Find out the latest news from Advance Cairns in the most recent monthly instalment in The Cairns Post:

Advance Cairns March 2010 Cairns Post advertorial

Famed Executive Chef Jimmy Shu of Hanumans will be one of 18 chefs from some of the best restaurants in Tropical North Queensland to venture out in search of local food products when they join the Chef’s Tour of the Cassowary Coast tomorrow (Tuesday, February 2).

The chef’s tour is part of a project initiated by Advance Cairns, and funded by the Queensland Government Department of Education Economic Development & Innovation, to raise awareness of the diversity of the TNQ region’s food in an effort to get more local produce onto the menus in restaurants in Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas.

During the full-day tour of the Cassowary Coast, the group will travel from Cairns to Silkwood visiting an organic vanilla plantation, bio-dynamic poultry farm, exotic fruit orchard, tea plantation, winery and pepper and spice farm, and various other properties.

Tour guide and Advance Cairns Food Project Officer Nola Craig, said tomorrow’s tour is the second of its kind, with a Chefs Tour of the Tablelands last December proving highly successful. “The response from both the chefs and the producers were very positive, with the first tour being the catalyst for two additional tours,” Ms Craig said.

Find out the latest news from Advance Cairns in the most recent monthly instalment in The Cairns Post:

Advance Cairns February 2010 Cairns Post advertorial

Find out the latest news from Advance Cairns in the most recent monthly instalment in The Cairns Post:

Advance Cairns January 2010 Cairns Post advertorial

Find out the latest news from Advance Cairns in the most recent monthly instalment in The Cairns Post:

Advance Cairns December 09 Cairns Post advertorial

The Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium Roadshow attracted some great media coverage when it hit the road in Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton earlier this month.

Roadshow Facilitator Janette Clonan, and one of the six presenters, Harleigh Luscombe from Uniquest provided some great insights into the purpose and outcomes of the Roadshow.

Check out the Channel Seven Local News coverage in Townsville: ATEC Roadshow – Channel 7 Local News Townsville

Last week’s Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium Business Matching Roadshow rolled through Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton with great success, attracting up to 60 participants from the host regions and beyond.

The Roadshow, delivered by Advance Cairns and with the support of the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Industry (DEEDI), was designed to facilitate relationship building between Australian Managing Contractors  and Tropical Experts from across North and Central Queensland, by bringing capital city-based AMCs and project co-ordinating firms to the regions.

Six presenters shared their insights into the many intricacies of international development business, including how to tender for such work, how to establish in-country relationships, and what AMCs and project co-ordinating firms are looking for when engaging with subcontractors for major projects. 

The four main business capability areas of Tropical Expertise (Tropical Living, Tropical Environmental Management, Tropical Health and Tropical Agribusiness) were well represented by the attendees in all three locations with a mix of skills and knowledge in areas such as animal reproduction, climate change, renewable energy, tropical architecture, sustainable architectural design, tropical disease management, training and OH&S, coastal land management, education, construction, and mapping.

Structured networking and informal networking opportunities during each leg of the Roadshow identified dozens of synergies between attendees and the presenters, with at least three connections now being formalised into joint project work.

If you missed the Roadshow then all of the presenter’s Powerpoint presentations are now available for viewing, via the links below: 

Peter Goldsworthy, Trade Queensland – Presentation

Vincent Sacriz, QUT- Presentation

Janette Clonan, ATEC Business Matching Contractor – Presentation

Ian McLeod, McLeod Training – Presentation

Harleigh Luscombe, Uniquest – Presentation

Clare Woolsey, JTA International – Presentation

Eric Kalmbach, Cardno PNG – Presentation

Due to the success of the Roadshow, plans are already underway to hold the event again in 2010. So if you missed it this year then there will be another opportunity to meet with various AMCs and project co-ordinating firms at a region near you next year.

Marketing the unique tropical knowledge and services in northern and central Queensland to international aid project co-ordinators will be the focus of the Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium Business Matching Roadshow, which will kick off in Cairns next week.

The Roadshow will roll through Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton on three consecutive days starting from Tuesday, December 8 in Cairns. It will bring an array of Australian Managing Contractors (AMCs) and project co-ordinating firms to the regions to meet with Tropical Expertise service providers and share with them the intricacies of engaging with such firms, how to procure international aid work, and the ins and outs of working in-country.

Companies presenting on the Roadshow, which is being co-ordinated by Advance Cairns in partnership with the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, include Uniquest, Queensland University of Technology, JTA International, Cardno (PNG division), Trade Queensland and McLeod Training Organisation.

International aid projects in the developing world are administered by firms, such as the ones represented on the Roadshow, who subcontract organisations to complete assignments of varying budgets and timeframes. Northern and central Queensland professionals have been recognised by leading Australian Managing Contractor firms as among the best experts for international development projects in tropical countries.

This event was first held in Cairns in November 2008 and attracted more than 70 participants. Several Queensland companies, with unique Tropical Expertise, who attended have since been invited on international tenders by AMCs they met on the day.

CAIRNS – Tuesday, December 8 @ the Shangri-La Hotel from 8:15am – 1:30pm. Cost $44. Click here to register.

TOWNSVILLE – Wednesday, December 9 @ Rydges Southbank from 8:15am – 1:30pm. Cost $44. Click here to register.

ROCKHAMPTON – Thursday, December 10 @ Rockhampton Leagues Club from 8:45am – 2pm. Cost $44. Click here to register.

Advance Cairns’ renewed regional focus has been solidified with the launch of a new corporate image for the organisation.

The economic development agency has adopted a fresh corporate image anchored with the tagline, “Our Region One Voice”, which reinforces its commitment to operating in a truly regional manner. 

