26-9-2017: Regional towns push for slice of lucrative business conference and events industry pie – ABC News
Regional Australia wants to tap into the business conferences and events market to add to its economic base beyond industries such as mining and agriculture.
The prevailing view may be that business conferences and events are little more than junkets for those who go, but for the cities that host them they play an important part in that economy.
According to the most recent report published by the Business Events Council of Australia, business conferences and events contribute close to $30 billion in direct expenditure.
On top of that the value-add component, such as additional spending by delegates on goods, services and local tourism, is worth $13.5 billion.
That was generated by 412,000 business conferences and events in a single year.
But those events, and that spending, is almost exclusively confined to capital cities and very large urban centres such as the Gold Coast.
Now some from regional Australia want to seize the opportunity to be part of that sector and add another economic string to their bow beyond typical rural industries such as mining and agriculture.
Look at your town with new eyes.
Arianne Webb was heavily involved in tourism in the mining town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia for more than a decade.
The town is known as the unofficial mining capital of Australia and already hosts the international mining conference Diggers and Dealers.
Thousands of delegates descend on the town every year and pump millions into the local economy.
Ms Webb decided to launch Goldfields Conferences and Events, seeing synergies between conferencing and tourism and building on the region’s diversity.
“There’s rural health, we have training schools here and some very diverse things that happen here in rural health that you wouldn’t get in a city location.
“Obviously we have Indigenous agencies and the market is there to attract a conference on the Indigenous environmental management.”
The spend by business conference delegates is up to six times higher than tourists, backpackers and grey nomads — retired Australians travelling around the country with a caravan.
In 2014 more than 37 million people attended business conferences and events, international visitors spent on average $440 per day, and Australian delegates spent an average $586.
If those delegates attended a conference in a regional town, that spend would be very much within the area.
“One of the benefits of having it in a regional area is we contain those delegates in close proximity,” Ms Webb said.
“But when they’re contained they are generally in walking distance to their accommodation, to the conference venue, local business, and tourism sites.”
Business conferences outside of major centres hamstrung by facilities and know how
Renee Bennett, a director of Perth-based Encanta Event Management agreed business conferences and events were more lucrative than tourism alone.
“Conference delegates bring in a much higher spend to any economy as opposed to what we call ‘visiting friends and relatives’,” she said.
“When visiting a family member you’re unlikely to spending on accommodation, and you’re probably going to be eating at home a lot more.
“A conference delegate is usually sponsored by their organisation or business, so what we tend to see is that they have more disposable income to actually spend within that local community.
“They do need to stay in a hotel, they need to eat breakfast, they need to go out to dinner. It’s over a shorter time line, but it can really generate a significant multiplier effect that we find travels through that business events community.”
Ms Bennett said regional areas needed to play to their local strengths to attract business conferences.
“An agriculture conference for example, that would work in an agricultural area like Newcastle in New South Wales.
Margaret River in Western Australia is a good area for a wine conference.
“Likewise Port Hedland in the Pilbara should be able to have a mining event.
“It allows delegates to get up close and personal to the topic they’ve focused on, to go on field trips, and technical tours.”
However she warned without precision and planning, a lot could go wrong and have a lasting effect on the region in terms of future events.
“You need to really focus on the infrastructure which ranges from a good transport company to take delegates to and from different venues.
“A bad meal and a non-functional PowerPoint can be a long-term disaster.”
High cost regional airfares stymie industry growth
One of the biggest challenges for regional centres is the high cost of airfares.
It can be cheaper to fly overseas than to fly to regional centres such as Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and Mount Isa in Queensland.
Carriers Qantas and Virgin have been hauled before a Senate Inquiry in Western Australia to explain why internal flight costs are so high.
Qantas has responded by reducing the prices to seven regional towns in WA, but they still remain comparatively high.
Ms Bennett said prices needed to drop to make business conferences in regional centres more viable, but she said prices were part of the problem, but so was distance.
“Sometimes to get to regional centres requires three to four flights for international delegates.
“So you could be talking about 36 hours in the air.
“So it’s far easier for those travellers to go direct to a city centre.”
Governments need to get serious about decentralisation
The central Victorian town of Hamilton is the National Centre for Farmer Health (NCFH).
