In a major coup for Tallaganda Shire, Council’s General Manager, Alan Stewart, and Administration Supervisor, Debby Ferguson, have just returned from making a presentation to the National Local Government Online Demonstration Conference in Melbourne, as guests of the Municipal Association of Victoria.
The conference was a key part of Interact 2001, described as “the Asia Pacific’s largest multimedia festival, incorporating the Global Cities Dialogue, with mayors and representatives from 70 cities, and IT Expo, with 300 exhibitors”. The conference was promoted as providing “case studies and demonstrations from Australia’s leading Councils, featuring the best in: Online service delivery; Telecommunications initiatives for rural communities; Strategic advice for Councillors, CEO’s and Managers re the E-journey every Council has to make”.
The keynote address was given on trends in the global IT industry and identification of key directions in online service delivery.
Over the two days of the conference, a total of 15 presentations were made by representatives from all states of Australia, and from overseas.
Amongst these were: IT projects in the City of Mandurah (WA); Brisbane City’s “ourbrisbane.com”; Community Internet and GIS at Darebin City Council (Vic); ‘Bizgate’ - the South Australian online transaction platform; Online Service Delivery at the City of Melbourne; The Whyalla e-procurement experience; South Burnett (Qld) Online; City of Seattle online (the winner of an award for the best local government website in the USA).
General Manager of Tallaganda Shire Council, Alan Stewart said the conference was a great opportunity to showcase initiatives currently being developed by Tallaganda Shire. The feedback obtained from Council’s presentation was quite amazing, with a number of comments like ‘you put the big guys to shame’.
“The conference served to indicate Council is on the right track in terms of online service delivery and to reinforce the fact that the use of the Internet as a further communication channel, alongside face-to-face communications, the phone and mail, will continue to grow,” Mr Stewart said.
Another significant point from the conference was that technology is going to impact even more heavily in the future on how Councils are structured, and involve extensive redesign of jobs as work flow methods change.
Mr Stewart said great emphasis was also placed on seamless delivery of online services to the community. The conflict between making information widely available on the Internet and restrictions arising from privacy legislation was also a common thread throughout the presentations.
In a further coup since the conference, Council’s Manager of Finance, Bill Pasfield, has been extensively involved in assisting a local government software supplier visiting Tallaganda Shire from New Zealand to understand the intricacies of local government in NSW. The firm, which currently has 14 local government sites in New Zealand and was recently acquired by an American firm, is interested in developing a presence in Australia.
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