2021-12-13 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 1 - Draft Economic Development Strategy 2021-2030

4.4.      Factors & Trends Influencing Our Future
Technology has had a significant impact on the Noosa economy over the past 20 years as
demonstrated below, and will continue to in future. Additionally the impacts of Covid-19 are
expected to have a significant influence on the economic environment now, and into the
future. The follow three pages outline these factors including a ‘Tech Disruption Timeline’.


 Covid – 19                                                Technology
 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2           Historically technology has had a significant
 forced 6 billion people into lock down in early 2020.     impact on the economy of the Noosa Shire
 Many commentators believe the impacts of Covid –          (see info graph below), and the future is
 19 will be felt for many years to come and that this      firmly based in technology across all
 virus has changed the world and our ‘way of life’ for     industry sectors. The early adoption and
 years to come.                                            take up of these advances in technology
                                                           and the tools, systems and operating
 From a business perspective Covid – 19 has driven         models they enable will be imperative if
 significant changes:                                      businesses and organisations are to remain
  •    Accelerated ecommerce – changes to the way          competitive
       we purchase as the surge in online shopping
       demonstrates.                                       •   Covid-19 has sparked a wave of
  •    Changes to the way we work – McKinsey &                 innovation, tremendous growth in
       Co. estimated that more than 20% of the global          digitization and accelerated the rate of
       workforce (most of which are in high skilled            digital transformation as business strive
       jobs), could work remotely.                             to improve operations
  •    Tech upskilling – with these changes to the         •   The Covid-19 crisis has seen an
       way we work comes the challenge of workforce            amazing acceleration in medical
       adaptation and ensuring strong technology               innovation and astounding
       skills across the board.                                accomplishments in the early roll out of
  •    The rise of regions – ‘safe’ locations has seen         vaccines
       population and demographic change.                  •   This disruption has created space for
  •    The importance of being agile – moving fast,            entrepreneurs and innovators to
       being able to pivot and restructuring in order to       develop solutions to drive productivity
       build resilience is a fact of life in the Covid
       world.                                              This again confirms the need for extreme
  •    Profit for purpose – this crisis has emphasised     connectivity in regions in order to take
       the interconnectedness of businesses and their      advantage of the tech revolution that is now
       community which has seen an increasing trend           hi
       in business where there is profit with a sense of
       purpose.
  •    Climate action drives recovery –
       Governments across the world are firmly and
       decisively putting climate and environmental
       action at the heart of their recovery plans,
       investing heavily to stimulate action.
  •    Changing travel behaviours – while
       international borders remain shut, more
       Australians are expected to travel at home.