NSW Small Business Month 2026: Sales & Marketing in the Age of AI Event Series
NSW Small Business Month runs right through October 2026, and this year Navitential is partnering with Authentic Selling to run a sales and marketting event series as part of it.
Four sessions, one Sydney working lunch, and a straight answer to the question most small business owners are quietly sitting with: is AI actually changing how you find and keep customers, or is it just another subscription you're supposed to feel guilty about not using yet?
I flagged this partnership last week in a short announcement on LinkedIn. This is the full breakdown - what's on, when, what it costs, and whether it's worth carving out your October for.
What NSW Small Business Month actually is
NSW Small Business Month is a state government initiative that runs across all of October, with hundreds of events hosted statewide - some run by the NSW Small Business Commissioner directly, others (like ours) run by industry and community partners under the same banner. It's described by the NSW Government as "a unique opportunity to celebrate our vibrant small business community and their contribution to the economy" - and the numbers back that up.
NSW has 893,000 small businesses, making up 97% of all businesses in the state. Between them, they employ around 1.7 million people - roughly 40% of the state's private sector workforce - and generate $570.6 billion in annual sales and service income (ABS figures via the NSW Small Business Commissioner). That's not a niche audience. That's most of the state's economy, run by people doing their own books, their own marketing, and increasingly, their own wrestling match with AI tools they didn't ask for.
Why we picked "Sales & Marketing in the Age of AI"
Because the data says the wrestling match is already happening, whether business owners feel ready for it or not. The National AI Centre's most recent SME AI Pulse survey (December 2025 to February 2026) found 43–44% of Australian SMEs have adopted some form of AI - and among those who have, the top two uses, tied at 54% each, are content generation and data analytics. In plain English: AI is already writing small business marketing content and crunching small business numbers. The only question left is whether it's being used well or just bolted on.
That's the gap this series sits in. I'm co-hosting with Nimmity Zappert of Authentic Selling - she covers the sales side, I cover marketing and the systems underneath it, and between us you get the full picture without either of us pretending to be an expert in the other's patch.
Our communities are feeling the love too, with The Impact Collab, SECNA, ACU Co-Lab, and One Roof members all getting discounted pricing across the series.
"Content generation" sounds abstract until you picture what it actually is for a solo operator: an AI tool drafting your Instagram captions, writing the first pass of an email sequence, or turning a voice memo into a blog post. Useful, and also exactly where things go wrong - because a tool that can write on-brand content and a tool that is on-brand content are two different things, and most small business owners have never been shown the difference. That's the actual topic of 8 October.
What's On
Date | Session | Price |
|---|---|---|
Thu 1 Oct | Sales & Marketing in the Age of AI: What small business owners actually need to know in 2026 | $10 / $7 members |
Thu 8 Oct (Online webinar) | Marketing at Machine Speed: AI Tools That Actually Save You Time | $10 / $7 members |
Thu 15 Oct (Online webinar) | Selling as a Human: Less AI Sales Slop, More You | $10 / $7 members |
Thu 22 Oct (In-person workshop with working lunch) | Sales & Marketing Funnels in the Age of AI: A hands-on working session to build a marketing funnel you can actually use, and boost your in-person networking skills with skills and live networking. | $25 / $20 members |
Best value: the series bundle covers all three online webinars plus the in-person event for $50 ($40 for members).
Who This Is For (and Who It Isn't)
This one's genuinely open to any small business owner, not just Navitential's usual crowd. If you sell anything and you've got a nagging feeling that AI is changing the rules of how customers find you and decide to trust you, this is built for that feeling.
It's not a prompt-engineering workshop or a deep technical AI course - if that's what you're after, this isn't it. This is strategic and practical: what's actually changed, what hasn't, and what to do about it before your competitors figure it out first.
The Bit We're Not Sugar-Coating
AI won't fix a business with no clear offer, no target customer, or no follow-up system - it'll just help you do those things faster and more visibly, which isn't necessarily an improvement. If your sales and marketing problem is actually a strategy problem, a chatbot won't solve it, and neither will this series pretend otherwise.
What it will do is show you where AI genuinely removes grunt work (drafting, first-pass analysis, repetitive follow-up) versus where it's being sold to you as a fix for something it can't touch (your offer, your positioning, your actual relationship with customers). That distinction is worth more than most of what's currently being marketed as "AI for small business."
How to Get the Most Out of It
Buy the bundle if you're coming to more than one session. It pays for itself after the second event and you get the full arc of the argument, not a fragment of it.
Bring one real problem from your business. Not a hypothetical - an actual funnel that's underperforming, or an actual AI tool you bought and abandoned. You'll get more out of the Q&A.
Pick your priority session if you can only make one. Sales gap? 15 October is Nimmity's session. Marketing and systems gap? 8 October is mine. Want an overarching strategic view? Come to the Sydney lunch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to attend all four to get value?
No. Each session stands on its own. The bundle is worth it if you're doing more than one, but you won't be lost if you only come to one.
Is this only for Navitential members?
No - it's open to anyone. Member pricing is a discount available to Navitential, Nimmity's community, Impact Collab, SECNA ACU Co-Lab, and One Roof members, not a requirement to attend.
Will the online sessions be recorded?
Yes. If you register but can't make the live time, you'll get access to the replay.
I've never used AI in my business. Is this too advanced for me?
No. This series is built for time-poor business owners figuring out where to start, not for people who already live in AI tools all day.
Book Your Spot
NSW Small Business Month only comes around once a year, and this is the one series designed specifically to answer the AI question for your sales and marketing - not in theory, but in a way you can act on the same week.
By Racquel Collard | navitential.ai | Book a call
Founder, author, speaker, marketing / tech nerd, and woodworking weirdo.
Lover of shiny objects, systems that works for me and my brain, and really good business strategies that let me build the business I want (not what others think is the perfect business for me!).
