Why Celebrating Best Practice Lifts The Whole Outdoor Industry

Ready to turn recognition into real growth? We unveil the first NSW & ACT Outdoor Industry Awards and show how a thoughtful submission can double as a strategy sprint for your team. From categories spanning education, adventure tourism, therapy, play, events, and supporting services to clear criteria on delivery, sustainability, inclusion, development, and client engagement, we break down exactly what judges look for and how to prove your impact with data, testimonials, and measured outcomes.

We also dig into Destination NSW insights from Dec 2024, on nature-based travel: spend was up even as nights softened, with the North Coast, South Coast, Sydney, Hunter, and Central Coast leading the way. Private stays and travel with friends or relatives dominate, and cycling was surging across sightseeing, road, and mountain biking. We translate the numbers into action: extend day trips into overnights with bundled itineraries, connect trail networks to local businesses, and design family-friendly experiences that compete with screens through short, social, and seamless formats.

On the operational front, we flag a harness D-ring safety alert with replacement kits, outline the Jindabyne Mountain Bike and Adventure Park EOI, and highlight new access to NSW Government sport and recreation centres. Pair those opportunities with traineeship subsidies for outdoor adventure guides and targeted professional development across first aid, canyoning, canoeing, leadership, and facilitation. We round out with regional park updates, Women’s Week activities, and an open door to shape the AAAS review and workforce data that keep our sector on the priority list.

Entries are open now, and members submit free. If you’ve never entered awards, this is the moment: state the claim, justify it with context, prove it with evidence, and use judge feedback as free consultancy to lift your delivery for the year ahead. Subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a review telling us which category you’ll enter and why it matters to your community.

Transcript

Welcome, Acknowledgment, Scene Setting

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Outdoors New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum, where ideas thrive, collaborations spark, and our industry comes together to grow. Let's connect, share, and make an impact. This episode is recorded live with our professional outdoor friends and provided post-event as a resource for the outdoor industry.

