2022 Taste of Australia Dinner and Leaders' Summit wrap-up

The BCCM Leaders’ Summit is Australia’s only cross-sector business summit for co-operative and mutual leaders. Held over two days – 17 and 18 November 2022, in Melbourne – it featured highly regarded international and national speakers in plenary sessions and interactive roundtable discussions.

We developed a high-level program for executives and directors dealing head on with the need for a unified vision for growth for our sector and to help Australia address systemic risks to the economy through co-operation. This was the call to action recently tabled at the June CEO Summit on industry collaboration.

The theme of ‘triple threat or triple opportunity’ was a platform to debate three business trends – competition, conscious consumerism and consolidation.

Key speakers included Jeremy Duffield, Ex-CEO and Founder, Vanguard Australia, Enrique de los Rios, CEO, Unica Group (Spain), Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst Bloomberg Intelligence and author of The Bogle Effect and Ana Aguirre, President, Youth Network, International Co-operative Alliance.

We welcomed our CME leaders back to face-to-face events at the Taste of Australia Dinner which incorporated the BCCM Honour Roll Awards on Thursday, 17 November 2022 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Melbourne. The fabulous evening was courtesy of Platinum Partner EML. Thank you also to our fabulous food and drink partners – Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Co-operative, WAMMCO and Oz Group Co-op and our silver event partner BankVic.

This year’s dinner celebrated the richness of Australia’s co‑operative produce, from the clear crystal water where rock lobsters are harvested to the green pastures where our lamb is raised. Executive Chef, Steven Beaumont, created a bespoke menu for guests to savour the best that Australia has to offer. The ILG Gin Bar was as popular as ever.

A night of fine dining and guest speakers to celebrate our 2022 Award Honour Roll inductees. BCCM CEO Melina Morrison acknowledged the traditional owners of the land and welcomed guests. Nikki Britt, Director, EML, introduced the night’s MC – Journalist and Commentator from Insiders on ABC TV, David Speers. Guests were entertained by The Emma Gilmartin Trio.

Dr Daniel Mulino MP, Member for Fraser and Chair of the Standing Committee on Economics, provided the Opening Remarks outlining the Federal Government’s broad support for the CME sector.

Prof Simon Wilkie, Dean of Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, spoke on the evening’s theme, Thriving communities.

Find yourself in the Taste of Australia Dinner photo gallery (photos by Mannix Russo)

The opening keynote saw Jeremy Duffield, Ex-CEO and Founder of Vanguard Australia, tell the amazing story of Vanguard: Building a $A10 trillion mutual from a $US1 billion fund company.

Jeremy spoke about the remarkable vision and achievements of Jack Bogle and the mutual he founded, Vanguard. One of the major reasons behind Vanguard’s astonishing success was Jack’s commitment to mutuality and his belief that customers (who are also owners) should have access to investment products with low fees. Jeremy’s story is another example of how co-operatives and mutuals can empower and resource everyday people.

In thanking Jeremy, BCCM CEO Melina Morrison noted that Vanguard’s entry into the superannuation sector here in Australia has been met with widespread praise.

The opening keynote was supported by Futurity.

An exciting workshop designed to give BCCM members the opportunity to influence a dialogue with government, business and civil society to reshape Australia in the interests of Australians.

The BCCM Summit included four facilitated discussions to design four landmark ideas for nation-building and managing risk through co-operation. Delegates were challenged to come up with innovative ideas for working with government, business, the community and members to tackle systemic risks to the Australian economy and people’s well-being. Delegates chose from four boardroom discussions to workshop solutions to:

1. Co-operating for sustainable food and agriculture – supported by Geraldton Fishermens’ Co-op
2. Addressing a just energy transition and climate change through co-operation – supported by Capricorn
3. Securing affordable housing for all Australians – supported by CEHL
4. Care Together – A sustainable care workforce – supported by Australian Unity

Rapporteurs reported back to the Plenary following lunch, in a session supported by HCF, on the ideas that the BCCM should take forward to Government. The white paper from the dialogues will be published in early 2023.

Report on the industry project for bigger and better CMEs

Peter Hunt, Managing Partner of Mutuo in the UK and a great friend of the BCCM, and the Australian CME sector, brought us his vision for growth report on the industry project for bigger and better CMEs.

The Bunya Fund’s goals

• Grow the co-operative and mutual economy in Australia by empowering the next generation of social businesses to choose the co-operative or mutual model of enterprise – if it is the right model for them
• Help newer and emerging co-operatives and mutuals to grow and prosper – to increase their positive impact on their members, their communities, the environment and society
• Provide education, training, advisory services and mentoring to support emerging co-operatives and mutuals – that demonstrate high economic, social, cultural and environmental impact potential

Round one recipients

The BCCM announced the ten successful applicants to its inaugural co-operative development fund, The Bunya Fund, as it looks to kick-start a new generation of member-owned businesses. The ten successful applicants, who will share a collective $137,700 in first round funding, were announced by Bunya Fund Manager, Antony McMullen.

Another key project of the BCCM is Mutual Value Measurement© (MVM), developed in partnership with Monash University.

Dr Paul Thambar, Lead Researcher on Mutual Value Measurement© and Senior Lecturer at Monash University,  spoke about the MVM and Mutual Value Measurement Accreditation™.

Andrew Haigh, CEO of Newcastle Building Society in the UK, shared his organisation’s experience so far of the MVM journey and provided an on the ground perspective. It was rewarding to hear about MVM in action and how it is helping Andrew and his team to develop a laser focus when it comes to planning and measuring the value they offer to their members and community.

MVM Accreditation™

This year, two organisations have completed the MVM Accreditation process, joining the four CMEs that have previously attained this status.

HCF Australia and G&C Mutual Bank Ltd have now earned MVM Accreditation™. Melina presented Harry Robertson, CFO of HCF Australia and Rosanna Argall, CEO of G&C Mutual Bank with their accreditation.

Discover more about the MVM Framework© and MVM Accreditation™.