Decoding Tomorrow:
Futurism and Foresights Today

G'day, Anders Sorman-Nilsson here from the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. 

I've just been hanging out as the futurist in residence, working with the Gold Coast City Council as well as their affiliated business members, and really helping them think about the future and the repositioning of the Gold Coast.

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This place really inspires me right now because the Gold Coast traditionally has been known for their meter maids, the name of Surfers Paradise, one of the villages around the Gold Coast, and of course also schoolies and all of the fun and night life that goes with the traditional ideas of fun and coming of age. But really, what we discussed here at the Gold Coast was the importance of really owning your brand heritage.

Now you may not think for a city that really wants to be known and to be taken seriously in a business context and for the start-up and tech community that having the idea of meter maids, schoolies and Surfers Paradise is really kind of conducive to creating a great global city of innovation, for tech start-ups and co-working. But I'm sitting here at the QT Hotel, a great boutique hotel here in the Gold Coast and I cannot help but being mesmerized by the energy of the local businessmen and women, the Council and the urban redevelopment that's going on, and the fact that people are taking ownership of things like the meter maids. Some people shy away from this sort of brand heritage or the equity of the meter maids.

The history behind this is that the Gold Coast City Council at one point in time instituted parking meters, but in order to counter this and ensure that business would go on as normal and people wouldn't get fines, a smart businessman back in the day on the Gold Coast made sure that meter maids would be filling up the parking meters for the people that were shopping in that particular district in the Gold Coast. Beyond the skimpily clad meter maid, I think that biggest sort of lesson here for Gold Coast is the fact that they've always been customer-centric, they've always been a bit cheeky and even back then the Gold Coast City Council sort of saw between the fingers a little bit when it came to this slightly outside of the legal norm of having meter maids putting dollars and coins into your parking meter so that you could get on and do business, go and shop with the local shopkeepers or go to the local restaurants.

So this was the idea and I think that kind of sense of cheekiness, that creativity, that innovation is something that people should really adapt and really own. So own your brand heritage, whether that be the Gold Coast, your city or your business, make sure that you're not embarrassed about the past but rather that you really own it. And you kind of see what the meta level implications of those old brand associations that we have seen for the Gold Coast.

It wasn't about skimpily clad meter maids but rather about customer empathy, being cheeky, fun, creative, innovative, these are the kind of brand connotations that I would like to see the Gold Coast really pushing into the future. Having been here and being the futurist in residence, we've thought about aspects like this, aspects that have really taken businesses from around Australia and internationally as well to the Gold Coast. This is always being a great place to go for a conference or convention, a place to have a strategic retreat.

Often at some time Australians, some of the world's largest businesses have come here and have conferences to get away and have thinking time, strategic time. So why couldn't you have that all of the time? Why couldn't you mix a great surf and some of the best beaches in the world and some of the best surf breaks in the world? Have that in the morning, then lunch with an adventure capitalist, and then great thinking time with your team on the beach or in one of the fantastic co-working spaces that are in the CBD in Southport. These are just some of my reflections here as I've been hanging out with the Gold Coast City Council and their members looking at the future vision, the 2023 vision and the strategy paper that is in place right now, to really drive that sort of nine and ten year horizon for the Gold Coast and it's repositioning.

The lesson for you today, so think about what are the historical brand associations that you have around your business or your city? And think about how can you really own them but at the same time invest in your future? What are the bigger lessons around your brand associations that you can take with you to ensure that your future positioning is really supported by your history as well? That's today's lesson and that's the way to think about your positioning.