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  • 08 March 2022


  • 09 March 2022


  • People all around the world are choosing to build back better. Emerging leaders have an opportunity like never before to breathe new life into the business community and transform how we do things in a way that’s better for people and planet. Family-owned businesses have always aligned strongly with a value set that prioritises people and community, and for this reason already have a head start! Leaders entering decision-making roles today are facing a world that now demands for-profit businesses to consider, measure and communicate the impact of their business on social, environmental, and financial objectives. In this masterclass, the team from Hatched will bring their expertise to the table and engage leaders of tomorrow in the ideas, tools and strategies that will help them further their agenda to do business that’s good for world. They will draw on global benchmarks like the UN Sustainability Goals (SDG’s), BCorp Standards, best-practice Impact Measurement and purpose-driven impact strategy. This masterclass will be your chance to align your strategic objectives with triple bottom line impact, refine your approach to decision-making that will allow you to adapt as the world changes, and be empowered to lead confidently in this new era of business.
    Masterclass

  • Family businesses are as alike as chalk and cheese. Each one is distinctly different, just like its family members. Each business has its own distinct personality, needs and dynamics, and those factors must be managed along with the family members as the business grows and passes from generation to generation. As a family business expands from its entrepreneurial beginnings, it faces unique performance and governance challenges. The right family business advisor can play a pivotal role throughout the lifetime of a family business – becoming a trusted confidante. In this Advisor Masterclass, John Broons, FBA Specialist Accredited Advisor, Forum Facilitator, and Fellow of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), who has over 40 years’ experience in advising families in business, will lead a team of facilitators to explore how you can better enable your family business clients to succeed. With the support of an in-depth case study, John and the team will invite a debate on the role of family business advisors. The Masterclass will consider when, how and why to bring change into a family system as well as the difficult question of how not to do it. Throughout the Masterclass you will be challenged to rethink your views on family business advising through the expertise of the facilitators and the sharing of experiences with your peers.
    Masterclass

  • Do you want to engage and connect with your colleagues and clients in a more meaningful way? Experience the power of storytelling to communicate business messages in this fun and highly interactive masterclass specifically designed for family businesses. Over the last decade, business storytelling has emerged as a powerful communication skill and leadership competency. Embracing storytelling will help you to connect, engage and inspire. During the Masterclass, you will develop your own story that you can use to communicate a business message or company values. You will gain valuable insights on what makes a story a story and how to avoid the most common mistakes when sharing stories in business. Join Gabrielle Dolan, globally recognised thought leader on Storytelling, for this Family Business Masterclass as she challenges your fundamental assumptions around storytelling and communicating in business today. Gabrielle will provide you with the tools, perspectives and frameworks needed to successfully use stories in your family business now and into the future. This Masterclass also includes a 90-Day follow up program consisting of a weekly email containing a short (1-2min) video to help you consolidate and integrate your learning.
    Masterclass

  • 10 March 2022


  • Coopers is a brewing family. It’s in their blood. Their passion for brewing has kept the family together and helped the business through economic recessions, wars, government imposts, changing tastes, pandemics and the occasional hostile takeover bid. After dedicating over 150 years to the art of brewing, Coopers is an icon. With the incumbent generation in their 50’s and 60’s, it’s time to plan for the next transition. Australia’s leading family of brewers has restructured its senior management to enable the 5th generation to transfer from commercial to custodial roles while the upcoming 6th generation find their feet. The role of non-family executives will be key to this process. Join Melanie Cooper and her nephew Andrew Cooper as they share: how the business is transitioning from the 5th to the 6th generation, the measures they have put in place to future-proof the business, and what it feels like to be the custodians of the Coopers legacy.
    Keynote Presentation

  • In 1885, Arnold Wittner had a one-way ticket from his hometown in Romania to the USA to join his brother. Presumably to start a family business. After accidentally boarding the wrong boat and four months at sea, Arnold arrived in Australia. Soon after he bought a horse and cart and began trading consignment lots. However, in 1912 Arnold acquired a mixed consignment lot which he sold - all but the £100 worth of wrongly sized and out-of-style shoes, which he gave to 17-year-old son HJ. Arnold leased the shop for HJ in Leads Street Footscray and said, ''Now you're in the shoe business son.'' Decades later David Wittner (Michael’s late father) would joke, “if only we were left with iphones!” In the 108 years since, and with the family name above the door, Wittner has become synonymous with quality and style. Michael Wittner, 3rd generation Chairman of Wittner, considers it a privilege to have worked with family in a business that today is recognised internationally as one of Australia's leading footwear brands. But the family’s motivations have changed. To pursue their planned exit from the business, Wittner is restructuring and is taking on a capital partner to expand the Wittner brand across the globe.
    Keynote Presentation