Upcoming Guests And Policy Updates

Week In Review: Training And Meetings

Tourism Data Deep Dive

Visitor Profiles And Behaviors

Cycling Trends And Day Trips

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining for another Connect and Share with Outdoors New South Wales and ACT. I'm Laurie Mode, and it is episode three of season four on the 27th of February. So welcome. And today I'm coming to you from Wong in the Aurora Nation, which is the um base of the Sydney Olympics back in 2000, where I am with the Sport New South Wales and all their colleagues for the Sport New South Wales Conference. So I've just ducked out for a little bit as Adam Berry got to stage. Hope he didn't notice that I ducked out. And he is addressing the audience as we speak. But yeah, lots of content today, which I'm no doubt we'll be able to share with you all probably next week. But before we get started into what everyone needs to know, may I please thank and honour and um uh welcome all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are with us today, but pay my respects to elders past, present, and those that are working with us in bringing the culture of country to our experiences. So on to the connect and share topics. Today we are all about awards. And now awards is a new platform brought to you by Outdoors New South Wales and ACT, which is celebrating good and best practice in the outdoor industry. That's volunteers, that's businesses, that's not-for-profits, that's everyone that's connected in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory when it comes to awards. So we'll do more on that very soon. But next week we have 6th of March, the Great Koala National Park joining us and talking about their consultation on uses in that new park. Now you might remember that the Great Koala National Park is a brand new gazetted national park on the north coast of New South Wales. It has consolidated quite a bit of different land management areas, including State Forest Council and National Park, into one gazetted park. So more on that next week. The week after, we're going to hear from the Office of Sport on their brand new EOI and tender process on utilising their sport and rec centers. So let's jump into today and talk about the week that was. So, first of all, we had a great day with the first systems leadership course with Western Sydney Moving last Friday. You can see on screen there many of from our network, including Nicole Ribera from Greater Sydney Parklands Trust, and of course our friends from PLA, many councils, Department of Health, a lot of different people there in that room learning about how to increase system engagement in getting people outdoors active and doing that for their health and well-being. So it's a privilege to be involved in that, and we look forward to that continuing. The second thing there I wanted to share with you was a new webinar that came out from Destination New South Wales on nature-based experiences and looking at a snapshot. We're going to go a little bit more in depth on that in just a minute. We also met with Melissa McIntosh this week and talking to her, she is the uh the member for Lindsay federally, which is Penrith area. And we were talking to her about proactive budgeting, uh, proactive health budgeting, I should say, in the federal government. And uh that is, of course, in support of our OCA budget submission, as well as trying to get more active lifestyles in the Penrith area, because that is one of the areas that has very high levels of inactivity, um, not to mention health issues in um diabetes and obesity as well. So uh looking forward to seeing what we can do with her in that space. And of course, happy Chinese New Year. So uh don't know if you know what Chinese zodiac you are, but we are now in the horse uh year and it's the fire horse. So um, if you're interested in what that means about your own personality, uh please uh look it up. It's quite interesting and um sometimes quite accurate. Okay, so on to the DNSW resources and back to that webinar that uh Serena, who's spoken with us before in previous Connect and Shares and her colleague Sandy, um, gave a little bit of insight into what to look to doing when you are looking at nature-based experiences and offering that to tourism people or tourists. So if you go to the New South Wales First Programme website, which is on the Destination New South Wales website, there is a whole heap of resources, and we're we're certainly quoted in there and supplying some of that must-need information on things like the AAAS. Um, but yes, it was a great discussion with some of our colleagues in the nature tourism space. Uh, you can look back on the webinar through via that site as well. Um, but I wanted to share with you, oh, I don't know what happened there. I clicked on something, let me go back. And uh I want to share with you the data. And the data certainly indicates um some significant numbers. Sorry. There we go. It had a link in there that it didn't like and it pumped me out. Let's go back. Sorry, everyone, technical dramas on a laptop. This is what happens when you're out of the office, right? Okay. Working on one screen instead of three. I like the three screens. Okay, there we go. So, what they did is they drilled into the data from the ABS and the National Visit Survey to look at visitation when it came to nature and outdoor activity. So this is a little bit dated, but it's a great source of understanding what's actually going on in this space. And you can see there in New South Wales only, we're talking about New South Wales only, there's about 35.3 million visitors doing nature or outdoor activities. Now, the thing we've got to take away from this is while the expenditure is up, visitor numbers and nights are actually on a decline. That also reflects in overnight visitors and more so. So even though we've got tourism Australia certainly promoting nature-based experiences, um, I think what we've seen is an uptick in this in 2025 because a lot of that activity that Tourism Australia have been doing and Destination New South Wales is actually mostly in last year. So I'm hoping that the next time this comes out, this figure will have an uptick instead of a decline. But uh yeah, good information to know on that trend data. And if you look at the average spend of these tourists, it's around$248 per night in uh in New South Wales. Now, in comparison to other people that are doing other experiences, that's actually on the high side. So um that's not a bad figure, and we're actually receiving a lot of economic value from our nature tourism experiences. Um, average spend per visitor is around$854, and they're spending an average of 3.4 nights when they come to New South Wales. So um, yes, very, very good. And New South Wales is number one for visitors, number one for nights, and number two for the amount of expenditure in Australia. So competitively, we're doing exceptionally well. Um, so if you have a look at the top regions that visited New South Wales, um certainly the North Coast tends to be the one that people aim for, and that's probably because of the domination of the national park and wildlife, and also people doing uh drives. The North Coast drive is probably one of the most popular uh drives when it comes to tourists. South Coast is the next one, Sydney is the next one, Hunter, then the Central Coast, and that's obviously by numbers that tends to dominate. So even though we get a high proportion to Kosy Osco, for example, the numbers just don't stack up to the number of people going into the North Coast region as an example. The other data you can see there