Friday, July 01, 2011

Smart City - Innovative Newcastle NSW


Smarter City - Innovative Newcastle was the theme for the latest Lunaticks Society event held at The Delaney in Darby Street Cooks Hill on Wednesday.

The event was billed to showcase Newcastle City Council's recently released strategic plan to become a Smart, Innovation City to help Newcastle develop a healthy, diverse, creative and resilient economy.

All things considered, sadly, there was little that we saw which addressed this.

It became clear that we need to focus on the city we want to be and face the new environment with hope and ideas, not be harking back to the past and what we've already tried.

Craig Wilson's (@MediaHunter) plan for creatng an innovative city 


And we need to do it without expectation of this being driven by council.

But, how do you create a culture of new ideas? How do you attract smart people? How do you turn an Old World City into one the World’s Smartest Cities?

Our Town - Then








Goodbye Steelworks


This old way of being is now gone with these steelworks that in previous years had described the narrative of Newcastle.

This way of life that has gone already.

One day perhaps the coal will go too and even without that happening new industries can blossom in our Town. Smart industries.

New technology.

Bright ideas.

A new economic driver that doesn't rely on digging up what's there and shipping it out without adding value. That idea was old and tired back when this 1979 advertisement first aired. In 2011 it is ridiculous as a proposition for future prosperity.

We need a new economic driver that will see new generations working in great jobs with a future, not crying for a past that is well past it's use-by date.

What would our movie of NEWcastle look like if we made it now?