members pay:
The 3 best presentations will be awarded certificates as judged by the expert panel.
Event Registration
11 November 2021
To view the program, click here
Event Registration
Symposium Summary
We are now well over a year down the track from the first cases of COVID-19 being reported; however, we still seem a long way from a COVID-normal world. The pandemic continues to provide unprecedented challenges to businesses and there is no doubt that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are amongst the hardest hit across the globe. SMEs capture the tension the pandemic has presented leaders around the world with the need to balance economic versus health outcomes. This balancing act is on both supply and demand sides. While SMEs are recognised as major contributors to the nations’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for over 60 percent of total employment, they are also recognised as the drivers for growth and innovation.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause major disruptions for SMEs, with many facing the stark options of closure, shutdown or transformation. They are options that are being faced within a dynamic environment, where traditional risk management and contingency plans need to be continually updated and the rhetoric of small business innovation and agility is sorely tested. What we are seeing already is that many SMEs and business owner-managers are showing much higher levels of resilience and dynamism than their larger counterparts. While there are many that are ‘doing it tough’ and going out of business, there are also those who are not just surviving but thriving. Our symposium is a chance to
explore this diversity and to see not only what we can learn from this incredible sector of the economy, but how we can work with them to help strengthen the recovery effort. Post-COVID, SMEs’ survival and revitalisation will be key to rebuilding economies across the globe. To achieve this, the rhetoric and realities of COVID-19 and SMEs must be critically examined.
We envisage that the proposed online symposium focuses upon strategies to learn from as well as to strengthen SMEs. Symposium/conference proposals may relate to, but not limited to the following topics:
SMEs and COVID-19
SMEs workforce
SMEs Government stimulus packages
SMEs business transformation
SMEs and gender
SMEs resilience
SMEs workforce
SMEs digital transitions
SMEs survival
SMEs future
Symposium Objectives
Symposium Participants
Symposium Output
Key Dates
For PDF Version, click here.