on the right hand side leads to actually who these people are, and we've got a nice little spread of uh of age groups there. You can see it's nearly 33, 33, 33, but it's everyone from being 15 years old to 55 plus, and we've got a perfect mix of male and female. So good luck with your target marketing on that one. Um, it's literally every every age group and uh every every gender. Uh private accommodation is the one that they do aim to look at um being um accommodating in, which is interesting because a commercial accommodation tends to be a dominating factor when it comes to tourists in general. So um our nature-based experiences like their uh isolation and they might hire a Airbnb, um, a stays, or they might just be with friends and relatives when they're doing their nature experiences. But when it comes to their travel party, you can see the most dominating one there is friends' relatives traveling together. So hence why they might be staying with friends in an area and then doing their experiences as a group. Predominantly they are parents with kids. Uh, it doesn't indicate if they were traveling with their kids at the time. And I can tell you from all the data that I've been doing with the Outdoor Council of Australia, we have a declining interest in kids doing experiences in the outdoors with the growth of screens and gaming. So this has been obviously a topic of discussion as the social media uh restrictions have been taking place. Um they are on the wealthier side, they are usually the annual household income of more than 200,000. They are definitely working full-time, so that might give you an indicator that they're using these nature-based experiences as a level of um stress relief or just uh connecting with nature for their health and well-being, which we know all about that. Um, a couple of other slides here just gives you a bit of a taster on the domestic day trip market and uh certainly some of the predominant activities. So the highest activity there is cycling for sightseeing, using their own bike, being that top group there, road cycling being the second one, and mountain biking being the third. And that's the three cycle subgroups that have been looked at in this study. Um, length of stay is actually probably one of the shortest of all of the market mixes and the and the activities that are conducted in New South Wales. Um, so that is interesting in the fact of how do we get them to stay longer and do more in various areas that we have on our farm. But as far as the domestic day trips, we're seeing a huge um spend from Sydney into region, but also regions into Sydney. Um beach is the first nature and outdoor experience undertaken, but we like to concentrate on those next few, which is visiting national parks, bushwalking and rainforest walks, and of course, visiting other public gardens or land areas. So I thought that might be handy to give a bit of a perspective on our nature and outdoor activity visitors when it comes to tourists in New South Wales. And this is all on the outdoor, sorry, on the Destination New South Wales website, and I'll upload it into our portal for you very soon. Now, this is a safety alert, which um thank you, David, for sending this through. Um, all Astro and Canyon Guide Harnesses. Um, if you please have these in stock, have a look. Uh, serial numbers below 23J, uh, and I think there's about a million nines there. So I think it's 9 million um and 999 uh certainly affected by this replacement. So the same scope harnesses you might remember we had in our recall we mentioned last couple of years ago um in reference to these harnesses, but this is in the D clamp. So you've got um some screws that are being released uh earlier than and it is mentioned on the harness itself. So they are replacing them with uh replacement kits. So if you have this in stock, you can certainly order your replacement D-ring clicks uh kits and uh they will send them out to you. Right, gender bind, mountain bike park, and adventure park. This expression of interest is still open. So if anyone is interested in looking at this, uh it does close on the 18th of March. And what they're asking of the operator is to look at this facility and bring in the investment and the operation needs that is required for a mountain bike and adventure park facility. The first thing that the government is doing for this facility is building the first stage of the mountain bike trails for this park, and then everything else is part of the EOI process. So, um, yes, if you're interested, certainly jump onto the Planning New South Wales website, search Ginderbyne Mountain Bike and Adventure Park, and you will see the tender documents there. Now, this is who we're going to have coming along on the 13th of March to talk to us. But this is an opportunity for all schools, all providers, um, anyone that's interested in utilising the existing sport and recreation centres that are owned by the New South Wales government. This is part of the Office of Sport. So if you're looking for space, uh this is a great opportunity for you. Uh, the closing date of this opportunity is on the 13th of April, and they expect to advise successful people by the 29th of May. So, as I say, they're going to be coming along to our Connect and Share on the 13th of March. So have your questions ready. Just a reminder on the AAAS, it is certainly uh gaining a lot of momentum, uh, this review and lots of uh conversations, lots of meetings happening. If you have not been involved, um I certainly urge you to at least subscribe for the newsletters. Um, but there is still people joining certain groups as we speak. It's not closed off. So if you are interested in having your say on this important tool for the industry, now is the time to do it. This will be certainly the most important project the outdoor industry has seen, um, at least in the last couple of years. So it is really going to set us uh up well for the future and uh will impact everyone in the industry. The North Coast region update, just a couple of people if they're interested in uh the North Region national parks. Um, as I say, the great Great Koala National Park is coming next week to talk to us. Um, if you are in the Dorigo area, please be advised around the works that are happening in that space. The area will be closed off pretty much from the 28th of April because 27th is now a public holiday uh here in New South Wales. So from 28th of April to the 8th of May. There is a commercial operator opportunity, and I can't spell again. Um, I just realized I haven't spelt commercial right, but uh there is an opportunity there in case anyone wants to do some guided walks in that Dorogo area. That will be available on the National Park's website very soon. Woody Head, which is a very popular campground, is also going to be closed from the 28th of April to the 14th of June for a bit of a revamp. Um, a bit overdue on this one. It is a highly used area, so look forward to what that's going to look like on the other side. And the brand new trail, Mulliman, is uh certainly heading up to be one of the great walks in New South Wales from Point Planar to South West Rocks. A 69-kilometer journey uh is now its final stages of being developed. So really again, another one to look forward to. So, as I say, Great Koala National Park will be along next week. Hear more about this park and what they're wanting to hear from us on in relation to the users of uh the new park. Stay tuned and come along next week. Uh and women's week is next week. Jesse, that came up quick. We've got uh some fabulous activities. Are all the spaces filled yet or are we close?

