Keith Suter to talk about our economic challenges

You’ve seen him on popular morning show Sunrise, and quite possibly listened to him on radio station 2GB, now you’ll have to chance to listen to Keith Suter in person when he travels to Wyong .

Mr Suter will be the keynote speaker at the second of Wyong Council’s Shire Strategic Vision forums, on Wednesday, May 7, with the topic being the Economy. See Wyong Shire Vision On line.

Regarded as one of Australia’s leading economic social and religious commentators, Mr Suter said his talk would focus on " prediction, preferred and what is possible".

He will be supported by two eminently qualified speakers on the economy, Dr Anton Kriz and Mary Doherty.

Dr Kriz is a Lecturer at the Central Coast Campus of the University of Newcastle specialising in marketing strategy, e-marketing and strategic planning. He will provide a valuable insight into the impact of globalisation on our Central Coast economy having worked extensively in China and being involved in the State Government’s Central Coast Draft Strategic Plan.

Ms Doherty is a member of the Shire Strategic Vision’s 14-member Community Liaison Group, and has a 20-year association with the Central Coast. She is the Regional Manager of the NSW Business Chamber Central Coast, which represents in excess of 11,000 businesses in the region.

“These forums and this project is designed to look at the future and what opportunities are available,” Mr Suter said.

“The economy trends go in cycles and no boom lasts forever.”

Under the heading of predictions, Mr Suter will look at such things as; trends, changing household structures, loss of women around the home, shopping as a form of therapy, the rise of the hydrogen economy and personal security.

Mr Suter said it was important to look at current trends in order to look into the future.

“Society, and particularly in your area as I understand it, has never had so many older people and that is a challenge into the future,” Mr Suter said.

“Another thing we are facing is the rise of the single-adult household with more people being divorced or never even marrying.

“And we are finding that shopping is a way, particularly for women, to reduce stress.

“We may also be looking at the start of the end of the petrol era.

“There’s also the factor of personal security with the decline in religion and values meaning people have fewer reservations about committing crime.

“So it helps to have friendly neighbours and you must look at ways of encouraging a sense of neighbourliness in Wyong Shire … drawing people together in common tasks.”

Mr Suter has been president of the United Nations Association (NSW) and president of the Society for International Development (Sydney Chapter).

He admits he doesn’t own a television set.

“I never get time to watch it,” he said.

“I draw my information from a variety of sources including books, the internet, from radio and from meeting people.

“I do watch television when I travel to get a greater understanding and idea of the area in which I’m in.”

Under the heading of preferred options, Mr Suter will talk about; the importance of a vision, the blue ocean strategy and the experience economy.

“If you look at the blue ocean strategy, the blue ocean is the new market space and the red ocean is contested,” he said.

“The (objective for a society in the) blue ocean isn’t to beat the competition, but to make it irrelevant.

“Take Henry Ford, who invented the mass-produced inexpensive car rather than contesting the red ocean of expensive, elite automobiles at the time.”

With new markets and new industries being discovered and developed at a rapid rate, Mr Suter said he would conclude his talk on the economy by looking into the “brave new world.”

“The world is becoming a safer, more integrated place and while terrorism is a great problem, we must not over-estimate it,’’ Mr Suter said.

“ In creating a sense of hope about the future, there’s what I refer to as the McDonald’s theory of world peace in that no two countries that sell McDonald’s have ever gone to war against each other.

“ And the reason? Democracies do not go to war against each other.”

The forum starts at 7.30pm next Wednesday, May 7, in the Tony Sheridan Room at Council’s Civic Centre.

The public is again welcome to come and participate.

Media contact: Cameron Bell (02) 43 50 1667

Page last updated: 08/04/2008