The farming town is around 400 kilometres from Melbourne and has been successfully running rural health and veterinary medicine conferences for years.
The town no longer has an operating airport and head of the NCFH and conference convenor Sue Brumby admitted it could be difficult to entice delegates to drive up to five hours to get there.
Once people actually get to Hamilton they love it; the ambience, the venues and coffee shops,” she said.
“And because we’re an agricultural hub the region can really offer a unique experience in terms of agricultural health and medicine.
“And going out on field visits is what makes the conferences here work.
“They can have that face-to-face experience, with real people, look them in the eye and they learn more.”
Ms Brumby believed there was a strong argument for support from Federal and State Governments as well as industry, to put the infrastructure in place to attract high yielding business conferences and events.
“It is tricky as it obviously costs more so we can’t charge too much for conference fees for example, because we know that people are already committing an extra day, five hours driving here, and five hours driving back.
“But if we’re serious about decentralisation, and trying to help rural and regional communities stay vibrant and active, then that is an area that extra assistance would be greatly appreciated.”
Read more:
2017-09-12: Live Rural and the National Centre For Farmer Health collaborate for series of free workshops on women’s health – The Ararat Advertiser
LIVE Rural and the National Centre For Farmer Health have collaborated to deliver a series of free workshops focusing on women’s health.
Each workshop will focus on different aspects of women’s health and the first 16 to register will receive a free health check with the staff from the National Centre For Farmer Health.
The first workshop will be held on September 14 at the Maroona Recreation Reserve, focusing on diet, nutrition and women’s health.
Money raised from Mellow In The Yellow has assisted in making these workshops free to women living in rural communities.
The workshop has a line-up of great guest speakers and presenters. Sarah Carter will be speaking about the importance of breast care and Jess Fishburn from Gen Health Hamilton with be talking about diet and nutrition.
Tractor and Header Exercises
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2017.08.21: Course offers health certificate – Health Victoria Magazine
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Translating agricultural health and medicine education across the Pacific: a United States and Australian comparison study
Populations in agricultural communities requirehealth care that is interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral to address the high rate of workplace deaths, preventable injuries and illness. These rates are compounded by limited access to services and the distinctive personal values and culture of farming populations, which both health and rural practitioners must be aware of to reduce the gap between rural and urban population health outcomes. To address the unique health and medical characteristics of agricultural populations, education in agricultural medicine was established through the College of Medicine and the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa in the USA. The course was initially developed in 1974 for teaching medical students, family medicine residents and nurses, and a postgraduate curriculum was added in 2006 to develop medical/health and rural professionals’ cultural competence to work in agricultural communities. This article reviews the adaptation of the US course to Australia and the educational and practice outcomes of students who completed the agricultural medicine course in either Australia or the USA.
Chronic Disease and Health Risk Behaviours Among Rural Agricultural Workforce in Queensland
Little is known of the lifestyle behaviours and prevalence of chronic disease in the Australian agricultural workforce. This study aimed to assess behavioural risk factors and the prevalence of chronic disease among attendees of agricultural events in rural Queensland.
2017-08-03: Alarming farm health statistics – The West Australian
Nurse and National Centre for Farmer Health representative Jody Morton is based in Eneabba. Picture & article: Jo Fulwood
Being a farmer is the most dangerous occupation in the country.
While it may be a startling claim, National Centre for Farmer Health representative Jody Morton said the statistics don’t lie.
Speaking to more than 130 farmers at the GenAg2017 conference, Ms Morton said 27 per cent of all Australian workplace fatalities were in the farming industry.
She said statistics on agricultural industry injuries did not paint a full picture given many farmers did not report workplace injuries.
“The flow-on effect of these injuries is significant, not only to the person injured but to the business, in terms of cash flow and profitability, the family and even to the community,” she said.
In 2015, there were 16.7 deaths per 100,000 people involved in the agricultural industry, and Ms Morton said this had increased from 16.4 in 2003.
“When we compare this to the mining industry there were 12.4 deaths per 100,000 in 2003, reducing significantly to 4.4 per 100,000 in 2015,” she said.
“All of the other major industries are seeing decreasing death statistics, some quite dramatically — but agriculture is not.
