Southern Gold Coast News

Our General Manager, Jim Wilson, is a member of this city-wide task force which has been formed with the help of GCCC, to identify ways in which the surfing industry and its events & festivals can be enhanced for the benefit of city-wide promotion employment and investment.  Jim is also working closely with the newly-formed ASCIA which has its headquarters at Currumbin Waters and represents manufacturers of all types of surf craft.

The aim is to ensure that the manufacturing and employment base can be preserved in the face of a high exchange rate and much cheaper products being manufactured overseas.

Establishing the taskforce was part of Gold Coast City Council’s Surf Industry Development Project aimed at identifying strategies and initiatives for future surf industry development.

Chair of Council’s Economic Development and Tourism Committee said the taskforce, which includes surfboard makers and representatives from learn-to-surf schools and the tourism sector, was focused on pushing the industry forward.

“The Gold Coast’s surf industry contributes significantly to the city’s economy with $3.3 billion in gross output annually and the taskforce is the result of strong collaboration between Council and industry representatives,” said Cr Douglas.

“The goal is to identify opportunities to further enhance this industry, which will ultimately provide greater career opportunities and more industry jobs.”

Councillor Chris Robbins, who attended the first taskforce meeting, said “the sky was the limit for the local surf industry.”

“The Gold Coast has already established a reputation as a leading surf industry hub  – the surf culture here is very strong and so we are building on our strengths,” said Cr Robbins.

“The taskforce is all about industry representatives connecting with each other and the local surfing community and establishing a clear direction forward on how to maximise development opportunities.”

Taskforce Chairman John Nielsen said the first meeting had been a success and provided a strong platform to move forward.

“This is not a committee to reinvent the ’surf wheel’ – the surf industry has so far succeeded on it’s own merit – however, it has now been identified as a major local industry sector,” said Mr Neilsen.

“Our goal is to value-add to the industry and in doing so, help secure the future of those who depend on it now as well as our future generations.

“We have already established there is human resource expertise available that can help in establishing career paths and acknowledging trade skills for people who want to work in the surf industry as qualified professionals.”

A meeting was recently held at Southern Cross University between business and government ( local and state) representatives from both sides of the border to identify projects that all parties could work on to increase employment and investment in the regions.

The next steps are dependent upon the newly-formed Destination Tweed enumerating its strategic priorities to CSGC (which already has its clearly set)with a view to identifying areas of future mutual cooperation. If you have thoughts or suggestions on this topic, please contact Jim Wilson, General Manager Connecting Southern Gold Coast on 0755 343 500 or email Jim on jim.wilson@southerngoldcoast.com.au

QUIKSILVER AND ROXY PRO – 26 February to 9 March

FREE PARK N RIDE – SHUTTLE BUS!

CONNECTING SOUTHERN GOLD COAST (CSGC) FUNDS FREE PARK N RIDE TO ASSIST EVENT AND LOCAL BUSINESSS

After consultation with the event managers, Surfing Queensland, Quiksilver and local businesses, CSGC has decided to assist with improving this World-class event by funding a free Park n Ride shuttle bus service on each of the 2 Saturdays and Sundays of the Event.

Jim Wilson, General Manager of Connecting Southern Gold Coast Ltd (CSGC) said, “We have partnered with Southern Cross University (SCU) at the Gold Coast Airport campus at Bilinga to use its car park for car parking for patrons of the Quiksilver/Roxy Pro. The free Park n Ride shuttle bus will run from there to Rainbow Bay. On the way back, patrons will be able to alight at either Coolangatta or Kirra. We will continue to run the shuttle bus back to the SCU car park for a few hours after the end of the event, so patrons who alight at either Coolangatta or Kirra will be able to enjoy themselves in these precincts and still get a free lift back to their cars.”

