What does Sydney mean to you? Tell us in just six words.
Tweet your six words with the following hashtag: #sydneyin6words and they’ll be folded into a wider conversation about Sydney that will help brand the city on the global stage. All tweets will be displayed on the tweetfeed above and on the home page of the Greater Sydney Partnership (GSP) a not-for-profit organisation established to coordinate Sydney’s communications in the crowded world of global city brands.
Following our hugely successful #2009in6words twitter game over the New Year, Business21C has teamed up with GSP to invite Sydneysiders to get involved in a twitter conversation about their city.
GSP is a not-for-profit organisation recently launched to coordinate Sydney’s presentation of itself to the world. Chaired by serial entrepreneur Peter Holmes à Court, it is sparking a conversation across Sydney about Sydney. What makes this city unique in a world crowded with classy, dynamic, connected, creative cities? What is it that is dearest to the hearts of Sydneysiders? What do you love about this place and why? What do you hate about it? Why do you choose to live here?
‘That conversation will happen on beaches, in mosques, at parties, on the harbour and in the mountains, and in all sorts of formats,’ explain Holmes à Court. ‘But at this early stage we thought we’d launch a twitter conversation – #sydneyin6words – at TEDxSydney, because we’ll have a good chunk of the city’s top tweeters right there in the room.’
The GSP initiative was sparked in part by a report into the New South Wales tourism industry by former Events NSW boss John O’Neill, published in 2008. O’Neill raised a number of questions about Sydney’s ability to define itself with impact in a crowded global marketplace of global cities.
‘You can’t go through O’Neill’s report and not come to the conclusion that the world sees Sydney as a single entity, but that Sydney, itself, doesn’t exist,’ says Holmes à Court. ‘We have the City of Sydney, and we have 43 other councils that make up Sydney. The NSW Government that has a Minister for Western Sydney and a Minister for the Hunter, but no Minister for Sydney. We have a Federal member for the seat of Sydney, but she has to look after all the nation’s housing and the status of women – her hands are full. There is no one that represents the broader Sydney area. There are five million people in and around the catchment area, all of whom have an interest in seeing the interests of Sydney promoted.’
The Greater Sydney Partnership was established to help project a cohesive and coherent image of Sydney onto the world stage. It also aims to be a starting point and a facilitator for organisations looking to penetrate the Sydney, with new ideas, new business ventures, and creative and sporting initiatives, for example.
‘Sydney is a global city, and global cities need world-class communications and branding,’ says Holmes à Court. ‘But our branding initiative will not be guided by what I think, or by consultants, or by the GSP board, it will be guided by what Sydney tells us. Please, if you love Sydney, or you hate it, if you believe it is world class, or parochial, if you think it’s the best or the worst or somewhere mediocre in between, join the conversation and let us know.’
Use the tweet feeder above to join the conversation with your six words. Alternatively, twitter through your own account and add the hashtag #sydneyin6words. Or comment below on what Sydney means to you – using as many words as you like.