WHAT do building a drivable car made of Lego, cheating at school, asking kids how you could run your business better, finding a “monopoly” and a smartphone have in common?

The easy answer would be nothing. The answer in this case might be Steve Sammartino. The long-term answer might be giving Portland and Glenelg Shire inspiration to come out of the coronavirus pandemic and build an economy for the future.

If that hasn’t confused you by now, Mr Sammartino certainly didn’t confuse about 60 Committee for Portland members who met at the Royal Hotel on Thursday night for the organisation’s annual meeting.

He wasn’t actually there – fittingly, given that two of his occupations are technologist and futurist, he logged in via Zoom, the online meeting platform that was unheard of less than two years ago but which now doesn’t mean anything to do with photography to most people who use it (which seems to be nearly everyone).

Prior to the pandemic, Mr Sammartino travelled the world speaking on his favourite subjects, and he certainly showed that skill on Thursday night.

His brief was to throw out some ideas on how Portland, and small businesses in particular, could rebound from the pandemic and set out on the future.

And the old enemy of distance wasn’t an excuse – particularly given the technological tools at everyone’s disposal, tools that had been available since before the pandemic but were little used.

“We are just a few keystrokes away from anyone in the world that has the knowledge that you seek,” Mr Sammartino said.

“COVID presented to us choices, but more than that it made us do things we could’ve (done before) but didn’t.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste and the next big idea is having the courage to implement what is already here.

“What people have got now for the first time in 10-20 years is an open mind.”

Mr Sammartino reeled off plenty of examples, including reusing space – for example, instead of a retail shop just conducting that business it could be used as a café in the morning or night as well.

Another was making use of a local region’s monopoly – something that couldn’t be replicated elsewhere – “what is your champagne?”

The audience quickly reminded him of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, and the opportunities that might spin out of that in future.

Another possibility raised by the audience as partnering with Optus, who he was doing some work for, to provide “the fastest 5G in Australia” or another venture he was getting involved with which was building low-cost housing using a 3D printer.

The there was collaboration – Mr Sammartino pointed to schools, which he said were modelled on the factories of the past to produce workers for those industries and where cheating was frowned upon – yet when students ended up in the workplace they were expected to share ideas and collaborate.

In his case making the Lego car was a great example – he collaborated with a Romanian teenager who knew about engines while he did the design – and to raise the money ($20,000) they crowd funded it via social media, getting donations from all over the world.

And speaking of teenagers, Mr Sammartino said for businesses to set themselves up for the future they should ask young people that they employed for their own ideas on how their business could be run better – and be prepared to be surprised by the good ideas that would flow.

“This revolution isn’t about knowing the answers, it’s about finding someone who does,” Mr Sammartino said.

“It’s about stealing ideas from other regions doing really cool things and thinking ‘we can move this forward’.”

● At the annual meeting itself, Ian Bail (Wannon Water), Greg Tremewen (Port of Portland), Mark McIntyre (Richmond Henty Hotel) and James Williamson (Porthaul) were all re-elected on to the Committee for Portland board.

Chairman Steve Garner said the committee’s sub-committees worked well in a trying time during the pandemic – groups focused on the likes of small business, the Why Leave Town gift card scheme (which had seen $36,000 of the cards purchased to be spent locally) and the Kentbruck Green Energy project.

“There was a lot of interest during the year around hydrogen, which is another thing that will come up in the not-too-distant future,” Mr Garner said.

Board member Anita Rank said the committee was also looking forward to relaunching events such as the Twilight Market this Friday, various art events, Women in Business functions and the laneway event and rescheduled tradies’ breakfast next month.