On Thursday 19 October, business leaders from around the country came together for AIIA’s twenty eighth annual general meeting.

According to AIIA’s Chairman, Peter Kazacos, 2006 has been a defining year for the Association.

“As our industry continues to evolve, so too does the Association. This year, AIIA has focused on delivering programs and products that improve the business climate for all members, but particularly that support the contribution small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) make to Australia’s $90 billion ICT industry,” Mr Kazacos said, emphasising the importance of a number of new initiatives for AIIA in 2006 – particularly CollabIT.

AIIA's commitment to SMEs
“Cross industry and cross business collaboration is one of the most practical ways for companies to effectively negotiate today's competitive global marketplace. Collaboration is the way of the future for SMEs in the ICT industry. Working together, as a greater, stronger force is the right approach to achieve growth and build business on both a national and international scale,” he explained.

CollabIT is just one part of AIIA’s vision to create a globally competitive ICT industry, Mr Kazacos said, citing AIIA’s highly successful Developing Business Skills for ICT Entrepreneurs program and the range of products especially for the SME ICT market.

“AIIA’s SME Marketing Guide provides clear and practical advice on a range of marketing, public relations and communication issues, and FindICT, our new business matching service, will be launched shortly and will link AIIA members to customers needing ICT solutions,” he added.

A year of lobbying victories
AIIA’s Chief Executive Officer, Rob Durie, highlighted AIIA’s lobbying victories in 2006, saying that AIIA had taken a number of steps over the past year to ensure it remained the opinion leader on the key issues facing our industry.

“We are taking a more focused approach to our lobbying – zeroing in on a very small number of issues and working on those until we get the outcomes we are looking for. This approach has worked well for us with both the Commonwealth and state governments,” Mr Durie said.

“The two issues we are continuing to focus on are liability and the treatment of IP in Government contracts. Over the last year, we have made significant progress toward achieving the outcomes we are looking for. This will mean significant benefits for member companies and the ICT industry generally.”

New Board of Directors
Three members of AIIA's Board of Directors were re-elected for three year terms. They are Steve Vamos, Managing Director of Microsoft Australia, Glen Boreham, CEO and Managing Director of IBM Australia and New Zealand and Ian Birks, Managing Director of Ideas International.

Three directors were also appointed: Kim Ford, CEO of Editure, Kee Wong, Managing Director of e-Centric Innovations and Randy Lynch, Managing Director - Marketing, Strategy and Operations for Telstra Business and Government. Congratulations to these six directors, who will be profiled in the Bulletin in the coming weeks.

Visit aiia.com.au!

AIIA's events calendar can be viewed on AIIA's website.
To register for events, view past presentations or read the latest news from the ICT industry, visit aiia.com.au