Ready, set, suggest it

THE 2022 Ballarat’s Best Ideas competition has taken off, after its official launch on the roof of Camp Street’s old law courts on Tuesday.

An initiative of Ballarat-made and run online suggestion box platform Suggest it, co-founder Nick Clare said the six-week “crowd-sourcing festival” invites community members and visitors to share their best ideas for local businesses, organisations, and events.

“This year we’ve got two real keen focuses. We want to hear ideas from our young people in the community because we know they’ve got great ideas for businesses, organisations, and the city,” he said.

“The other is visitors. We know people are coming back to Ballarat for the Begonia Festival, and to see friends and relatives, so we want to hear their ideas for the city, and what experiences they want to see for businesses, organisations, and events throughout our visitor economy.

“The best ideas will be put together to an esteemed judging panel, there’s three big prizes for our idea gurus, and each of the businesses or groups set to action the winning ideas will win prizes to help make them happen.”

Although not a winning suggestion, a particularly memorable idea example received during the 2021 campaign came from a young community member who envisioned a wave pool for surfing at the Ballarat Wildlife Park lagoon.

City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said creative thinking for Ballarat is key as the region continues to recover from the pandemic.

“We’ve got this opportunity to reshape the city in a way that serves our next generation of up-and-coming leaders in unique ways,” he said.

“Looking back to 2019, many of these ideas would have been crazy, impractical, totally impossible, but fast forward to 2022 and these ideas are quite possible, and things we could use to shape the way be do business and events.”

Scan the big QR codes across the city, or visit suggestit.com.au, to enter the competition.