Global Victorians' Symposium

More than 50 leading Victorian expatriates and repatriates gathered for the inaugural Global Victorians’ Symposium in Melbourne on December 19, 2008.

The day opened with Premier Brumby and Robert Thomson from the Wall Street Journal discussing the global financial crisis and outlook for Victoria.

Participants then broke into small groups to workshop ideas to better position Victoria in the international economy going forward.

The brainstorming session produced 36 ‘bold’ ideas for Victoria. Four of these ideas were selected to the present to Premier Brumby at the end of the day, they were:

· positioning Melbourne University as one of the top educational institutions in the world

· developing Melbourne as a globally recognised world leader in innovation and ideas via a major global prize

· establishing Melbourne as the centre for ethical food and drink

· developing a major stem cell think-tank in Melbourne, charged with seeing major research from conceptualisation through to commercialisation and global integration

The event, which was co-hosted by Advance and the Victorian Government, closed with a dinner for participants. Ahmed Fahour, the then CEO of National Australia Bank, was the key note speaker at dinner.