Migrants may hold key to boosting economy

massey-university

Thu Aug 20 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Migrants may hold key to boosting economy

Thursday, 20 August 2009, 9:53 am
Press Release: Massey University

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Tapping into the wealth of skills migrants have to help boost the economy will be a major topic of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand conference, being hosted by the University for the first time next month.

Keynote speaker is Dr Thomas Cooney, Research Fellow at the Dublin Institute of Technology and Director of the Institute for Minority, who has done extensive research in this area.

The conference, which will involve educators, policymakers, and business practitioners from New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland and Scotland sharing practical advice on various topics.

It will be at the New Zealand Centre for SME Research on the Wellington campus. Centre director, Professor Claire Massey says the event, called Start Small, Think Big, aims to be more than academic.

“We have both workshops and papers, and leave plenty of time for networking so people can mix and share their ideas with each other directly,” Professor Massey says. “We also really wanted Dr Thomas Cooney as a speaker because he’s someone who translates research really well. Recently he’s been working on how best use can be made of migrants, which is also topical in New Zealand. Migrants are a very important resource and one we don’t seem to be doing very well at tapping into. Considering the Government’s commitment to export and how these people could assist us with that, making the most of them is something we need to work out how to do better.”

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Other guest speakers include Glen Senior, chief executive of The Small Business Company, which provides interactive business development training and enterprise simulations in schools. While its head office is still in Christchurch, the company also now has branches in Britain, the United States and Denmark.

Hunter's Wines owner, viticulturist and managing director Dr Jane Hunter will also share her story of how, since 1987, the vineyard has expanded to five times its original size and has increased its annual output to around 80,000 cases of wine exported to more than 15 countries.

Workshops and papers at the conference will be presented on a variety of topics, from business sustainability to management dynamics and regulation, infrastructure and governance. Martina Battisti, one of 12 academic research associates at the Centre for SME Research, and Kathleen Palmer, from the the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology will present on their research titled I go with my gut feeling: Research and development perspectives of New Zealand small firms.

To register for the conference or find out more, please visit www.seaanzconference.massey.ac.nz.

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