ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
• strengthening community and business capacity
to meet the needs of visiting high performance
athletes, and
• stimulating new economic opportunities for local
businesses.
To distinguish the Sunshine Coast from other pre-
competition training destinations, there was a need
to partner with the community to attract enough
teams and countries to make Sunshine Coast the
number one non-Games destination in Australia for
pre-Games training.
Through the Welcoming the Commonwealth project,
successful partnerships were forged with a wide and
diverse range of community groups and outstanding
outcomes were achieved. The Sunshine Coast
experienced visitation by 500 international athletes
and officials from nine countries; a $1.6 million
injection into the local economy; $195,000 worth of
free mainstream media coverage; 1,058,591 related
likes and engagements from a reach of 4,486,455
people; and skills development across the industry.
The project activities were designed and delivered
through collaboration with local Indigenous family
groups, 19 community sporting clubs and venues,
four cultural groups, 75 volunteers, 17 public and
independent schools, two media partners, the
Regional Tourism Organisation, the local University,
the local Sports Federation and relevant State
Government agencies. It also drew on the services
of 95 local businesses.
FINALIST
WARRNAMBOOL CITY COUNCIL
Beers and Ideas
‘Beers and Ideas’ is a placemaking initiative
and collaboration between Warrnambool City
Council, a local graphic designer/placemaker and
the Warrnambool Community. Beers and Ideas
empowers local people to carry out placemaking
projects in the city and aims to inspire a sense
of fun and possibility by simplifying the process
of bringing these projects to life. It believes that
improving public spaces will make Warrnambool a
more lively and engaging place to be; a place that
the community is proud of and connected to; a place
where we share unique and positive experiences; a
place where everyone wants to be.
The concept behind ‘Beers and Ideas’ is simple. A
‘Beers and Ideas’ event involves a $10 admission
fee which gives attendees a beer and a vote.
Throughout the night the audience hears a range of
local placemaking ideas pitched by members of the
community who are willing to project manage their
idea. Participants vote for the idea they most wish
to see delivered in the Central Business District.
The idea with the most votes wins the money
raised at the door and this amount is matched by
Warrnambool City Council, to use towards making
their idea come to life.
The Warrnambool CBD is a more vibrant and vital
place because of Beers and Ideas. Economic
benefits have been realised in areas where ideas
have become reality. Beers and Ideas is making
Warrnambool a more innovative and attractive city
that draws on the creative talents of its citizens.
DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURS
WINNER
GEOGRAFIA
Empowering Local Governments with Advanced
Economic Analytics
For some years now, Geografia
has been using bank data as an
input to its work.
Spendmapp is a significant
leap beyond. It is a software
tool that allows economic
development practitioners to
Kevin Johnson,
discover insights for themselves
Managing Director
at Geografia Pty Ltd
and, in doing so, it is building
their analytical capability and
enhancing their reputation. As one case study
user said: ‘[Spendmapp] has made complex work,
simple for us. That means we address problems
more efficiently and have time to tackle even more
challenging issues.’
Geografia’s intellectual effort has focused on
the infrastructure. Now economic development
practitioners can focus their efforts on extracting
data in the way they need it, running it through their
preferred analytical tools, and initiating the right
solutions.
By reducing the need for costly, one-off consultants
for what should be standard work for council
officers, more resources become available for
other projects. And as the reputation of economic
development practitioners is enhanced, so council
initiatives are even more readily endorsed by local
stakeholders.
Future iterations of Spendmapp will incorporate
more training materials including easy to
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