“This is really scary stuff, and often the injuries we see in agriculture are catastrophic.”
Ms Morton said quad bike accidents were the leading cause of deaths on farms, with 11 deaths recorded on farms in 2015.
“Thankfully this number reduced just slightly in 2016, with 10 deaths on farms as a result of quad bikes — but that number is still unacceptable,” she said.
The majority of deaths occur when a quad bike falls on top of the rider, Ms Morton said. “The centre of gravity of a quad bike is quite different than a trail bike,” she said.
“Since 2001, more than 150 Australians have died in quad bike incidents.”
Research also shows the prevalence of cardiovascular health risks for farmers is higher than the national average.
“Farming is perceived as a very active occupation, but it has become a lot more sedentary,” she said.
In terms of emotional health and wellbeing, Ms Morton said people living in rural areas had similar rates of diagnosed mental illness when compared with those living in urban environments but much higher rates of suicide.
“WA and Tasmania have much higher rates of suicides in rural areas,” she said.
Farmers had an increased risk of being involved in unhealthy behaviours such as binge drinking, and an increased risk of injury as a result of the heavy physical demands of farming.
But Ms Morton said implementing simple strategies could change these statistics.
“There is a lot of research showing that health issues in agriculture are cumulative, meaning we can reduce this long-term health impact by doing simple things like not repeatedly jumping off machinery, using respiratory masks, getting enough sleep, not working excessively long hours, and even just looking out for our neighbours and mates,” she said.
The National Centre for Farmer Health provides research outcomes, education, information and service delivery to improve health, wellbeing and safety for farmers and farm workers.
View Article: 2017-08-03: Alarming farm health statistics – The West Australian
2017 July – Director’s Blog – Target Zero!
Target Zero!
As farm safety week comes to an end, I have been pondering again why the agriculture, forestry and fishing fatality rate has remained unchanged over the last decade, ranging from 16.0 to 17.8 (per 100,000 workers) since 2003[1]. This is despite substantial and significant advances being made in other areas which previously experienced high rates of workplace death. For example, mining’s rate was 12.4 in 2003 and dropped to 4.4 in 2015. Transport and warehousing also dropped from 14.6 in 2003 to 6.6 in 2015. Our work with farmers reinforces this experience of high rates. One only needs to ask a group of farmers if they know someone seriously or fatally injured from a farm accident and usually all hands in the group go up. Further questioning on how many people they have personally known, sadly often reveals two hands with 6 or 7 fingers raised, often including children deaths. In my experience, there is no other occupation that shares this high rate of fatalities at work.
In positive news, we have managed to reduce tractor roll overs—previously the highest cause of death on farm—through roll over protection (ROPS) and improved manufacturing of new tractors. More recently, we have seen the quad bike become a major cause of on-farm and recreation fatalities and replace the tractor as the likely cause of farm injury and death on farm. This too has now seen some state governments provide rebates for crush protection or contribution towards purchasing a safer alternative to the quad bike.
Any death is one too many.
Farm fatalities are a major problem all over the world regardless of whether it is a developed or developing country. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, agriculture employs over a billion people globally[2].
What can we do?
One country—Sweden—had a national injury prevention program running during 2009-2013 and managed to have zero fatalities in 2013[3]. Sadly after the program ended it came back up and in 2015, seven (7) adults were killed and 3 children.
We have been using the Worksafe 15 minutes Farm safety check [4] in our work with farmers for years, with positive feedback on the changes they have made. It is simple, quick and gets you started. Good business relies on good people who are healthy, well and safe.
Other industries have done it – let’s make farming next.
Target Zero – zero incidents, zero deaths, zero harm.
Kind Regards,
Dr Susan Brumby
Director – The National Centre for Farmer Health
Clinical Professor, Deakin University
The National Centre for Farmer Health can be contacted via email: ncfh@wdhs.net or phone: +61 (03) 5551 8533.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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References
[1] Safe Work Australia. (2016). Work-related traumatic injury fatalities 2015.
[2] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2011). FAOSTAT-Trade. Countries by commodity. Retrieved from FOASTAT
[3] Lundqvist, P. (2016, 10 March, 2016). [Sweden Farm Fatalities]
[4] 15 Minute Farm Safety Check
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