Conference Speakers - Neville Norman

Q&A with Neville Norman

Your first paid job was as a gardener? Tell me what it was about the job that you enjoyed?

It was a lovely job, I was 14 and it was a summer job in my local nursery. I was propagating and learning about trees. It was a wonderful experience to have had a wholesome, outdoor job. I did this every summer for five years and emotionally I have never left it.  We have comprehensive gardens both here and in England and I love being in the garden.

Your bio says that you have been in many famous places with many famous people. Can you give me an example of some of these places and people?

Yes, I have been lucky enough to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. I have been in the Board Room of General Motors in Detroit with the about-to-be-President George Bush Snr. I have had private meetings with Australian Treasurers and Prime Ministers, and have worked with sports stars as well as TV stars and film stars.

You are shedding light in what our economic future holds? Can you give me a bit of a taster as to what you will be telling us here?

I spoke at the NGI conference about four years ago and warned that we couldn’t assume there would be unbroken economic growth forever – a year ago my foresight came true and the GFC hit.

My presentation will be a combination of reading the economy and some other research directed at the nursery and garden industry.

Throughout the GFC we didn't suffer much although some areas did and there are still some tensions. We are still in a tough economic environment and there are a lot of economic pointers that we can apply.

I did some research on the impact of the economic downturn on the industry and it has been quite severe in the USA, in the very big garden states of Oregon and Florida. We haven't been immune, growth has substantially slowed. I will put across my recommendations and suggestions.

If there is one thing that your audience members will take away from your presentation, what would it be?

The need for more and better data on where you have been, where you are going and how well you did – performance evaluation with numbers. I will show how to get this data and also make suggestions for the Association to collect more and better data. 

What are you personally hoping to get out of attending our conference and getting to know our industry?
I hope to get feedback and good questions. As a speaker I learn a lot from my audiences.

When people hear economist, they think “boring”, tell me what is about economics that you find so interesting?

It is your life and if you ignore it life will be terrible. I don't like to be boring so there will be plenty of humour in my presentation.

The GFC - is it over yet? Can we expect another recession in the next 10 years?

No, it is not over. We must always be ready for a recession – pockets of the Australian community, for example those dependent on international tourism, have been very severely affected.