Bernard Salt

Bernard Salt is a leading commentator and advisor to corporate markets on consumer, cultural and demographic trends

Informative, witty, incisive and ‘very human’, Bernard's style is a unique blend of substance and humour. He can provide a lively and dynamic exposÚ of cultural change and demographic shifts, focusing on the outlook and implications for business over the next two decades.Basing his presentation on hard-edged numbers, Bernard reflects on the most recent demographic, business and social information available.

Bernard Salt’s client list reads like a Who’s Who of Business Investment and Development. He has worked on a diverse range of projects from advising retailers on the best position for stores, to being instrumental in the launch and expansion of a property trust that now manages assets of more than $500 million.

An entertaining and persuasive speaker, Bernard shows extraordinary insight in convincing blue-chip investors of the business merits of a particular course of action. Bernard travels Australia extensively and is equally at home speaking about suburban growth in Dubbo and Busselton, as he is talking about the opportunities for business in the hip-and-happening empty-nester residential markets of inner Sydney and Melbourne. Bernard has operated at the high end of business affairs for more than a decade, so the market has had ample opportunity to test his advice. The results speak for themselves, his blue-chip client base just gets bluer each year. Through his work, Bernard has established an enviable reputation as an advisor to leading property investors and developers on matters relating to market demand. He is however best known to Australian business for his commentary in the media on the business implications of demographic and social change. A columnist with 'The Australian', 'Wish' magazine, and 'Property Australia', Salt is also the author of the popular best-selling book 'The Big Shift: Welcome to the Third Australian Culture' and his 2006 release, 'The Big Picture'.

Bernard is KPMG Partner of Property. Not only has he established an enviable profile within corporate Australia as an adviser, but his commentary on consumer, cultural and demographic trends is highly respected. Bernard is engaged by diverse corporations to review market trends and to advise on business acquisitions and expansions. He is frequently quoted in the Australian media and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs including 'Business Sunday', 'A Current Affair', '60 Minutes', 'Today Tonight', 'Today Show', and 'Nightline'.

What events and value-shifts have had the most influence on us as a nation? Can the Fella Filter save us from the man drought? Is food the new sex for the over-40s? What is the chaperone syndrome? At what age do you cease being young? Bernard tackles these and other social and demographic questions facing nations. 'The Big Picture' interprets the factors that have a bearing on where we live, when we marry, and how we will work. The motivational forces that shape the Australian community are revealed under Bernard's unique scrutiny and analysis. Bernard has particular expertise in the consumer market and cultural changes. He attributes recent trends - and even fashions - to the shifting and shuffling of numbers from one stage of the life cycle to the other. The Age describes his style as “part stand-up comedian, part number-crunching economics”

In demand as a speaker, Bernard balances an increasing number of engagements with running a national consulting practice from Melbourne. Bernard holds a Bachelor of Education and Master of Arts degrees in economic geography, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Bernard's best-selling book, 'The Big Shift' is a landmark outlook that chronicles Australia from the unique bush culture of the swagman, to today's world of boomers, Xers and Dotcoms. Through its engaging text, the book considers the rise of suburbia in our national psyche and maps out the likely influences on Australian culture over the approaching decades of the twenty-first century.

His research into almost every market in Australia enables him to talk authoritatively about trends in any part of the continent, as well as the cultural differences within regional Australia. Bernard’s style is a unique blend of humour, informed commentary, insight, wit, style and incisive analysis. His 'very human' presentations are fast paced and are specifically tailored to the client and the client's particular industry.

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Presentations:

Topics:

• Retaining Generation Y staff
• Evolution of Australia's three consumer cultures
• Sponge cities and regional growth
• Generation X as agents of social change
• The Man Drought and the Fella Filter
• The Seachange Shift
• Your place as the new workplace
• Global demographic trends from US, New Zealand and Asia
• Jobs and the 'brave new world' of technology
• The rise of retirement and portfolio lifestyles
• Demographic and social change across Australian cities
• Australia on the Move
• 'The Big Picture' In 'The Big Picture', Bernard poses some big questions about social change. When did it become socially acceptable, or at least not unacceptable, for a young couple to have children out of wedlock?