  • In the last 2 to 3 decades, and more recently over the last 5-10 years, the pace of life and the competition around us has increased at an alarming rate. Many struggle to cope with pressure, crisis or persistent hardship, but others may emerge strengthened and more resourceful. Like any group of individuals, family members will react differently and understanding their behaviour (being empathetic for example) can effectively promote roles and well-being in the family and family business. During this session, Dr Darryl Cross, a clinical and organisational psychologist and FBA Accredited Advisor will explore individuals and their differences; understanding who your players are; and how to “Strengthen your families resilience”. Key takeaways will include: How do we understand individual differences; What are the 5 key stress emotions and what to do about them; and What are the keys to increasing resilience for the family and for the individual.
    Parallel Session

  • FACT – 70% of all wealth transitions from one generation to the next, fail. These number grow to over 90+% for the following generations. Importantly, we know that in 95% of these cases, the wealth transition failures are caused by one or more of the following “family dynamic” factors including lack of trust within the family, communication issues within the family, the next generation not being prepared or a lack of a clear purpose of the family’s wealth. Family dynamics play a much greater role in successful wealth transfers than previously understood. There is a reason behind the saying…”Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves in three generations”. Key to success is preparing the family members today for their roles and responsibilities tomorrow. Part of that preparation is giving family members responsibilities in relation to the family’s assets, whether or not that involves a role within the business. Join Brad Scott and a panel of family business leaders as they examine the relationship between the family office and family dynamics.
    Parallel Session

  • Now in its third generation, Raptis grew from humble beginnings when Arty's and Arthur's grandfather Athanasios Raptis migrated to Ceduna, SA from Greece in the 1930s before opening up a fish and chip shop in Adelaide. Soon, Athanasios Raptis began filleting his catch for local shops and, within a few years, his entrepreneurial spirit had spread to his four sons and daughter, who developed the business into seafood wholesale and retail businesses. Today Raptis is one of Australia's largest private vertically-integrated seafood companies and diversified property investors. The past decade has seen the transition of responsibilities from the second to the third generation family members, although the journey to continue the legacy hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Hear from cousins and third-generation family members Arty Raptis, CEO of Raptis Seafoods and Arthur Raptis, Executive Director, Raptis Investments on how their different pathways to leadership have helped them navigate through rough seas.
    Parallel Session

  • The owners of many family firms view themselves as custodians, managing the family enterprise for the benefit of future generations. Successfully navigating the transition from one generation to the next is often the “holy grail”, but only one-in-three make it to the 2nd generation, while just one-in-ten survive to the 3rd generation. Why is this? What is needed is a more scientific approach to understanding the key elements of succession planning, rather than the dark-art approach which leads so many to transition failure. Utilising data obtained from the 2021 Family Business Australia and New Zealand & Grant Thornton Family Business Survey, this session will analyse some of the key features which can assist family firms to be transition-ready, along with in-depth practical experiences contributed by a panel comprised of the members of some of Australia’s most iconic and awarded family businesses. By combining the results of our research with the practical experiences of our expert panel, we will explore some of the key challenges of generational succession, and identify the key focus areas of building a successful transition plan.
    Plenary Session

  • Janine Allis is not your everyday success story. In her 20s, she travelled the world working as a nanny in France and working for the rock icon David Bowie on his yacht. Returning to Australia, Janine met and married ‘the one’ and they founded Boost Juice in 2000. With a vision to “do retailing differently”, Boost Juice delivers a unique customer experience based on the “love life” philosophy and getting more fruit and vegetables in people’s diet, which they are achieving, with over 2 million smoothies or juices sold every month. Taking Boost Juice from an idea to an international Australian iconic brand with four kids in tow has not been an easy path. Along that journey there have been successes, failures, huge highs and equally huge lows, but the most important things are the mistakes made and lessons learnt along the way. And as if that wasn’t enough! Janine is also Executive Director at Retail Zoo, which includes the brands Salsa's Fresh Mex, CIBO Espresso and Betty's Burgers & CONCRETE CO, employing almost 7000 people across a total of 600 stores.
    Keynote Presentation