“Our idea with the Park n Ride shuttle bus is to get visitors to the Quiksilver/Roxy Pro to ‘linger longer’ after the end of each day’s competition and to sample the delights of the restaurants and retailers in both of Coolangatta and Kirra. We hope that this will assist with developing a party atmosphere around this most important of events for us on the SGC. We also encourage patrons to use the Translink bus service,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Wilson went on to say, “I urge the retailers and traders of Coolangatta and Kirra to offer their best service and appearance for the Quiksilver/Roxy Pro. After all, there is to be a Quiksilver/Roxy Pro at Long Island New York in 2011! We on the Southern Gold Coast are really competing on the international stage, with the good time that can be offered by international locations such as Long Island. We need to offer the patrons who visit us the best possible experience.”

A map of the route for the shuttle bus can be viewed on the websites of Surfing Queensland, Surfing Australia and Quiksilver Blog, as well as right here.

The service will run from SCU car park commencing 9.00 am, with last bus return from Snapper Rocks at 6.00pm, depending on patronage, if the event finishes earlier than the scheduled 4.00pm.

Under the patronage of Cr Chris Robbins, a SGC Working Group has been established with the aim of impressing on the Qld State Government and the Gold Coast City Council, the critical, strategic imperative for the Light Rail to head south to Coolangatta airport and Coolangatta village, at the earliest.

The Queensland Government has impressed upon the Working Group the need for our region to prepare a regional submission as soon as possible, to enable it to incorporate this into the next stage of its longer-term strategic planning. None of this is meant to have the reader believe that the Light Rail will be here any time soon, rather to encourage our SGC business and residential community to “get out there and  state our case”.

The Working Group has asked Connecting Southern Gold Coast to provide secretariat and coordination services to enable the process of regional representation to begin! Well before Christmas, details of the submission will be made publicly available, so watch this space!

Tugun is a bubbling and vibrant community village and is currently undergoing a facelift with the Tugun Centre Improvement Project starting to take shape!

The new works will include:

• Centre parking in Golden Four Drive between Elizabeth and Wyberba Streets;
• Existing fountain converted to timber deck platform with up-lit central sculpture “Minneta”;
• Upgrade and extensions to the existing rotunda and construction of a new nearby shelter;
• New footpaths along the western alignment of Golden Four Drive from Wagawn to Wyberba Street, and around into Wyberba Street;
• Enlarged and landscaped build out opposite the fountain and rotunda;
• Incorporation of street trees in the western section of Wyberba Street and also in Golden Four Drive between Wagawn and Wyberba Streets;
• New centre planting in Golden Four Drive between Wagawn and Toolona Streets;
• Street printing at street thresholds throughout the centre; and
• New median landscaped centre island in western section of Wyberba Street

Promoting Tugun is a new group of business owners, headed by local business and property owner, Alan Blenkins. They are out and about speaking to Tugun business owners and seeking feedback, ideas and input into how this area can be better marketed with a view to reducing commercial vacancies. As the name implies, Promoting Tugun, focus on promoting the village and looking at ways of advertising and creating events & workshops for local business owners!

If you own a business in Tugun, and have not yet received a survey to provide your feedback, you can download the survey here and return to Maris Dirx either by email or you can contact Maris on 0421 215 596!

Tugun has also had an influx of new businesses arriving in the area in past months, with Groove Cafe, Found Furniture, Trilogy Hair & Psychics and Toolona St Food Store all being welcomed to the village.

Cooly Rocks On Festival Management Committee are seeking support from businesses in the SGC region that would like to contribute to the Festival by way of in kind services (Eg If you have a rubbish removal business and would be willing to remove rubbish from the festival site at no charge) or discounted costs.

Some of the ways you may be able to support the festival are:

• Providing discounted or free Accommodation for Entertainers and their families/partners
• Supplying services at cost price or free of charge
• Supplying materials at cost price or free of charge

As a result of Wintersun moving to Port Macquarie, the business community have indicated to the committee that it is paramount to replace the festival hence the birth of Cooly Rocks On. The Festival Management Committee are extremely grateful to all who have assisted so far in the process of creating the new event. Organising the festival has required a lot of hard work from people in the business community, that have freely given their time, know-how and efforts all for the cause of ensuring our beautiful region does not miss out on vital economic benefits, as a result of losing Wintersun to NSW.

