An interview with Fiona Wilson, Manager Economic Strategies and Innovations, Noosa Council in Queensland
As Manager of Noosa Council’s Economic Strategies and Innovations Unit, Fiona Wilson’s focus is heightening the profile of economic issues and supporting business growth and development opportunities in the Shire.
Fiona was appointed to the position with the Unit’s establishment in July 2003.
Her professional background combines regional planning, tourism development and economic development in Scotland and New Zealand. She has taken on a variety of roles within the public and private sectors – a valuable mix in a role charged to support economic growth within a highly sensitive environment.
In August this year, Fiona was named Sunshine Coast Professional Businesswoman of the Year 2005. The award is both nominated and judged by the business community.
Fiona said that a key factor for success in supporting local economic growth is following a clear series of steps, which are:
- to closely model the economy, including identifying the economic value of key sectors
- to measure and harness community values
- to gather available statistics on the local economy and then to supplement the gaps with a comprehensive local (three yearly) business survey (The Noosa Business Survey)
- to research key emerging growth sectors
- to continually engage and re-engage with the local business community in key sectors.
“Underlying this is a deliberately strongly evidence based approach,” she said. “We ask the local business community about their business profile, needs and issues; develop strategies at the local and regional levels to reflect these issues; and then act on these strategies.”
Noosa is a relatively small regional Council with a population of 48,000 people. With a small Economic Strategies and Innovations team, Fiona Wilson said that collaboration is the key to success.
“We have developed very strong working partnerships with a wide range of local and regional partners,” she said. “An example of an outcome from this partnership approach is ‘Business Noosa’, where a partnership with the Sunshine Coast Area Consultative Committee Small Business Answers Program has resulted in a business networking event hosted by Council. Held three times a year, the event attracts over 350 businesses each time.
Noosa faces a number of key challenges in its economic and tourism arenas. Like many of Australia’s lifestyle regions, the area’s prosperity is directly related to maintenance of the character, lifestyle and environment enjoyed by its residents and visitors.
“In the tourism arena, sustainability of the industry is a key issue – economically and environmentally – maintaining quality of the product is critical,” Fiona Wilson said. “The tourism industry has been a key driver for much of Noosa’s economic growth. Our new economic strategies now need to recognise the importance of tourism and also the need to diversify and strengthen the economy to offer employment and industry alternatives.”
Noosa’s strategies focus on key sectors, the established, core industries, and four emerging sectors: health and lifestyle, creative, knowledge, and rural sustainable industries.
“As a well known tourist and lifestyle destination we also face other challenges,” Fiona Wilson said. “Being taken seriously as a business and investment location for example.
“This is a problem for much of the Sunshine Coast and another example of an outcome of our regional level collaboration is the newly published, Surprisingly Smart book. This book presents profiles on over 100 top ‘knowledge’ based companies in the region. It is the first stage in a strategy to promote us as a key centre of knowledge based industries and a serious place to do business – with the added advantage of having a great lifestyle as well.”
