I find myself agreeing with the American futurist John Naisbitt who commented “we have for the first time an economy based on a key resource [information] that is not only renewable, but self-generating. Running out of it is not a problem, but drowning in it is.”
In Europe and the United Kingdom there is a distinct fear that the rumbles in the American economy have the potential to tip what is most likely a recession into something more serious.
By contrast the mood in Southeast Asia and China remains upbeat to the extent one would hardly think that anything could upset the applecart. The economic meltdown in some of the “tiger” economies a decade ago seems a distant memory.
In Australia, we seem to be steering a middle course – getting down to business but aware that we cannot rest for a moment on past laurels.
We also have to contend with a growing sensitivity to the amount of carbon emissions burn that long haul travel entails and its implications for Australia. This is by no means the primary focus of my colleagues in Europe, but perhaps we may develop a benchmark for our region.
An anonymous commentator has helped ease my conflicted view of the business climate with the prescient observation that “the economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters”.
 Roslyn McLeod is the founder and managing director of Tour Hosts, a Sydney based conference and event management company.
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