The FMC now ask for your support to enable this event to be an astounding success!

If you are able to assist as above or have any other suggestions as to how you might contribute to the Festival, please email secretary@coolyrockson.com!

If you own a website and run a business in the Southern Gold Coast region, did you know that the logo displayed here is available for you to use?

Display the logo proudly on your website and link the image to www.southerngoldcoast.com.au and show the world that you love where you live/work/play.

At the same time as promoting our region to all that visit your website, you will be doing yourself a favour by completing a backlink which means that Google will love you and us just that little bit more!

Simply right click on the logo to your right, choose Save As and select where you want to save the file, to download the logo. Then you can add to your website and complete the backlink!

If you have any questions or if you are not sure that www.southerngoldcoast.com.au currently has a link to your website, please feel free to contact Rachael on 0755343500!

Below are the Terms & Conditions of using the logo. By displaying the logo on your website, you are acknowledging and accepting the terms of use!

The Pure Gold Logo is a Trademark of CSGC, which is owned by the Gold Coast City Council.

CSGC is pleased to make available for your use the Pure Gold logo on the following terms and conditions, to enable you to promote your business and the Southern Gold Coast region:

1. The attached style guide must be adhered to whenever the Pure Gold Logo appears;

2. For use only on your website, in print media or other printed promotional material, such as billboard or mobile advertisements, flyers and brochures for your business;

3. The logo is not to be used for any other purpose including, but not restricted to, branding of clothing, merchandise, caps souvenirs and the like, whether for commercial sale or otherwise, without our prior approval in writing; and

4. That by using the Pure Logo as set out above you, as the authorized user, hereby acknowledge that CSGC owns the Pure Gold logo as a Trademark.

NOTE: While we understand that the landscape layout may suit some applications more than the portrait layout, we would prefer the portrait style to be used wherever possible!

www.coolyrockson.com

The past month has been devoted to establishing the way forward for the Festival. The Festival Management Committee, of which our General Manager, Jim Wilson, is Secretary, has done the following:

1. Appointed a Festival Operations Manager in Mr Bob Newman ex Operations Manager of Rally Australia in the Tweed

2. Appointed Hanson Media as national PR, Communications and Marketing consultants for the Festival

3. Finalised a budget and programme of events for discussion with trader community on the 8th September at The Cooly Hotel from 5.30pm – all are welcome to attend!

4. Commenced negotiations with potential corporate sponsors,

5. Agreed in principle, with QLD Police & GCCC for the closure of Griffith St on the Saturday & Sunday (11th & 12th June), the Queens Birthday long weekend!

Bob Newman commences work on the 2nd September and from there, it will be full on planning to ensure that a bigger and better winter nostalgia rock n roll festival rolls into Coolangatta/Tweed next June!

Thursday 6 May 2010

Edited Extract

Address to: Budget Review Committee

Gold Coast City Council

By: Jim Wilson, General Manager, Connecting Southern Gold Coast Ltd

Councillors, thank you for the opportunity of briefly addressing you on the past and proposed activities of Connecting Southern Gold Coast Ltd (CSGC).

When my Chairman, Murray d’Almeida, and I addressed you on a number of occasions, about this time last year, CSGC had only just begun its operations and was still working overtime to determine projects and activities that would satisfy its KPIs for continued funding under the Management and Funding Agreement with Council.

I am pleased to report that, in the last year, we have met our KPIs.

With the assistance of Grayson Perry and Di Dixon of GCCC, our Board has developed a sound appreciation of how our Management and Funding Agreement works, and the KPIs we are expected to achieve.

Based on our regional SGC Strategic Planning exercise in late 2010, our Board is also keenly aware of what  SGC  businesses believe CSGC should be doing to promote economic development, investment and employment  in the region.

In short, our businesses very much see us leading economic development by delivering 4 key services for the economic betterment of the SGC.

The first service is: Tourism Promotion and Marketing of the SGC.

You know of our MOUs with GCT; SCU and Tweed Tourism. We are working to enhance these, for example, we now  have an Austrian student at SCU working on ways we can make the Seafood Discovery Trail become a ‘tourist destination’ in itself.

