Who:
City of Gold Coast
Goals:
- To ensure residents, local businesses and industries communication activities are effectively managed.
- To meet the reporting requirements of the International Games Federation.
Background:
The Gold Coast, located in Queensland, is a majestic destination including beaches, amusement parks and an energetic atmosphere.
Establishment of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation occurred in 2012. The vision of the Commonwealth Games is, “To stage a great Games in a great city, leaving great memories and great benefits for all.” The Government and Games Delivery Partners have been working in collaboration to prepare for the wide-scale event. It’s set to be the largest sporting event the city has seen.
The Commonwealth Games are always a historic event. They inspire people to work hard, take part and engage with the larger community. Hosting the occasion means temporary changes such as increased tourism and road changes will need to occur. A priority is to keep locals updated with the changes and cause minimal disruption. Get Set Ready Gold Coast team, is a community engagement body that governs these changes. They post the latest information through various communication channels and engagement activities. Some of these channels include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Challenges The City of Gold Coast needed to overcome:
The forefront of this challenge is preparing the Gold Coast community for the Games. This includes the general public, local businesses, and any other business with an investment in the Gold Coast. Queensland hasn’t experienced such a large-scale sporting event in the past, with more than four times the number of athletes expected to participate than the Brisbane Games in 1982. The public and local businesses are continuously preparing for an increase in tourism, traffic and infrastructure changes to the city.
Hosting the Games requires balancing different groups interests’ as well as precision, organisation and engagement. This leads to the need for the organisational bodies, Get Set Ready Gold Coast and The Department of Transport and Main Roads to work seamlessly in collaboration to ensure everyone is receiving the same messages.
Solution:
Consultation Manager delivered a specially tailored stakeholder relationship management system to meet the City of Gold Coast’s need’s. Our team has been liaising with Project Support Officer, Louise Wehi to ensure we create the most effective system. When talking to Louise, she said, “Consultation Manager has enabled us to effectively engage with all stakeholders (Residential & Business) and allow us to work with our Travel Demand Management team from the same database, ensuring we are up to date with latest interactions with stakeholders. We report up the chain weekly with the event report and it gives us exactly what we need.”
The CM system has helped to:
- View the City of Gold Coast and The Department of Transport and Main Roads as one body who provide consistent information to the community and stakeholders.
- Satisfy the reporting needs and requirements of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.
- Manage community excitement around the Games.
- Manage the increase local business presence to accompany the increase in population at the time of the Games.
- Ensure industries and stakeholders are aware of the changes – Particularly those in the Transportation space as they need to be proactive in their approach to road and infrastructure modifications.
“Consultation Manager has been one of the easiest CRM systems to implement and the reporting functions have made frequent reporting a dream. The support function has also been very impressive and Corey our account manager has been wonderful through the entire time always answering questions,” commented Louise.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games requires intense planning, organisation and commitment. Many stakeholder interests’ need careful monitoring. Consultation Manager provides a platform to coordinate each stakeholder profile directly to each groups’ needs.