  • The Producing powerhouse Tony Cochrane AM and wife, Thea Jeanes-Cochrane (of Cochrane Entertainment), are fearless passionate creators in the world of live entertainment and sport with over 60 years of industry expertise, and countless famous stories between them. They have together produced and toured events across an incredible 5 continents and worked with some of the biggest global brands and stars on the planet such as The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, South by Southwest, Formula 1, The Commonwealth Games, and Real Madrid F.C just to name just a few. Tony and Thea have together, and individually, ideated and promoted countless major events, and were the brainchild behind the critically acclaimed Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones Exhibition, a massive interactive exhibit on the band’s career and artistic collaborations which featured over 500 original pieces of ephemera and toured the globe after opening in London in 2016 until COVID hit. Between them they have a Tony, ARIA’s, Lawrence Oliver Awards, and have sold over three million tickets to events. Tony was the mastermind behind the highly successful transformation of Group A touring cars, into the V8 Supercar brand, before selling the business to private equity for a value of over $300 million. Hear from Tony and Thea on how this innovative husband and wife team ideate and scale their global projects and how they have chartered the tumultuous seas of the pandemic.
    Keynote Presentation

  • 11 March 2022


  • Corval Group is the parent company of Conga Foods, dc Specialty Coffee Roasters and Pakval Business Solutions. Its prime operation, Conga Foods, is one of Australia’s leading private, family-owned companies in the grocery industry working with major supermarkets and boutique delicatessens alike: if you look in your pantry, chances are you will have one or more of their brands on your shelf, be it Moro, Squeaky Gate Growers Co., Rana, Sacla, Val Verde, Zanetti, dc coffee or others. For over 70 years, since taking over a small Italian grocery shop in Swanston Street, the Valmorbida family have grown businesses across the spectrum of retail, wholesale, import, farming, domestic production, property and media, all with the common thread of sharing culture and fine foods from around Australia and the world. The family has a rich heritage of pioneering innovation and creating new categories once considered “niche” or “ethnic” but now commonplace. This deep family business story starts in the 1920s, having roots in the entrepreneurial and intrepid spirit of David’s grandfather Fulvio Valmorbida, who passed his knack and ambition on to his sons, including David’s father, Saverio. Having transitioned into an independent family branch 30 years ago, Corval Group is now shared by David, his brother and four sisters, the family having decided to continue the legacy of the previous generations while embarking on diversification, continued innovation and a new focus on corporate social responsibility.
    Keynote Presentation

  • Hitting a cricket ball requires you to keep your eye on the ball from the bowler's hand to the bat. Applying this analogy in business will ultimately achieve goals. That's what family businesses Kookaburra Sport and Packer Leather have done successfully over five generations. Started in 1890 by AG Thompson, Kookaburra Sport is a Melbourne based sports equipment manufacturer specialising in cricket and field hockey balls and equipment, bespoke teamwear, clothing and footwear. Packer Leather, a Brisbane company established in 1891, has been producing premium leather and, for the last 30 years, have specialised in high-performance leathers for sporting and military applications. Committed to innovation and progress, these family businesses pioneered the pink cricket ball that revolutionised cricket. Ross Thompson (Production Director, Kookaburra) and Lindsay Packer (Chairman/Director, Packer Leather) will discuss the 10-year partnership and how they work together to understand and meet a range of technical, environmental and market requirements for a highly competitive industry.
    Keynote Presentation

  • Charles Dickens wrote “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times…” these words could also be used to describe family businesses with human dynamics often tearing many families apart. Throw into a “normal” nuclear family business dynamic a blended family and statistically the odds go against a peaceful existence. This panel brings together four women with experience both personally and professionally with divorce, second marriages, divorce again, business splits and the large sale of a successful IT business to a publicly listed company. The panel will discuss: how to protect your business through a divorce; Estate Planning considerations from practical experience with biological and step children; and the importance of managing perception v reality in regards to the businesses financial success.
    Parallel Session

  • R&D investments are essential for sustaining the competitive advantage of a family business as they facilitate innovation. However, many family businesses are unaware of the opportunities that exist and how to capitalise on them. Join us as we hear from Rui Torres de Oliveira, Researcher and Senior Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, who will share his insights into how businesses can collaborate with universities and other research institutions to help develop innovative products or enhance processes. He will be joined by Dr George Best from the CSIRO to talk about how to find the right funding scheme to help businesses build their new technologies and capabilities and, Ben Tait to share his innovation/collaboration story; the challenges faced and successful outcomes.
    Parallel Session