In addition to the Seafood Discovery Trail, we have created new “experiential” tourist products in Pure Green Discovery and the Walks and Lookouts of the SGC, each of which have website presences.

The Gold Coast Convention Bureau and GCT are actively assisting us with promoting these new product offerings. On top of this we have delivered 25k promotional DL brochures both in the SGC and to major tourism information centres from Brisbane to Toowoomba to Stanthorpe;

The second service is: Events and Festivals.

Our focus is on part-funding of events and festivals that underline and diversify our destinational product portfolio, thereby generating brand exposure and developing the image of the SGC, as a sub region of the wider Gold Coast.

We have successfully assisted with kick starting the Kirra SurfStock Festival and Beach Soccer at Kirra, and are working on an inaugural Kite Festival. We have made representations to the Premier of Qld and Qld Events Corporation. The Premier’s Department has replied urging us to keep working with Qld Events Corp on these and other Events and Festivals;

The third service is: Business Development Services.

This is not so much about attracting new businesses to the region- where our limited resources make this very difficult and where there are numerous paid agents and advisers working that agenda in this extraordinarily difficult environment — rather it is about working with “what we have” to make “it” better.

For example we have engaged in a number of sectoral initiatives where we are working with key local businesses and industries. Examples are Medical Tourism, Surf Industry Development Project (with GCCC), the Seafood Discovery Trail, and our MOU with BEC to provide pro bono advice to our predominantly small “s” small business sector (75%-80% of businesses employ fewer  than 3 people).

Also, I am pleased to report that a direct result from our Strategic Planning exercise with IBL and SCU last year has seen the Currumbin RSL launch a new product through the Currumbin RSL College: this product is the Boomerang Smiles customer service program for small business. Paul Donovan, the Chair of GCT, will officially launch this new product later in May.

The fourth service is: Communications to our stakeholders and the World at large.

We have developed our website www.southerngoldcoast.com.au and traffic is increasing. We send out monthly newsletters to the region on what is happening in the SGC in the tourist and business sectors, plus reporting our activities.  The feedback from all points has been excellent.  Also we service the Seafood Discovery Trail and Pure Green Discovery Websites. Our communication strategies are focusing on emphasizing the “promise” of unique experiences to potential visitors.

From a financing perspective we have shared the costs of developing the Seafood Discovery Trail with Tweed Tourism. We have not raised any other funds from third parties, for example, selling advertising space on our website, due to difficult economic conditions restricting our ability to raise such additional revenue. We will take advantage of opportunities to raise such additional funding as and when economic circumstances change (in this respect, we understand that GCT and SPAL do not raise much if any additional revenue from advertising or sponsorship).

We need to continue our work, if we are to build enduring economic growth for the SGC.

Our plan for FY 11 is simple. It has 4 planks-they are:

1. Continue to work and refine the 4 Deliverables of Tourism Promotion and Marketing; Events and Festivals; Business Development Services; and Communications by improving the quality of the engagements and the undertakings to which we allocate resources;
2. Work closely with our MOU partners to achieve outcomes for the region in line with the GC City Economic Development Strategy 2020;
3. Work with the ED&T Dept of Council as a strategic partner, to identify possible collaborative outcomes such as attracting new business and investment to the region;
4. Continue to engage with the local business community via forums such as our Tourism Working Group. Our aim here is challenge existing attitudes and approaches and develop an enthusiastic business- community opinion about action on:

• The importance of projects listed in the Gold Coast Hinterland Tourism Operating Plan 2009-2018 such as: Rapid Transit; Surf World Gold Coast Precinct; Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Gateway; Surfing Infrastructure ; and Mount Warning Green Caldera-  just to name a few;
• the “environmental presentation” of the region, as the environment in our small, and geographically and topographically-diverse region is the under pin of our regional economy  and its future economic prospects; and
• development of synergies with new businesses investing in our region- businesses such as SCU, new accommodation providers, and others such as Surfing Australia.

Thank you for your support for our endeavours to date.