Earlier this year Advance Cairns signed an agreement with the Far North Queensland Region of Councils (FNQROC) to work in partnership to facilitate sustainable economic development growth for the region, which encompasses the local government areas of Cassowary Coast, Yarrabah, Cairns, Tablelands, Wujal Wujal and Cook. The agreement included the appointment of a Regional Development Officer to support and facilitate robust economic linkages between Cairns and the surrounding council areas.

The impetus for the new logo, which was designed by local graphic design and branding company Smart Artz, effectively re-brands the organisation in this time of growth.

Advance Cairns Communication Committee Chairman Jeremy Blockey said, “The process of reviewing our brand and what we do has been extremely valuable for the organisation. The new logo is just one manifestation of that, and I trust that as Advance Cairns gets involved in new regional initiatives, the people of Tropical North Queensland will come to increasingly recognise the organisation and see the benefits arising from our activities.”

The current Advance Cairns logo has been in existence for quite a few years and is no longer indicative of the new purpose and geographical reach of the organisation. This re-branding exercise carries with it the following objectives:

• To communicate to Advance Cairns’ target audiences that it is an organisation with a wider-reaching geographical demographic than the company name suggests;
• To deliver a strong corporate identity for an organisation that is progressive, proactive and successful;
• To revitalise the company’s logo in order to demonstrate Advance Cairns’ new-found regionality; and
• To convey to the general public, the Tropical North Queensland business community, and all levels of government that

Advance Cairns is the over-arching organisation charged with the task of advocating for TNQ, co-ordinating regional efforts to bolster the region’s economy, and facilitating and fostering the development of new and existing business opportunities.

A New Deal for Cairns – The PlanThe Cairns region’s peak business and industry leaders today formed a united front to demand a new deal from the State and Federal Governments in the face of the region’s unacceptably high unemployment figures, and the crippling effects of the Global Financial Crisis.

Advance Cairns Chairman Russell Beer said the difficulties that the region is facing, which are highlighted by record unemployment rates, have forced the call for urgent and real assistance from Canberra and Brisbane. “We have always been proud to be a small business economy and a region which drives our own destiny” Mr Beer said, “but the perfect storm whipped up by the Global Financial Crisis and the resultant credit crunch, the collapse in the construction and mining industries, a high Australian dollar, a drop in international tourist numbers and our reliance on a narrow industry base has meant that we need help, and fast.”

The Cairns Chamber of Commerce have joined the call, with President Jeremy Blockey calling on all levels of Government to “listen and act. We specifically need the Federal and State governments to open their chequebooks and avert what is quickly becoming a crisis,” Mr Blockey said. “I shuddered when I heard that our unemployment rate has exceeded 13%, but what really scares me is that I am sure that unless we get some swift and decisive action from our elected leaders it will get much worse.”

Newly elected Chair of Tourism Tropical North Queensland Bill Calderwood joined in the chorus. “We are bleeding, and many tourist operators are already on their knees, and there is no way that some of them will survive until the next tourist season without help. If we let key players in our major industry fail, it is hard to see how we could ever replace the industry expertise and know how that would be lost to the region as a consequence.” 

Mr Beer said that the three organisations had worked together to develop a three-part crisis plan to put to the State and Federal governments. “We don’t just want to whinge” he said. “We recognise that we have to be part of developing the solution.”

The plan’s three main components – Relief, Recovery and Reform – are borrowed from former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s original “New Deal”, which led the US out of the Great Depression. “The first are some immediate and perhaps novel actions designed to pump prime the region’s economy and get out-of-work people from tourism and construction back to work and hopefully to stay in the region until the next upturn,” Mr Beer explained.

The recovery components involve some help from government in planning and delivering initiatives in key areas where the leaders think there are some major opportunities and upsides for the economy in the medium term, and the reform component comprises long sought after policy changes designed to remove impediments to our regional competitiveness and to allow us to drive and take advantage of some of our competitive advantages.

The plan also involves a demand for a commitment to the one key project that the region’s major stakeholders have all agreed is the iconic signature project which ticks all of the boxes – the development of the Cairns Cultural Precinct on the waterfront opposite the Convention Centre. The project will include a world-class performing arts centre, state-of-the-art regional and Indigenous museum, and associated display and meeting facilities needed as an adjunct to our current convention facilities.

Details of the plan include specific relief by way of tax deferrals, assistance with some key projects including better engagement with our closest capital city Port Moresby and neighbour country PNG to allow our businesses to take advantage of the major projects about to take off there, and delivery of aviation policies that better serve a regional economy, and that are not based on capital city centric principles.

Mr Blockey added, “The region needs strong leadership on this issue, and the business community are trying to show that and we have seen some good support from our elected representatives today. We need to unite in a plan to attack the unemployment crisis and take a regional approach to a region in great need. The local members say they share our frustrations and have made a commitment to join our call for action. They too recognise our special circumstances, and are prepared to give us real help for our industries to allow us to make a real difference.”

Russell Beer called for the region and Government to unite to face and deal with the crisis we are facing. “Don’t waste my time telling me how united the Townsville region is if you are not prepared to be part of a united team effort in Cairns to drag us back to where we want to be. I agree that ‘someone should do something about it’, and we are, so get on board and work with us” he challenged.

Mr Calderwood said “Kevin Rudd raised Cairns’ unemployment problem at the UN, so while the problem has been recognised we now need tangible support. The new deal proposals we are putting forward can help us to address the short and medium term issues for the region. We are now calling for the State and Federal governments to urgently work in a coordinated fashion with the region in response to this critical issue. These are extraordinary circumstances, and they need extraordinary solutions.”