Facilitating Accelerated Innovation with ZING Groupware,
Hume City Council, VIC (AUS)
Client Issue: Hume City Council is a diverse organisation which represents the citizens of Hume City. The City has nine Councillors at the Local Government level as well as representatives at both State & Federal levels of government. The council passionately believe that learning is the key to personal, economic & community growth &
in 2003, they began to create the Hume Global Learning Village. This innovative new partnership links learning providers from across Hume City including five libraries & the mobile library, local schools, neighbourhood houses & learning centres, the Hume Global Learning Centre, Visy Cares Learning Centre, Kangan Batman TAFE, local businesses & Victoria University. All these providers are part of the Village, bringing learning to the entire community. The council assembled 72 councillors, staff, information & construction experts, along with local residents, to determine the functional specifications that needed to be reflected in the physical design for a ‘village’, which was to be constructed at a cost of $12m. They asked for Synergy’s help with electronic facilitation of this large scale meeting.
Solution: In 2.5 hours, 1500 suggestions were captured & screened down to 12 specific strategies which were identified & evaluated using only one Synergy Facilitator & our ZING electronic meeting system.
Outcomes: An innovative & engaging exercise that provided the architects & designers behind the project with a set of functional specifications to incorporate into the final design.
For example, issues related to personal safety after dark; a more welcoming design; & a range of ways in which the facilities could become a key community resource & have most impact.
The effective solution (the client report), has also helped the council to combine collective resources & provide a diverse range of formal & informal learning opportunities for residents within the final design.
