The North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Indige­nous Busi­ness Net­work (NT IBN) and Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) have this week signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing, set to bring increased oppor­tu­ni­ties, pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment and net­work­ing events for Indige­nous Busi­ness­es in Cen­tral Australia. 

The two-year MOU was signed this week in Dar­win at the North Aus­tralia Devel­op­ment Office by NT IBN Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Renee Long and DKA Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Lau­ren Gan­ley. Ms Long said that the MOU was a strong strate­gic part­ner­ship that would deliv­er mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial out­comes for both organ­i­sa­tions, and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in Alice Springs and surrounds. 

“DKA sup­ports Indige­nous enter­pris­es and employ­ment, incu­bates inno­va­tion and active­ly grows new lead­ers, which aligns per­fect­ly with NT IBN’s mis­sion to sup­port Indige­nous busi­ness­es while focus­ing on their strengths.”

“We share the same val­ues of learn­ing, knowl­edge shar­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion and we are look­ing for­ward to work­ing with Renee and the NT IBN team to fur­ther devel­op col­lab­o­ra­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties and events,” said Ms Ganley.

Ms Long said that the MOU offered a ​‘home base’ for NT IBN mem­bers in Alice Springs and pro­vid­ed a fan­tas­tic venue for local events, busi­ness meet­ings and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment opportunities.

“This is an excit­ing part­ner­ship for both organ­i­sa­tions which will sup­port, advo­cate and fos­ter Indige­nous Busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties, as well as pro­mote the impor­tant work of Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia, and encour­age vis­i­ta­tion and use of their incred­i­ble facility.

“The Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia precinct has excel­lent facil­i­ties for net­work­ing and con­nect­ing with busi­ness­es both face to face, and also through video con­fer­enc­ing. Lau­ren and I will be work­ing togeth­er to facil­i­tate busi­ness events as well as reg­u­lar net­work­ing ses­sions, through ini­tia­tives such as Black Cof­fee which encour­ages Indige­nous busi­ness and pro­fes­sion­al net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties,” said Ms Long.