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Geelong’s manufacturing industry has been in decline for many years, but over the past decade this has accelerated as numerous manufacturers once central to the city’s economy have moved their operations offshore. The impending closure of Ford – one of Australia’s largest automotive manufacturers – has had the most substantial impact, along with factory closures and downsizing and associated job losses in steel, aluminium and engineering maintenance plants.3 _{As Keneley et al note,}

these closures have a significant domino effect on businesses in the region: the city is built around a “small number of relatively large manufacturing concerns that in turn support a large number of much smaller businesses.”4 _{Geelong is also home to the headquarters of several major Australian retail}

companies, primarily specialising in clothing. Retailing, Keneley et al note, represents a “variable case” in the city’s economy.5 _{While the city has had two new retailers open up head offices in recent}

years, during the same period retail giant Target Australia announced massive cutbacks and job losses. The overall economic picture for Geelong, then, is quite mixed: characterised by a steady decline in the manufacturing sector, albeit not as drastic as that experienced in cities internationally (Detroit, for

CONFERENCE: Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City

AMPS; Architecture_MPS journal; UWE: CMIR. 01-03 April, 2016

instance) and partially offset by gains in other sectors. As Keneley et al state, while not everyone to lose their jobs in manufacturing is guaranteed to be re-employed elsewhere, “the regional economy is capable of restructuring and continuing to grow into the future.”6

Against this troubled economic backdrop, the local government, City of Greater Geelong (CoGG), embarked on an ambitious plan to restructure the city’s economy, led by charismatic self-made multi- millionaire Darryn Lyons. Lyons’ election in November 2013, as journalist Ben Potter notes, occurred against all odds. Lyons, an entrepreneur, was a political outsider until he overthrew his more established challenger (who had the backing of the business community), largely due to a successful social media campaign. “Lyons…changed the tone in City Hall”, Potter writes, “Now he’s on a crusade to change the city.”7 _{This involved transforming Geelong from a stagnant, industrial “sleepy}

hollow” into a sleek, high-tech “21st century smart city”. Lyons’ flamboyant style is evidenced in the cinematic, 2-minute tourism commercial produced by the council and posted on YouTube in 2014, titled “Geelong Reinvented”. The advertisement opens with actors in period costume working on farms and in sheering sheds, accompanied by a dramatic voice-over describing the city as “a town with a proud history, forged on…the blood, sweat and tears of those in the thriving wool and manufacturing industries.” The advertisement then depicts Geelong in the present, populated by zombie-like figures roaming empty, abandoned streets. The narrator continues, “but something changed…the city became tired, and it fell on dark times.” Lyons then appears on a horse, garbed in traditional mayoral attire and carrying a staff which he uses to strike the ground, releasing a shockwave that blankets the city as the narrator declares “just as all hope seemed to be lost, a new day approaches. The people of this once great city are arising and saying ‘no more!’”8

Figure 1: A still from the ‘Geelong Reinvented’ advertisement depicting the city’s residents as zombies (Copyright City of

CONFERENCE: Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City

AMPS; Architecture_MPS journal; UWE: CMIR. 01-03 April, 2016

The advertisement goes on to showcase the city’s cultural and environmental attractions rather than promoting its future as a smart city per se. But it highlights the narrative behind the city’s vision, in which one larger-than-life figure (Lyons) is depicted as waking the city up from its economic decline and stupor. This rather entrepreneurial approach is echoed in comments by Lyons himself: “you’ve got to get off your bloody arse, and you’ve got to go out, and…do it yourself. Stop the dependence on society, stop blaming governments and officials.”9 _{The framework put forward to encourage this is}

outlined in the Digital Geelong report (published mid-2015). It contends that, to thrive economically, Geelong must “transition to a nationally recognised digital economy” and become a “smart 21st century city”.10 _{The report recognises this will not be an instantaneous transition – it is framed as a}

“reference for Geelong’s digital direction over the coming decade”11 _{– but it does lay out an extensive}

list of initiatives to help residents, businesses and the council itself to realise this quite radical transformation. The report is structured around 30 recommendations, which each correspond to one or more of three “focuses” of the report: internal (within the City of Greater Geelong itself); the wider community; and local businesses. The first focus primarily centres on reforming the council by shifting to digital-by-default for its services: “maximis[ing] the efficiencies and benefits available from digital technologies – at a time of pressure on public finances – to deliver even more value for money and impact to Geelong.”12 _{In addition, the report also recommends a “bring your own device}

scheme” for staff, “saving the Council having to refresh equipment – potentially very cost effective.”13

Alongside these cost-cutting measures, the report also recommends opening up its archives, data and decision-making process to public participation and engagement. The report ambitiously states the council’s “aspiration…to be the first platform-based, digital and genuinely data-driven council in [the state]” and desire to establish a “new frontier in Australian democracy” by crowd-sourcing ideas from citizens through e-government initiatives.14

At the community level, perhaps the most prominent theme of the report – echoing the rhetoric espoused by Mayor Lyons – is lifting citizens up out of their state of disillusionment and equipping them with the skills to compete and succeed in the digital economy. The digital strategy aims to “make all communities in Geelong digital savvy”; ensure the city has “a deep pool of digital talent”, “fewer ‘digitally excluded’” and “a smart council determined to maximise the digital opportunity”. The report supports this push by citing a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study that shows “where the proportion of the ‘digitally included’ rises in a society by 10% GDP rises by 1%” in turn.15 _{It outlines a number of}

practical strategies, such as library workshops and a “digitalskillsgeelong” website, aimed at upskilling residents and workers. It even proposes a “Digital Geelong mates scheme” where volunteers from the community “give their time to help people learn basic online skills as well as using online government services”. This is in addition to a “Geelong Digital Festival or Geelong Digital Day” to “celebrate and promote all things digital”, offering awards to a “digital neighbour” or “digital learner” of the year.16

This enthusiasm for the transformative potential of digital technologies is echoed in the report’s local business focus, which identifies a number of strategies to attract new businesses and support existing ones transition to digital. These include upgrading and modernising the city’s networked infrastructure (namely WiFi, mobile and high-speed broadband); offering an attractive locale for businesses and start-ups wanting to set up in Geelong, thereby drawing in the coveted 24-35 year old “knowledge workers” demographic; and providing support to business who have so far been reluctant to embrace “digital disruption”. Lastly, it suggests placing Geelong on the map as a city invested in smart technologies and analytics, by aiding Deakin University to offer courses in “big data” analytics and establishing a “Data Research Centre for Smart Analytics.”17

CONFERENCE: Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City

AMPS; Architecture_MPS journal; UWE: CMIR. 01-03 April, 2016