I have an analytical mind, and I've been processing a few things I learned yesterday at the Aaron Sansoni's Melbourne 2026 Entrepreneurs Summit. I wanted to share those insights here with you.
Photo taken by Hwan-Yi Choo
There were, of course, some absolutely insightful tips about business and how to be an Entrepreneur and even becoming an Empire, but arguably one of the most humbing and beautiful things I got to learn was the power of the human connection as it is now, in a post-pandemic world, in the midst of war and cost-of-living crisis while AI is in its omnipresent and infant stages.
A lot of online discourse points out that we are becoming more isolated and disconnected - a view shared (and feared) in the dot.com boom of the late 90s and early 2000s which resulted in some massive anti-globalisation protests, a general fear about the world ending as due to the Millenium bug (also referred to as the Y2K problem) and the growing concerns around the wild west of the internet, as we were seeing new types of crime emerge in faster and more connected ways than ever.
A lot of us who were privvy to that fear remember that 1999/2000 NYE night vividly. That fear was palpable.
I remember that I was around 8 years old and at home, we were on the verge of a new chapter. My parents were buying a new house (which meant a new school, again but more importantly, it had land so we were secretly planning which amimals we were about to beg for - sadly, I did not get a cow.) and my favourite oldest sister, who had moved away from home was coming back to live with us.
Our world was getting bigger and we all felt on the precipice of something so new, so exciting and so inimaginable. Dad was getting the promotion he had worked so hard for. Mum was about to live in her dream home, their "forever home" and us kids? Well, there were 6 of us (4 under 10 years old) and we were about to get a very excitingly big parcel of land to run amok on.
I can tell you, we were EXCITED!
As those changes were rushing towards us: the Millenium bug loomed ever closer. We all stood outside, and I remember my mum and dad looking at each other, just before the countdown.
That fear, that I could sense as a child, aware of the news, unsure what it meant - I now, as a parent myself, standing on that same precipice 26 years later, I can understand more completely.
That fear wasn't: "what if the world ends?"
That fear was: "can we survive whatever is coming, together? and what does that look like. Can we protect our children?"
That is the core of the fear now in 2026.
We have survived the pandemic. We are dealing with unimaginable global warfare, at a pace and in a way that we have never known before.
Our world IS ending, and maybe it already has, but OUR WORLD is also coming.
I saw that yesterday.
In the room, when Naomi Simson, OAM (founder of RedBallon and so much more than that, as a human being) was discussing the future of the entrepreneurs, she was speaking to the person in everyone. The humanness that we have forgotten collectively, but crave to be seen as, as she spoke about "your jobs," as the role we play in how others come to us, what they need from us.
Photo taken by Hwan-Yi Choo
Simson recognises that customers and clients are backing away from the specific service and product, and running towards who can give them what they really need: connection, authority, advice and influence (amongst many other ways to be for others).
Co-founder of Morgan & Banks, Andrew Banks (Chanel 10's Shark Tank host alongside the lovely Naomi Simson) engaged the whole room af 700 Summit attendees with his vibrant personality (and eye-catching rainbow paisley shirt) and assertion that people and cultural fit are tantamount to business success: "we hire the person, not the resumé." The heartfelt belief that people are centric to the business world, not just cogs in a corporate wheel, but are an asset in and of themselves.
Photo taken by Hwan-Yi Choo
Another "Shark," and serial entrepreneur Nick Bell (podcast host: "Get Harder") spoke passionately when he reminded us to "find good people" as their personaility alone puts them at 80% of the way to being the best people for your company, and "teach them your ways" to round out that last 20%. People and how they work, what they value and who they are matters more now than it ever did before.
Rhys Henderson's (Founder of BusinessAI) insights into the world as it is now declare that the industrial revolution is over, we don't want factory workers and dead-end jobs and unappreciated employees any more.
We don't want to hire them and we don't want to be them.
Changes are coming for the business and professional world in a way unimaginable and wonderful - big businesses and empires are giving businesses what they need most in more affordable ways than ever, for free or at a marginal cost.
This can be done for no other reason except that they trully believe in the people behind the visions and wanting everyone else to succeed as well.
Becuase they know that success isn't done alone on an island and that people need other people.
Dave Cervelli (recently named CEO of the Aaron Sansoni Group) created a referral app called Scaling, which helps businesses to refer other businesses. Word-of-mouth made reputable and simple. Specific, reliable and effective client acquisitions that can save you thousands per client - let alone to aquire to business capacity!
John Mayers created EmpireOne: a concierge for all business needs - an app to help businesses and business owners and operators to find deals on everything from business insurance, saving on business expences and has a free version (for those who don't yet have the cashflow to squeeze in another service, just yet anyway - because they'll actually help get you there!)
Even marketing and how we reach our customers is rapidly becoming more personalised and people-centric, as Mark Thurman (Head of Growth at EmpireOne's marketing division Empire Amplify) and Jack Gamble (Group Account Director at Empire Amplify) demonstrated with the ways that AI search and Google are integrating to show every person more personalised ads, and how to seperate those customers through niche advertising, because, coming back to what Naomi Simson) had said earlier, we are fulfilling different needs to different people based on their differeing and flucctuating needs.
What really impressed and positively suprised me was on observation amonst the attendees of Aaron Sansoni's Melbourne 2026 Entrepreneurs Summit: most of the founders there had PEOPLE CENTRIC businesses.
This is a far cry from the observations of entrepreneurs found in networking events throughout my career:
- The early 2010s networking events, which all seemed to be inventions and community businesses like landscaping.
- Around 2016-17 we saw a shift into big tech entrepreneurs coming in through the doors.
- The pandemic era event attendees focused on holistic, medicinal, supplimentary and craft-focused businesses.
- Post-pandemic 2020s was big tech again, and scaling from businesses born in the pandemic until around mid-2025.
- Today, in mid-2026 we are seeing AI-integrated and native businesses pop up that are human-centric and about the people, the experience, the alignment, values and desires of the customer and client.
How can we help you seems to be the heart, the motto and the sentiment of these new founders and is reaching deep and high right into the biggest and most influential Australian entrepreneurs of today.
Australia has always been known for having a friendly, laid-back and helpful culture.
We are approachable, easy-going and eager to assist. We value mateship, having a go, having a "no worries" and "she'll be right" heart within us.
Australia has even been ranked in the top 10 friendliest cultures of the world, according to a November 2025 study by Rimitly.
So, while the news might seem bleak and try to turn us against each other, know that the Australian businesses, entrepreneurial elite and the employees we choose as our key people are all just having a go, looking out for one another and hold onto the knowledge that we can never lose our deeply embedded, special culture and community we are lucky to be born into, wanted within and are valued to be a part of.
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Written by Chel Nash (née Dillon) | 02 May 2026
Founder of Chel's Network (est. Jan 2020)
Business Partner at SIFA Events (partnered in March 2023)
Author of Beyond Business Cards: The Ultimate Guide to Professional Networking (2024)
(Best Sellers Rank: #21 in Job Markets & Advice)