Council staff leading the way to Gigatown
Council staff leading the way to Gigatown
The chance to surge into third place in the nationwide Gigatown competition has seen Gisborne District Council staff signing up to support Gisborne on mass. They are not the only ones. Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti, Te Runanga-o-Turanganui-a-kiwa, and Tourism Eastland are all working with staff to ensure large numbers of sign ups in the next few days.
The Gigatown competition will see one town win the fastest internet speeds in the southern hemisphere. Over the next couple of days a mini competition is being run. The town with the most new supporters before midnight Tuesday 28 January will be awarded 75,000 gigapoints.
This would put
us in third place, says Mayor Meng Foon. “We need everyone
to get their friends, family, friends of friends, cousins of
cousins and your great auntie’s next door neighbour to
sign up to support Gisborne for us to win.”
“The aim
is to get 95% of Council staff signed up to support Gisborne
by Tuesday evening. It’s really easy and only takes a
couple of minutes.”
“The benefits of having super fast broadband before everyone else could be huge. Imagine the opportunities for Gisborne businesses if the best and brightest technology minds came to Gisborne. This would create an economic development boom and bring leading-edge, well paid jobs into the region.”
That was certainly been
the case in Chattanooga in the United States. It is the the
poster child for what fast broadband can do to regenerate a
community. A group of developers and designers realised they
could contribute to the global economy from any place that
had the right communications networks. Gigabit fibre was
installed three years ago and since then the population has
increased, start-incubators have launched and one of
America’s largest web design schools has set up
shop.
“That’s why Council and ECT have put money
towards supporting Gisborne’s bid. The only way we will
get there is by bringing our whole community along with us.
This is not a Council project or even a Chorus project, it
is a community project.”
There are other benefits even if Gisborne doesn’t win says planning and performance manager Harley Dibble. “Social media is now a part of many people’s lives. We are taking the Gigatown opportunity to understand how Council staff are using social media and offer training sessions for those who want to get social but are not quite here yet. We have recently boosted Council’s social media presence with twitter and instagram. Social media is an increasingly important tool to engage with our community. We don’t want staff to get left behind.”
“Council employs a number of Gisborne
university students as interns over the summer. We have
asked some of them to help us sign up staff as supporters
and get staff familiar with the social media platforms they
are most interested in.”
Gisborne is currently sitting
6th out of 50 towns and cities. Gisborne needs to be in the
top five towns by September to progress to the final stage.
ENDS