The Swiss Approach: Has Australia's Strata Sector Found Its Own Davos?

All they had to work with was a catchy title, yet John Minns and Kate McHugh pulled off something special last week. They managed to get around 50 strata people to spend the entire day talking about strata. Those 50 people had no clue who’d been invited, the objectives of the day, or the agenda for the day. That the Strata Futures Roundtable happened at all tells you all you need to know about strata today. 

Serious issues were tackled in well-facilitated sessions. There were panels, keynote speakers and a debate, each followed by discussions at tables of mixed tribes. The sessions ended with the tables reporting key ideas to the room. Up for discussion were important issues: repairing ageing building stock, building resilience and disaster prevention, greening buildings, and climate change. A report is being prepared to capture the outputs. 

As a veteran of strata ‘talkfests’ over 40 years, there were several things about this one worth noting: 

• It was positive and forward-looking.
• The discussions transcended state and territory boundaries, laws, and local issues.  
• There was a shift from the usual cry for more education to the need for proper research as the foundation for better decision making, and reforms in both legislation and business. Although, we didn’t tackle the tricky bit about how this might be funded. 

The roundtable was significant for a number of other reasons: 

• Macquarie Bank hosted the event, arguably the most powerful provider to the strata sector, holding about $4B in strata trust funds on any given day. Macquarie is not in the habit of supporting things without an agenda of its own. The same might be said of two of the other sponsors, CHU and Lannock.
• This event made a substantial contribution to the growth of the strata gene pool. The attendees were not just drawn from the usual suspects, SCA, OCN, and their sponsors. 
• Those absent were as notable as those in attendance. Missing in action - the strata lawyers, government officials, and strata journalists, bloggers, and podcasters. 

It was an excellent day, and well worth the investment of time. One thing was missing though, a ‘no-holds-barred’ discussion about what really brought us together: the conflicted and undisclosed revenue model of some strata managers. 

We didn’t get to an understanding of how and why we got to this model, or its true extent. We also don’t know what’s happening to those who persist with it, or what the future looks like if it is outlawed for managers and strata owners. These are the hard things we need to discuss, and this would have been the perfect forum. The organisers wanted positivity and future focus, and that’s what they delivered, but there can be no growth without acceptance of past failings. 

The chat following the event has been peppered with many questions: 

• What’s the organisers’ agenda – for profit, not for profit? 
• Is this the beginning of a new national body for strata?
• If so, how does it relate to the ‘peak bodies’ and other strata entities, seminars, and forums?
• Where’s the funding coming from, and why?
• What happens next, and when?

In his closing remarks, John Minns referred to himself and fellow organiser, Kate McHugh, as Switzerland in how they approached the event. Davos plays a significant role in Switzerland's contributions to global dialogue and advancement. This annual meeting, held in the small alpine town, brings together international business leaders, politicians, economists, journalists, and thinkers from around the world to discuss pressing global issues. 

Albeit without the snow and private jets to get us there, perhaps we’ve found our Davos?