Entries by Ross Dawson

Leadership event: How fast will Australia’s population grow? Examining the uncertainties in demographic forecasts

This morning I gave the opening keynote at an internal leadership conference of a major Australian retailer, addressing the topic of Embracing the Future. One of the key issues for the long-term planning of any large organization is the basic demography of the country. While I spent much of my presentation looking at social change, […]

The next big market after ringtones: Download a new car engine sound

The inimitable Richard Watson has come up with what just might be a big (and unanticipated) market: car engine sound downloads. Richard’s fantastic Nowandnext.com bulletins are now openly available after long being a subscription-only service, used by many of the leading creative agencies around the world. To read the latest issue, go to Nowandnext.com and […]

ABC TV interview: The future of direct selling

In March I gave the opening keynote at the Direct Selling Association’s conference, talking about the breadth of opportunities in the economy and the role online social networks and communication might play in the future of the industry. From what I learned by preparing for and giving the keynote, I wrote a brief piece Six […]

Mark Pesce will keynote on Using the Network for Business Success

Among our awesome cast of speakers at SME Technology Summit, our opening keynote speakers Mark Pesce and Tim Pethick are two of the those whose insights I most look forward to hearing. Both have fantastic experience and insights into where technology is today and where it’s going. Mark’s topic is below. Be sure to get […]

Keynote: Network to win! ..for global professional services network Kreston

On Tuesday I gave the opening keynote at the 38th annual global conference of international accounting network Kreston International. Kreston are a very interesting organization. With revenues across the network of over $2 billion, they are the 13th largest accounting network in the world. The day of the conference they made the final step in […]

Six ways technology is transforming small business

This article was written to frame The Insight Exchange’s SME Technology Summit in Sydney on December 1 – while many of the references are to Australia the issues apply globally. Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are taking a larger share of the business pie, and increasingly driving economic growth. This is one of the most […]

Sky Business Tech Report: Interview on social media, online outsourcing, and how small companies are using technology to leapfrog big business

I was interviewed this morning on Sky Business Tech Report. Some of the things we discussed in the interview are: * How social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many others change how companies engage with customers, become more efficient, and being competitive.

SmartCompany webinar next Monday to feature SME Tech Summit speakers

SmartCompany magazine is running a webinar on Monday 16 November at 2pm: How Small and Mid-Sized Companies are Using Technology to Drive Business Success. The webinar will provide a preview to some of the outstanding content at SME Technology Summit. Amanda Gome, Publisher of SmartCompany, will moderate the discussion and share some of her insights […]

The rapidly building wave of online outsourcing and crowdsourcing

The Age today has an interesting article titled Outsourcing on steroids that looks at the array of online technologies that are enabling the outsourcing of small tasks and the crowdsourcing of design, innovation, and other key business functions. I’ve noticed that in just the last few weeks mainstream media coverage of online service exchanges and […]