Let’s hold an event and invite all of the Rockhampton region to it! But wait, this can’t happen in the present COVID-19 climate. Depends how it is conducted, it could be held online. Why would people of Rockhampton want to be involved in an online event, because it is about them, their post COVID-19 future. Rockhampton Re-imagined. The disruption COVID-19 is causing will have long lasting effects, some of the actions taken now will continue long after the pandemic is effectively gone. In February 2014 strikes by staff on London’s underground network forced commuters to find alternative routes to work. A study done after the strike ended found one in 20 stuck with their new route. The disruption arguably led to a better path being found. Will working from home prove a better path for some and they choose to continue it? What will be the long-term effects of that, for the individual, the business, the community?
Inside every problem lies an opportunity. Whilst this may be presently difficult to accept if you have lost your job, risk losing your business and/or have seen your superannuation funds plummet, there are already winners from the present problem. Netflix, toilet roll suppliers, cleaning supply companies, freezer retailers for example are enjoying record sales. This bubble will eventually burst for these, but other opportunities will present themselves. Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Local office supply companies may also become custom home office designers if people continue to work from home. Local gyms that now start to offer their members workouts on line may find new markets for their online classes and revenue stream for their business. Instead of just being reactive to COVID-19 we also need to be pro-active. Online selling/buying is going to increase, as will home delivery, more people will become savvy with social media tools, these are obvious outcomes of self-isolation, how can we take advantage of this? Get people to start thinking what will change because of the virus and how to make the most of the opportunities that may come from these changes. With a new Council to start next month what better time to start re-imagining Rockhampton. The discussion need only start with social media posts, then grow to videos of interviews with people expressing their ideas, which can lead to a live stream of a weekly panel discussion that allows for the online audience to ask their questions – an event. Our own online version of Q&A, with Rockhampton’s post COVID-19 future being the topic.
Rockpocalypse, a play performed at the Walter Reid Centre last November already provides a platform, having started an interactive discussion of Rockhampton’s possible future.
To see businesses closed, people out of work is depressing, and a rise in mental health issues is another obvious COVID-19 outcome, that’s another reason why we need as a community to start looking for the positives, as hard as that is going to be.
Some say, it takes a village to raise a child, well I think if we can get the village (Rockhampton Region and every other regional council) to pro-actively examine how we rise from this present virus freefall, we could in some ways, socially particularly, come out of this better than we went into it.
This means that when the dust settles, we need to stop tilting the playing field against local businesses, and start tearing down the barriers between them and success. We need to show them preference over the investor companies that will take their bailout money and, when their profits aren’t cutting it, leave our towns without a second thought.