Family Business Australia Annual Congress

Once again, Two Men And A Truck sponsored the transport that carried attendees from Melbourne to the Crown Plaza Conference Centre in Cessnock, where our annual Congress took place.

As has come to be expected, the Congress was a great success with 450 delegates arriving from all over Australia. The detail that went into organising the event was impeccable resulting in a flawless outcome.

The breadth in the age spectrum was most notable – from the very young to the very … experienced. But it won’t be long until the young folk are replacing us older members.

For 3 big days our lectures started at 9am and finished in the late afternoon. We had access to lectures on all facets of family and business related topics.

These are certainly very dynamic issues. Undoubtedly fueled by the fact that emotions run strong in these businesses where family members all search for a way to work together in harmony.

Finding this solution is by no means a simple task. We all know how volatile a family dynamic can be, let alone the case where substantial amounts of money are involved.

One of the important highlights of our Congress was the ‘Longest Lunch’ This is the time when we all sit down with good food and great wine and with each course we switch tables to meet the other delegates.

After all, we are in the Hunter Valley wine district and who can avoid the temptation of the good things in life especially with a coach standing by to take us from one event to the other.

In the evenings, there were any number of social functions to attend including the awards night and the final night where we enjoyed the last big hoorah at the Hope Estate Winery for an old fashioned Hoe Down.

This is where we got to see the young generation let their hair down as we oldies showed our tasteful discretion.

Thanks to FBA for organising such a fantastic event. Now its time to start implementing some of the lessons learnt into our family business

Richard Kuipers