Tagged with Regional Development

Clever Regions, Clever Australia – Enhancing the Role of Regional Universities

Dr Caroline Perkins, Executive Director, Regional Universities Network

The Australian economy is moving from a heavy reliance on mining and manufacturing to a new era in which skills, knowledge and ideas will become our most precious commodities. The jobs and industries of the future will need highly skilled university graduates who can connect regional Australia with the global, innovative economy.

Caroline Perkins

The six regionally headquartered universities of the Regional Universities Network (RUN), CQUniversity, Federation University Australia, Southern Cross University, University of New England, University of Southern Queensland, and the University of the Sunshine Coast, make a fundamental contribution to their regions. They improve opportunities for regional Australians to access higher education. People who study in the regions largely stay the regions to work.

The teaching and learning activities, research and innovation and service functions of regional universities contribute to: human capital development; regional governance and planning; community development; health and ageing; arts, culture and sport; environmental sustainability; and industry and business development in regional Australia. Staff and students play active and visible roles in their communities and contribute to regional capacity building, including internationally. Regional universities are major employers across a wide range of occupations, and purchasers of local goods and services.

In Europe and the United Kingdom universities are seen as important players in Smart City Specialisations and City Deals.

The Australian Government is now adopting a more strategic approach to regional development. This includes establishing a Regional Australia Ministerial taskforce, chaired by the Prime Minister, with representation from a range of portfolios including regional development, education, industry, employment and agriculture. Two city deals announced in 2016, Launceston and Townsville, have universities as key players. A Precincts Advisory Committee has been established to advise on a possible university innovation precincts strategy.

Dr. Caroline Perkins attended our 2016 National Sustainability in Business Conference.

Our Region Our Future: Securing an Economic Future for Gippsland and Latrobe Valley

Anticipating that a power station closure in the Latrobe Valley was highly likely, the Committee for Gippsland undertook a six-month body of work that included the input of hundreds of Gippslanders contained in a final 100 page report. Our Region Our Future: Securing an Economic Future for Gippsland and Latrobe Valley was launched in July 2016 and adopted by the Victorian and Federal Governments as a blue-print for a future transition.

Mary Aldred

Only four months later Hazelwood power station announced it would close. Our Region Our Future includes economic and employment modelling on a closure scenario by GHD, the input of 200 small to medium businesses in the Latrobe Valley about their economic relationship with the four Gippsland power stations, and 20 business case studies. It also sets out key recommendations on a path through transition, from a staged closure, to higher education and re-skilling opportunities, investment attracting, and a low emissions future for coal.

Gippsland has a broad based economy, and the report focusses on developing its already strong base in agribusiness, manufacturing and exports. The report acknowledges highlights the link between the region’s large quantum of heavy industry and employment with the power stations, paper mill and others, and the economy of small businesses that are sustained from it. Those large industries also create and maintain a demand for highly skilled workers, and education providers in the region. The report clearly articulates a future for Gippsland’s 500 years’ worth of brown coal reserves.

While coal fired electricity generation may diminish, new technology including carbon capture and storage is necessary to help achieve deep emissions cuts necessary to help address carbon reduction targets. There is also a strong commercial and employment future for coal derivatives, including coal to hydrogen, coal to fertiliser, coal to magnesium and more.

Our Region Our Future remains the only up-to-date, locally informed, fact-based and comprehensive analysis of a power station closure in the Latrobe Valley, and a strategy to address it.

Mary Aldred
Chief Executive Officer
Committee for Gippsland Inc
See our website at: www.committeeforgippsland.com.au

Regional Development Conference 2016: Keynote Speaker and Program Announcement

Simon McArthur - photoWe are pleased to announce Associate Professor Simon McArthur, Deputy Chair, Australian Regional Tourism Network as a Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Australian Regional Development Conference; Participation and Progress to be held in Canberra on 5 – 6 September 2016.

Simon will be speaking on; ‘Out with the Plan, in with the Model’.

Many standard tourism plans have tried to introduce actions to move tourism towards a more sustainable approach. But plans are like a visitor’s photo – almost as soon as the shot is taken, the people and place changes. Enter a new approach – the Sustainable Tourism Model (or STM). The STM is like a living, breathing plan, but it only triggers action when reliable feedback says it is critical, and even them it has an armament of sliding scale responses to choose from. Now we monitor, learn and respond when needed, and when it’s fixed, we back off and return to monitoring.