  • As family businesses expand from their entrepreneurial beginnings, they face unique succession challenges. When the son of German migrant, Alfred Neumann, moved from Laidley to Currumbin in 1922 with hopes of making a modest living as a builder and cabinet-maker, he had little idea that he would one day launch an empire that would employ three generations and become one of the Gold Coast's oldest families in business. The Neumann Group, quite literally, has shaped the Gold Coast into one of Australia’s fastest-growing cities. Whether it be canals dredged by Neumann Contractors, steel in the high-rises by Neumann Steel, concrete and quarry products in its infrastructure by Nucrush Group, or land developed by Neumann Developments. But as the family business has grown to a multi-faceted organisation with an increasing number of family shareholders, and with few working in the business, where does the company go from there? Third and fourth generation family members Bill Neumann, Kathy Conforti and Blake Neumann will share the challenges this creates for Next Generation family members when there is an exceptional legacy to preserve.
    Parallel Session

  • In every business, a crisis can be just a short moment away. An unexpected or out-of-the-ordinary event could turn your world upside down and threaten your brand’s reputation. Some crises have cost companies vast amounts of money in additional costs and lost profits. But a crisis only spins out of control if you haven’t planned for it. And you won’t have time to start planning when the crisis has already broken. La Porchetta is a household name in Australia and New Zealand, with a 30 plus year history of franchised restaurants and a loyal customer base. The brand has faced a number of challenges in that time, including the sudden loss of its co-founder in 2010. Sara Pantaleo, former CEO of La Porchetta, will draw on her own experience to talk about: the impact a sudden crisis had on the business; how she managed the business through the crisis; and the importance of having a crisis management plan.
    Parallel Session

  • Recruiting non-family talent into family businesses can be essential for a myriad of reasons: professionalising and enhancing operational functions as a business grows beyond the ability of the founder to control it alone; enabling a business to stay in family hands despite there not being a family member ready or able to take on the CEO role; or working with an incumbent generation to ready a business ahead of a potential sale, are just a few common examples. Finding people not just great at what they do, but able to align with the vision, values and purpose of the family can be a significant challenge however, and the road is littered with examples of families, and the executives who have joined their businesses, whose expectations and ambitions have failed to materialise, usually to the cost of both parties. Join Michael Simonyi, FBA Accredited Advisor and founder of family business specialists Simonyi Recruitment, as he facilitates a panel of family business owners, and non-family executives who work with and for them, to explore the challenges, and successes, both have experienced in their journeys.
    Parallel Session

  • As we near the end of 2021, Catherine Birch, Senior Economist at ANZ Research, will discuss the current state of the Australian economy and the outlook for 2022. With structural changes from the pandemic emerging more clearly, Catherine will provide an up-to-date view on business conditions and the investment environment, and how different sectors might fare in a post-COVID world. She will explore other key areas of the economy including the labour market, household sector and property market using mainstream economic data as well as ANZ proprietary data and indicators. Catherine will also discuss the fiscal and monetary policy outlook and what it means for interest rates, and address Australia’s position within the global economy.
    Parallel Session

  • Check back for the keynote announcement.
    Keynote Presentation

  • Four visionary, multi-generational family business leaders, determined to sustain their businesses into the next generation, share their business transformation stories to inspire family-owned businesses navigating market resilience and generational transfer. Driven by the legacy of four generations of Colquhouns, CEO Rob Colquhoun, reinvented the family's fifth generation agricultural packaging business using brand, culture and technology. However, for non-executive director of second generation family business, Forty Winks, Cameron van den Dungen, disrupting the industry meant starting a new business outside the family's core business. Malcome Buckner, Chairman and Managing Director of fourth generation family business, The Buckner Group, follows the family's long entrepreneurial tradition of business transformation. He knows first hand the value of strong R&D investment. For Morag Pugh, Director and Shareholder of QLM Label Makers, a second generation family business, customer centricity, advanced technology and agility, combined with embedded family values, has sustained the business' market leadership. Hear the highs and lows as each business leader discloses how they manage the challenges, risks and opportunities, to keep pace and survive the next generation in an unrelenting global change.
    Plenary Session

  • It took twenty years, five failed businesses and three unsuccessful careers to build the overnight success that is $100m global online wine startup Vinomofo. Vinomofo started life back in 2007 in the garage of brothers-in-law and fellow wine geeks, Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier, who just wanted to do something cool for wine lovers and producers. Growing increasingly concerned with the way the world was headed, André knew he could either keep complaining about it at dinner parties, or he could try to do something about it. In 2018, André founded Good Empire, a global community platform for projects that unite and empower people to live more connected, sustainable, and impactful lives. André shares a very real and raw account of the failures, triumphs and hard and vital lessons that have shaped his business ventures and him as an entrepreneur. This is the real truth - the fears - the impact of being an entrepreneur on friends and family - the soul-searching.
    Keynote Presentation

  • 12 March 2022