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Hi, I am Councilor Krista Adams, I am the Local Council for this area, for the Wishart
Ward; and it is very encouraging to see so many businesses involved in the Business Roundtable.
It is a great idea in getting people thinking about resilience and actually thinking about
the plans they have to make, if they have not made them already.
I am Paul Dennett, Bank Manager at Westpac Mt Gravatt. It was really important for me
for tonight to get all these small businesses in here; we try to get as many as we could.
The idea being, the more people in our community that are working together helps our community
as well.
The theme of tonight is really that “Better Connected, Better Prepared” – they are
two simple words – they have such a wide range of meaning and they can be so powerful
in communities. Especially in sectors of the community – where you have like goals; you
have like industries; you have like connections of locations. All of those things already
deliver you some networks which you can use to prepare and to be more resilient going
forward.
What I liked about tonight is that it made one think about the possibilities of what
one would need to do to build up resilience. I particularly thought of the idea of a “Business
Contingency Plan” if things go wrong, this was very valuable.
I think a good benefit of tonight was having a whole range of people here together from
a lot of different businesses and to generate that sense of community and reliance to one
another.
I think “Better Connected” means we have other businesses around us that might support
us at that time. So if you are trying to be a standalone business as a small business,
it is actually quite difficult because you don’t have access to all the resources of
a big company like Westpac for example.
I’m Tonah, the Bank Manager at Westpac Sunnybank Hills Branch. I come along tonight and I think
it's really good to see what we are running at the Mt Gravatt Branch and also how we can
help our customers be more resilient in times of a disaster and to make sure they will be
out for their customers next year and the year after as well.
So that is what we are talking about, we just want you to think about what connections you
currently have and think how you can make them better.
If disaster does defeat us, everything will go haywire anyway, but at least we have thought
a little bit about the steps that we need to take.
Everything you have done tonight is your own solution – I have invited you but you have
come up with the answers. And that is why what you guys do in your planning and preparation
and your prevention and mitigation of risk. This is really important, not just for your
own hubs, your own networks, your own staff and your own family, but that wider reach
that it can have. If we come together and we have a resilient community that is business
connected we really can achieve amazing things. So that's what we are really wanting to look
at as to how do we do that.
Better Connected, Better Prepared
Better Connected, Better Prepared
Better Connected, Better Prepared
I think it is true to say, that "if one is better connected, then one is better prepared.”