Nearly 70 guests attended the breakfast on October 11th. In the early morning, people gathered at the Zelman Room in Hawthorn Art Centre, communicating with each other while enjoying the wonderful breakfast.

The theme of the meeting is “Changes in Technology and its impact on business”, focusing on the challenges brought to business by technological changes and how small business can leverage these revolutions.  Mayor Cr Felicity Sinfield (right) opened the proceedings, introducing services to businesses from city council. Three guest speakers, Erik Zimmerman from Sitech P/L, Michael Stillwell from Stillwell Motor Group, Ross Jennings from Small Business Mentoring Service, talked about dealing with these challenges from different perspectives, such as ChatGPT and other Megatrends, technological changes in the automotive industries. Dr Michael Valos was the MC, leading the meeting in his humorous way.

After the presentations, three speakers answered some challenging questions from the audiences, such as “how can we prevent the online scams while enjoying the convenience the digital technology brings to us?” and “how should our legal system gear up to protect the intellectual property and personal information when the new technology is reshaping today’s business?”

At the end of the meeting, feedback is required from the attendees and more meetings will be expected.

As we all know, vocational service is the corner stone of Rotary and was the key to the beginning of the Rotary ethos of service above self. The meeting today showcases Rotary’s efforts in supporting local economies and working together for the benefit of our community.