2010 NATIONAL MULTICULTURAL MARKETING CONFERENCE

I am very pleased to report that the 21st Annual Multicultural Marketing Conference, held at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on 1 November 2010, was a resounding success.

The Multicultural Marketing Conference is an annual event organised by the Commission where valuable knowledge and techniques in multicultural marketing are exchanged between practitioners and experts from across the government, corporate and community sectors.

Participants come to learn the best ways to connect and engage with our increasingly diverse community, and the feedback from this year’s participants was overwhelmingly positive - they found the information presented to be ‘inspiring, informative, relevant and applicable to their own organisations’ - and the vast majority are keen to return next year. The focus of the conference reflects the Commission’s aim of further developing our diverse, harmonious and cohesive society in New South Wales, promoting the many economic, social and cultural benefits of embracing multiculturalism. Participants at this year’s event had the opportunity to listen to a range of expert presentations from business and government leaders including the NSW Minister for Citizenship, the Hon John Hatzistergos MLC, the President of UBI World TV, the Editor of the Weekend Australian Newspaper, the CEO of Radio Australia and experts from Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Cargill Beef Australia. The conference also presented a panel of community representatives who provided insight into their community’s behaviour and preferences.

Having speakers from such an impressive selection of iconic Australian organisations attracted a range of well-informed participants who were eager to learn more from highly successful players across all sectors.

The presenters spoke on key issues impacting on Australian organisations and shared their expert advice and experience with participants, including:

• how to use social media to reach a multicultural market and connect with the multicultural community through digital media;
• how to focus on a specific community without isolating others;
• how to use Census data produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to help reach out to multicultural markets;
• how to unlock the power of ethnic television; and much more.

This provided participants with the opportunity to learn some really useful techniques to take away with them and apply to their own organisations. This year’s participants listened to a range of case studies on award winning multicultural marketing initiatives, and a panel discussion on the pitfalls and successes in communicating with a multicultural audience. The Minister for Citizenship, the Hon John Hatzistergos MLC, delivered the keynote address and highlighted the many ways in which the NSW Government seeks to engage all members of our multicultural community. The Minister discussed a range of economic, social and cultural issues impacting on 21st century Australia as a result of our growing and increasingly diverse population, which now stands at more than 22 million. Our heritage now reflects more than 200 nations from around the world - including more than 5 million Australians who were actually born overseas - and the Minister drove home the huge implications of these demographic shifts for current and future marketing strategies in Australian organisations operating across every sphere.

As reinforced by the Minister, organisations, large and small, across all sectors must adopt innovative and strategic approaches - including the use of multicultural marketing tools - to ensure they are well-positioned to meet the challenges of these new market conditions in the period of economic recovery after the financial crisis which rocked the world. Organisations in NSW must become even more globally connected, highly skilled and innovative to ensure that our economy remains flexible enough to respond to changing global trends and to continue to attract new investment opportunities and highly skilled migrants to add to our skills base. The Minister highlighted these as critical elements to ensure that our State continues to grow and successfully compete in an increasingly competitive global climate.

Mrs Regina Boulos, UBI President, highlighted that their organisation now offers its viewers the chance to hear multiple perspectives, in the language of their choice, through multicultural broadcasters. UBI World TV is now Australia’s largest multicultural television and radio satellite platform, broadcasting 120 television and radio channels from 30 different countries. UBI believes the Australian multicultural market is now worth about $58 billion in annual spending, which is a huge market in anyone’s language.

Mr Nick Cater, Editor of the Weekend Australian newspaper, talked about The Australian’s longstanding role in stimulating the national conversation from across the spectrum of our population. He highlighted the linkages between healthy national conversations in the media which are a feature of open societies such as ours and their impact upon the changing focus of public policies in Australia. When you consider that his paper’s readership includes some of the most influential players from our political, business and community organisations, it is hard to argue otherwise. I thank Mr Cater for raising alternative perspectives on the issue of multiculturalism. Different opinions are the hallmark of any good debate and in this spirit and I look forward to continuing our national conversation on a range of fascinating global and national issues into 2011 and beyond.

Ms Tori Starkey of Telstra presented various multicultural marketing strategies which have worked for Telstra, and discussed how they may be applied to other organisations. She pointed out the importance of integrating multicultural marketing and mainstream activities to ensure that they leverage all opportunities and use their existing networks within the community, including tapping into the opinions of key community leaders. Ms Starkey also highlighted the importance of understanding key cultural drivers - not pigeon-holing or stereotyping specific ethnic communities.

Like the majority of other participants at the conference, I was highly impressed with the wealth of knowledge of each of these presenters. These organisations realise the critical importance of marketing their goods and services to diverse audiences as we write the next chapter of our unique multicultural story. The central message of our presenters at this year’s conference was clear - if you understand your clients’ needs and wants, develop relevant messages and ensure that they are communicated via the most effective media platforms, then your organisational success will improve and clients will benefit as a result. By accurately reflecting the changing canvas of contemporary Australia, by embracing the range of technologies and social media and by utilising the skills of their own diverse workforces, these organisations have significantly raised their profile and reached new audiences in Australia and beyond.

The NSW government leads the world in our approach to public sector multicultural governance and I am encouraged by the positive impact these strategies have had on organisations operating in other sectors.

I am especially proud of the ongoing achievements and work undertaken by my team at the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW which, for more than 30 years, has worked tirelessly to encourage all individuals and organisations to provide the opportunity to contribute and participate in public life and have equitable access to government services. We can now see the impact of decades of hard work come to fruition.

I am highly optimistic that our future generations of young Australian leaders across the spheres of government, business and community will build on these tremendous achievements and ensure that as a nation we continue to set an example to share with the rest of the world.

I extend my thanks to everyone who participated in the 2010 Conference and I applaud all of our speakers for sharing with us their multicultural marketing strategies. I look forward to seeing all of our former participants - and welcoming newcomers - at the 2011 Multicultural Marketing Conference as we all continue our journey of learning, sharing and developing our organisations.