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Innovation Festival success - region to keep innovatingThe inaugural Latrobe Innovation Festival concluded this week after three weeks of celebration of innovation across the region. By Latrobe City - 28th May 2003 - Back to News Latrobe City’s Chief Executive Officer, and chairperson of the Latrobe Valley Ministerial Taskforce Marketing Advisory Panel, Richard Hancock, said the festival had been an outstanding success, not simply because of the national exposure it gave Latrobe, but because it demonstrated that Latrobe really is an innovative region across the board.
"We have had thousands of people attend the Latrobe Innovation Festival events over the last three weeks and extremely positive feedback from guests within and beyond our own community," Mr Hancock said.
Latrobe’s festival showcased innovation in the arts, the community, business and tourism throughout Latrobe, including the Federation Health Gippsland Business Awards, the official launch at Gippsland Aeronautics, ‘There is Power in the Union’ at Monash University, Arts Innovation Week, and the Inspiring Innovation seminar at the Moe Town Hall. In all over twenty-five events were held during the festival.
The Latrobe Innovation Festival was a joint initiative between Events Latrobe and the Latrobe Valley Ministerial Taskforce Marketing Advisory Panel and played a significant role in the nation-wide Australian Innovation Festival.
Mr Hancock said the Latrobe Innovation Festival stood out for a number of reasons. "It made up a third of the total events in Victoria. Latrobe was the first Victorian Region to participate in the festival, and it offered the community a great diversity of events where they could participate," Mr Hancock said.
"Latrobe’s Innovation Festival took a holistic approach to innovation and gave a range of stakeholders the opportunity to promote their events locally and nationally. We understand that Innovation is not limited to business, or inventions in the conventional sense, it goes beyond that. Innovation is about making good ideas happen. We have a strong and robust community here in Latrobe that demonstrated its capacity within a three week snapshot of life in Latrobe. The fact is that Latrobe is an innovative region 365 days of the year, this festival is proof of that," Mr Hancock said.
Mr Hancock said the organisers of the Latrobe Innovation Festival expressed their gratitude to the various event organisers and supporters, and committed to running the festival again next year. "Planning for an even more extensive program that involves other areas of Gippsland is already underway," Mr Hancock said.
"The Latrobe Innovation Festival would not have happened without significant business and community support. We are grateful to all involved, and look forward to working with them again in May 2004 with an expanded format," Mr Hancock added.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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