Perth conference an unqualified success

PERTH turned on brilliant weather although much of the business activity was inside the Hyatt hotel, close to the centre of the city. The business sessions and exhibitions were conveniently close to each other, in a partitioned space which was turned back into the ballroom, to accommodate 460 or so people for the Earth Awards dinner and presentations on the Saturday night.
For this writer it was certainly the best organised of the seven annual conferences I have attended. But until this year it was difficult to cover all the toolbox sessions because of limited concurrent sessions. However an extra session on the Friday this year made that much easier.
After the NAB's Alan Oster appeared by video link to wide acclaim at last year's conference at Coolum, the bank's chief economist came in person this time, to deliver an equally interesting economic summary including predictions for the next year or so.
Last year he predicted Australian unemployment reaching 6%; in Perth he bumped that up a little to 6.75%. However it would not peak until the middle of next year, he said.
Again last year Oster reckoned the Australian economy would bottom in the middle of this year. This time he said equity markets had bottomed here around March although he didn't expect retail to bottom until March 2010.
On the other hand, the NAB says the Australian dollar could be worth 97c to the US dollar by year's end and exceed parity next year, which should be good news for those looking to buy new plant.
Another stand out session was a presentation by SA contractor John Giumerelli on succession planning. He has recorded extraordinary growth in his company Ertech, not least because he encourages employees to buy a stake in the company via shares. More on that next month.