The STM addresses three questions:

  1. Where do we want to be (the conventional desired future stuff of a tourism plan)
  2. How do we know how close we are (clever monitoring linked to maximum and minimum realistic standards)
  3. What do we do if the standards aren’t being met (multiple choice options to respond, known as adaptive management)

This presentation will profile a collection of STM’s and derive some key lessons for those contemplating them. Case studies will include: South Australia’s Kangaroo Island (the longest running STM); Sydney’s former Quarantine Station (where the STM is managed by a tourism operator to look after their cultural tourism site, and avoid expensive regulation, and the Bahamas (covering a marine environment and multiple local communities) and Cyprus (featuring the latest in information technology for any user to grasp).

Simon has 25 years’ experience in tourism planning, development and operations. He has extensive qualifications that include a Masters in Business Administration, PhD in Tourism Management, Associate Professorship in Hotel Management and Bachelor of Applied Science in Natural Resource Management. He has published several books on heritage and visitor management in protected areas and cultural sites. Simon has received some 20 awards for heritage tourism planning and development, marketing, product innovation and sensitive environmental design. He was recently awarded the Australian Travel Innovator Award (Travel and Leisure Magazine).

Simon is both creative and logical, moving from ideas generation and market and financial analysis to full implementation and evaluation. He is renowned for his ability to interpret social trends into unmet market needs and then into creative product development that meets these needs.

Simon is Deputy Chairperson of the Australian Regional Tourism Network and has been a Board Member for several years.

The 3rd Australian Regional Development Conference; Participation and Progress will be held in Canberra on 5 – 6 September 2016 to register for the conference CLICK HERE.

Early bird closes on 25th July so be quick to receive a discounted rate. To view the Conference Program CLICK HERE. With over 60 speakers and 7 keynote speakers, an Awards Dinner for the ‘Regional Innovation Awards’ (now open) it is a Conference opportunity not to be missed.

The conference explores opportunities for innovation in regional Australia. With its rich resources, diversity, and value, regional Australia is the catalyst for the future and the Conference addresses issues such as sustainable development, environmental sustainability, land use, community development, investment, agribusiness and innovation.

Australian Regional Development Conference

The Australian Regional Development Conference will be held in Albury NSW on the 15 – 16 October 2014. There is also the addition of 6 optional workshops being held on Friday 17th October 2014.

– See more at: http://regionaldevelopment.org.au/#sthash.qEZuQYbd.dpuf

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Over 60 speakers will discuss the broad issues of economic, planning, environment and community development in regional Australia. The aim of the conference is to advance economic and social outcomes for regional Australia. The conference provides the opportunity to discuss the challenges, opportunities and future of regional Australia. The Australian Regional Development Conference will be held in Albury NSW on the 15 – 16 October 2014 with 6 optional workshops being held on Friday 17th October 2014 – view the program here

The conference will address

  • Economic development opportunities for business and job creation
  • Social inclusion issues of unemployment; education completion rates, health delivery and community development
  • Planning and building challenges of land use application, refurbishment and renewal in a regional setting
  • Sustainability and liveable communities principles
  • How to meet the challenging in uncertain times; climate change, population shifts, natural disasters, droughts, mining boom and agriculture adjustments
  • Infrastructure challenges for freight to distribute products from regional Australia to urban and overseas export markets

Topics

  • Renewable energy and energy supply
  • Natural resource management including water management
  • Planning and Building with focus on small inland town, regional cities and coastal developments
  • Social and recreation developments – cultural, sporting, historic precincts and services
  • Economic development of major regional industries including agriculture, mining and tourism
  • Community Service Delivery with a focus on health, housing affordability/access and special attention to aged care services
  • Employment –  job creation, skilled migration and unemployment
  • Education and Training – regional universities and vocational training
  • Government – policy, funding and evaluation
  • Infrastructure and Transport stream – Road Freight, Rail, shipping and ports, regional airports/airlines, passengers services,
  • Digital – broadband technology, colocation of services

Confirmed Keynotes include:

  • Associate Professor Trevor Budge AM, Manager, Strategy City of Greater Bendigo and La Trobe University, Bendigo Campus
  • Adjunct Professor Tony Sorensen, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England
  • Professor John Cole, Executive Director, Institute for Resilient Regions, University of Southern Queensland
  • Professor Y. Jay Guo, Research Director, Smart and Secure Infrastructure, Digital Productivity and Services National Flagship, CSIRO
  • Mr Mark Glover, Principal, Renewed Carbon
  • Professor Kate Auty, The Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Victoria and Chair, National Rural Law and Justice Alliance
  • Ms Sylvia Burbery, General Manager, MARS Petcare Australia
  • Mr Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Ai Group
  • Ms Alexandra Gartman, CEO, Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal
  • Professor Max Finlayson, Professor for Ecology & Biodiversity, Director, Institute for Land, Water & Society, Charles Sturt University

To register for this Conference please visit the Conference Website