A report on Stockwell Bretton’s trip to the Brisbane Global Café.

It’s hard to look past the fact that Brisbane is a city on the way up.

From the moment you step off the plane and walk through the ever-growing and improving airport, to the train ride or drive into town, the city is transforming right in front of your eyes

Life is filling every nook and cranny of Brisbane with new bars, cafes, shared working spaces, and numerous ultra-creative upgrades to what would have, only five years ago been considered as an ageing and unattractive building. Of course there are plenty of bigger developments supporting this grass roots growth as the numerous cranes on the skyline of the river city are delivering towers, tunnels, road upgrades, new runways and whole new precincts.

Premier Campbell Newman today, and previously as Brisbane’s Lord Mayor has been known to comment that the strength of the local economy can be gauged through the number of cranes on the horizon and by this measure, things are going well.

Hot on the heels of all this positive change is a growing sense of confidence. Queensland has always been a proud state and Brisbane a microcosm of this, but it’s clear to anyone willing to stop and observe it, that Brisbane is a global player, with smart ideas, ample opportunities and a momentum that is sweeping everything along with it.

Let’s face it; hosting anything to the scale of the G20 is not an easy task. The planning, collaboration and focus required to showcase the city while making everything run smoothly and safely is incredibly challenging.

But – it’s important to leverage the event, because otherwise it will just be about leaders and their motorcades briefly meeting while roads, stations and some streets are locked down. To see the G20 with this narrow lense would be a tragedy.

There was always going to be an opportunity to stretch the G20 discussion further than the walls of the Convention Centre. Equally, the narrative needed to be much wider reaching and more accessible than a politically aligned debate.
Enter the Brisbane Global Café.

Conceived and driven by the Brisbane City Council, the Queensland Government and many corporate partners, this gathering was held in the one place that truly encapsulates the spirit of Brisbane – the freshly upgraded City hall.

With key themes linked to energy, quality of life, tourism, digital advancement, entrepreneurism, innovation and cities of the future, the agenda attracted more than 75 high quality speakers, strong attendance and most importantly – a connection with Brisbane as the place that made it happen.

The whole event was recorded, streamed live and through its social media promotion, it achieved trending status on Twitter.

The café served as a chance to accelerate so many discussions that are pivotal to Brisbane’s future and equally, to the future of any City or Country that wants to think seriously about how they can adapt, acclimatise and accelerate amongst some serious challenges.

Some of our favourite quotes from the Café speakers include:

“Transformation is about creating something new, not something different”.
“Don’t look at what everyone else is doing and improve on it. Instead, pick a problem and try to solve it”.
“Good planets are hard to find”.
“We currently have four of the world’s most liveable cities in Australia, but if we don’t make real changes today, we will lose our advantage”.

It is certainly worth reviewing the footage and commentary from the event, which can all be found here:
http://www.choosebrisbane.com.au/G20-Brisbane/Global-Cafe

For Stockwell Bretton, the discussion, the energy on display and the appetite to secure a prosperous future, all support our long-held interest in building a larger presence in Brisbane. While the company began its life in Brisbane, in recent times we have spent more time in Canberra and now through some timely expansion, that is about to change.

Our core business is to create enduring benefits through well planned big improvements for the organisations, industries and communities in which we operate.

Given Brisbane is abounding with big audacious plans that we can support, we can’t think of a better place to be.