Grasping Golden Key to unlock new learning

There is sometimes a perception that if you live in a regional area, you don’t have access to career advancement or professional learning opportunities.  I’m pleased to debunk that myth.

At the risk of sounding a little bit nerdy, I was excited to be invited into the Golden Key, an international academic honour society, designed to help its members realise their potential in leadership, academia and service. This was made possible through achieving good results in my bachelor degree studies at USQ.

Through the Golden Key society, I was given the opportunity to attend the Business and Entrepreneurship Delegation of the International Scholar Laureate Program in Sydney and Melbourne. This was a huge conference than ran over eight days with over 200 attendees from all over the world, including the US, South Africa and New Zealand to name a few.

We received talks from some very interesting people including Dr Margaret Heffernan and Damian Jones from 3M.

So what did I learn? There were a few key points that I took away from the conference – both professional and personal:

1. A suitcase is a lot smaller than it looks (seriously) – although maybe trying to pack six pairs of shoes for the time away was a bit optimistic…
2. Australia has a huge focus on sustainability when compared to other countries (particularly the US). We had to do a case study during the week in groups of 3 – 4 and come up with a new product that Australia needs and every idea that was presented was based around sustainability – that was really interesting!
3. There is a huge support base for entrepreneurs that I didn’t know existed – venture capitalist funds, “fast tracked” entrepreneur programs, support networks and degrees based around the idea of becoming an entrepreneur
4. The importance of setting realistic goals and having a timeframe to achieve them
5. Being more than just a business – corporate social responsibility is becoming so important.
6. We had a talk from 3M and they spoke about the importance of employee wellbeing and supporting the community

Most of all the experience taught me how important it is to broaden your learning experiences, seek out new ideas and be prepared to grasp opportunities when they come your way.

We may be in a country town, but look at Luke and Cody Cook, Andrew McCullough, Margot Robbie, Andrew McGahan, Mark O’Shea, Jarryd James and many others, being from Dalby is not a barrier to adventure, leadership and success.