Salt urges new ideas for new age
LEADING demographer Bernard Salt has urged young Gold Coasters to consider nontraditional careers to help embrace the city’s changing economy.
The futurist believed new ideas and testing the business market was a key to the city’s future.
Mr Salt forecast traditional industries such as tourism would continue to be important but the city’s future would rest on start-ups and new businesses.
“I would love to see a more prominent start-up culture,” he said. “I want to see more success stories coming out of the Gold Coast.
“I want to see the Coast produce the next Atlassian, a software company which came out of Sydney and is now listed on the US stock exchange and has a capital of around $10 billion.
“I want to see the next one coming out of here.”
Mr Salt will speak on the Gold Coast tomorrow morning at the Going for Gold Legacy Symposium hosted by News Corp Australia and Sky News.
The event will bring together world-class industry and policy leaders to explore the benefits and legacy of the Games and how they will affect the community, development, infrastructure and employment.
Other speakers include News Corp Global CEO Robert Thomson, Goldoc chairman and former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.
In Saturday’s Bulletin, it was revealed 36 sports, health and wellness conferences worth $30 million to the city and attracting 14,000 delegates were booked from 2016 to 2018 as a direct result of the Gold Coast’s status as Games host.
A further 10 worth another $5.5 million were “in the pipelines”, Mr Beattie revealed, with Gold Coast Tourism CEO Martin Winter saying they were won thanks to $300,000 of city council funding for targeting conventions and maintaining post-Games momentum.
Mr Salt said he expected a further decline in manufacturing jobs for the city and urged it to work closely with Brisbane, while also being independent of it.
The demographer said he was highly enthusiastic about the Gold Coast’s future.
“The Gold Coast has some great runs on the board. It is not a capital city, yet it is delivering the Commonwealth Games, an upgraded airport, a casino and building a global reputation,” he said.