Directions of Change

“Are there breakthrough potentials?” asks Boston?....”Yes, if some old assumptions can be broken, some radically new ideas can be embraced.”[1]

The Future Melbourne planning process provides an outstanding opportunity to revitalise, refocus and expand Melbourne’s efforts at positioning itself as a leading global Knowledge City.

Whereas the first decade of Melbourne’s Knowledge City journey has largely focused on the economy, a new decade will see an expanded vision of Knowledge Melbourne that encompasses new learning and creative city-community dimensions.

As a key theme and organising principle in the city’s evolution, Knowledge Melbourne will become “shorthand” for a city that embraces a new era of creative and collaborative development as a knowledge economy and society.

Deep and shared understanding of Melbourne’s current status as a knowledge economy, a clear, energising vision of the city’s future and robust planning that ensures resources and energy are carefully targeted to maximise Melbourne’s global competitiveness, are critical. For a “super smart city”, in a context in which “the race is on”, anything less would be failure. Without a coherent and focused effort, Melbourne may continue be a city in which an enormous number of actors direct resources toward bolstering its knowledge and learning future, but the opportunity to create the energetic performance levels and derive the kind of value that can emerge from dynamic collaboration would not be fully realised.

These things, however, have been said before. The challenge of Future Melbourne is to find new ways forward. A unique recipe for development that capitalises on the city’s distinctive strengths is clearly in order.