Geelong Small Business Festival success

Tuesday, 19 September 2023

The City and the Geelong Chamber of Commerce thank the community members, hosts, business owners and venues involved in making last month’s 13th Geelong Small Business Festival a terrific success.

The month-long festival saw 72 low-cost and free workshops, presentations and networking opportunities held by local businesses for community members looking to start, grow or improve their small business, covering every stage in the small business life.

There were 2,127 community members who attended events either in-person or online, including one woman who attended 24 events.

Community members told our survey that the main reasons they attended events was to learn new skills/knowledge to improve their business or help their career, and to connect with other businesses and people.

Feedback received from attendees included:

Best event I've been to.

Wonderful presentation, well thought out and relevant to all audience members regardless of what stage in their business journey.

Fantastic event at an affordable price.

Lovely to learn from experts in the industry.

Local business owner Mio Ristic from Video Vault took out the Major Geelong Small Business Festival Survey prize, winning a brand-new MacBook Air.

The video production and marketing expert delivered his own event “Supercharge Your Content Marketing with YouTube and ChatGPT." 

Survey runners up Harriet Notaristefano from Hue and Cry Collective, Storyfolk’s Sarah Gross, Jane Schmidt from Vintage and Collectables on Hesse and Alison Henry at Alison Henry Counselling took home gift hampers containing local produce.

Of the 263 attendees who filled out the survey, nearly 70 percent were business owners themselves, 24 percent were employees and 6.9 percent were looking to start their own business. More than 52 percent surveyed were sole traders, 13.6 percent of participants had up to two employees and 6.6 percent had more than 100 employees. Women made up the majority of surveyed attendees at 79 percent.


Mayor Trent Sullivan

I thank everyone who put in countless hours to make the Geelong Small Business Festival a success for the community.

Last month’s festival once again proved just how inclusive our local business community is by coming together to share insights, help each other out and make new connections.

We’ve received some lovely feedback about how supported business owners, employees and those looking to start their own business felt and the new skills and knowledge they are now armed with.


Jeremy Crawford - CEO of the Geelong Chamber of Commerce

 

It was wonderful to have such a diverse range of participants at this year’s festival.

 

Our survey found we had community members engaged with the program aged between 18-24 all the way to 70-84 and attendees who hadn’t started their business yet to those who have been running a business for 10 years or more.

This demonstrates the breadth of business owners and experience levels in our region and the commitment to improve, grow and learn from others in the local community.

It was especially satisfying to see the number of larger businesses giving back to the small business community to enrich the business ecosystem, offering events for small businesses to grow, learn and develop.


Mio Ristic

I attended six events throughout the festival with a variety of motivations to learn new skills or to refresh existing skills, to network and make new connections, and to support my clients and business partners who hosted their own events.

I absolutely recommend people attend the 2024 Geelong Small Business Festival as it’s a great opportunity to gain new knowledge, meet other people in a similar situation or start embarking on your business journey.

Networking is a big component, as you don’t know who you might meet - for example, I’ve had two situations where a small job turned into a major client with 10+ years cooperation.

No one is going to come knock on your door and offer you business, you’ve got to get out there and market and gain new knowledge.





Page last updated: Wednesday, 20 September 2023

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