17 September 2019

Waikato Regional Council’s digital team has taken a top honour at the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) awards ceremony in Christchurch overnight.

Comprising web, social media and graphic design specialists, they won the Web and Digital Best Team of the Year Award at ALGIM’s Spring Conference.

The judges said: “They are a team that always produces outstanding results, and have a great time doing it. Their close knit team allows them to work together, utilising everyone’s strengths to provide innovative solutions to the problems at hand. There was a lot of stiff competition, and this was a well-deserved win.”

The award recognises outstanding teams who provide high quality customer service through the delivery of the outcomes sought by their organisation. This award provides the opportunity for a team to demonstrate the difference it has made to the organisation, its customers and improved service delivery.

Council communications and engagement section manager Nicola Chrisp said, “We’re really lucky to be part of an organisation that enables us to find bold and creative ways to connect with our communities.”

For Fieldays, the council went with something fresh – an 8 metre interactive wall to show visitors how flood schemes work. The result was innovative and progressive for the organisation.

“While we continue to use other more traditional channels to connect with the people in our region, we’ve also been investing time in digital, using it to tell our own stories as well as to celebrate the awesome work our communities are doing.

“We’re enabling Waikato people to take part in making decisions on what’s important to them, to have ownership of the issues and opportunities they face and to work together for a better Waikato region.”

The team’s performance is measured by customer satisfaction, and targets being met, Ms Chrisp said. An online project management tool tracks progress against a job, and how the team has performed against the original deadline and criteria outlined.

Ms Chrisp said the council’s digital team provides in-kind services to numerous multi-agency partnerships. It is well supported by the rest of the section, in particular the communications team, pushing hard to deliver results with limited time and budget.

“Being the best team is about more than the output. It’s about the energy and creativity, the laughs and comradery, and it’s these things that enable us to be the best we can be,” Ms Chrisp said.

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