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Sorry, um, we're very close. I think we have about 50 spaces across the state out of 500 for the left. So that's huge.

Jindabyne MTB Park EOI

Sport & Rec Centers EOI Timeline

AAAS Review Participation

North Coast Park Updates And Closures

Women’s Week Activities

Skills, VET, And Workforce Shortage

Traineeships And PD Sessions

NSW Tourism Awards: Top Tour Guide

July Masterclass And Events

Launching The Outdoor Industry Awards

Award Categories And Pathways

Entry Process, Fees, And Key Dates

How To Write A Strong Submission

Sustainability And Inclusion Criteria

SPEAKER_00 18:11

That is amazing. Well done. Um obviously, courtesy, of all your hard work. So, yes, if you're interested or pass it along to your Women Network, um, make sure they get involved. Second to 8th of March for Women's Week and uh get them to connect with their local bushwalking clubs. Skills IQ Forum for those that are in the vet sector, who want to hire trainees, who are interested in doing more earn while you learn opportunities. This event is for you. If you can be in Sydney on the 23rd of March at the Business New South Wales headquarters in Shiffley Square, please come along. I will be there if you like to scan that QR code. That will give you your registration link that you need. But um this is an important event to talk about how we get more access to skilled workers and how we work with the vet and trainee traineeship sector. And uh that is um important because we also will be talking about the occupational shortage list as a key element to getting our jobs filled. Now you might remember that we are on the occupational shortage list due to our heavy advocacy last uh last year, which is great because it's given us that uh ability to have more conversations about opportunities in visa access as well as trainee access and subsidies. But we've got to be on this list consistently. We need to maintain our access to this opportunity. So we encourage all of our businesses, if you cannot fill your jobs, we need you to fill out this survey. We need you to tell them how many jobs you've got available, how many you're filling, and what is your shortage, because that's the data that the government uses to keep putting us on this occupational shortage list. So um, yes, if you need help with that, please let me know because I urge that certainly helps my advocacy when it comes to um to supporting our shortages. And here's our current traineeship subsidy. So if you are looking at um instigating some trainees in your business, you can now get$2,500 for any outdoor adventure guides and two and a half thousand for their training. So um it is a great uh opportunity to now start thinking about maybe if you haven't in the past, getting some traineeships uh on board. Our professional development sessions are still available and uh certainly encouraging everyone to have a look, see if there's anything there that is of interest to you or your staff. We've got things from wilderness first aid, remote first aid, we've got Absal, Canyoning, also canoeing, we've got leadership courses and facilitation courses in there as well. So if you go to uh PD sessions on our website, uh it will all be there for you, or the link through your porchal. And the New South Wales Tourism Awards um have a top tour guide award. So if you know a top tour guide, I strongly urge you to nominate. We'd love to see more adventure guides in this uh in these awards. And if you're successful at New South Wales, um you certainly have the opportunity to be crowned Australian Top Tour Guide because the progression of these awards goes right through to the Australian Tourism Awards. So nominations are open now, they do close on the 10th of April. So if you know an outstanding tour guide, please jump in and uh submit your nomination. The submissions um A little bit more detailed around what they've done and why they deserve it, but that's not due until the 13th of May. So if you at least just get your nomination in by the 10th of April, then we can work on your submission post that. Our masterclass is coming up in July. This is the event we have every two years, and this is an opportunity for you to work on your business instead of in your business. And uh we bring all of the topics that are going to be a significant uh either opportunity or a challenge for you in the next couple of years. So it's literally handcrafted for our industry. So if you're interested in being part of this event, it is a two-day event. Um, and uh we encourage you to come away with your checklist of all the things that uh will help you be more sustainable in your organization or your business after. That night is the 16th of July, is the very first outdoor industry awards evening. So um it is opening today. That's why today is all about awards because we're launching the New South Wales and ACT Outdoor Industry Awards. So more on that in a little bit. Just hang tight until I get through the rest of the updates. The Outdoor Learning Mini Conference is the two days after that, and that is the opportunity where we get all our educators and facilitators together to share practice and how they get more kids outdoors more often. So this is uh certainly a knowledge share exercise, very workshop driven, and uh will also be held at Wallermeyer in the beautiful Jervis Bay. A reminder about your OnePlanet Pro deal. If you're a member of ours, you can sign up via oneplanet.au slash pro deal-apply. And that will give you some amazing access, sorry, amazing access to some great deals, uh, courtesy of our friends at OnePlanet. And there is a webinar coming up. I did mention this last week. If you are interested in uh the tourism market, New South Wales Experiences state of play. So no doubt some of that data I spoke about before might be highlighted in this webinar. It is next week on the 4th of March. It is free to be part of, and it's from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. So uh you can register to attend that and come along. Uh next week, as I said, is Great Koala National Park. The week after is the officers sport on their expression of interest for their facilities. So that's what's coming up on the Connect and Share agendas. Now, straight into the outdoor industry awards. This, as I say, is the very first for the industry where we've brought together every part of the sector to celebrate success. Now, this is not just a recognition project, it is about development and inspiring best practice. We have incorporated quite a few varying questions, which give thought and process about not only what's been achieved, but what could be achieved in the future. The judges will be looking at these awards and the applications and providing commentary about what they'd like to see in the future with their business. And it's sort of like your own professional development exercise, uh free consultancy, if you like, for what you could think about as a business going forward. So here we go. We've got individual recognition awards. So we're looking at emerging outdoor education practitioner, and we've got emerging outdoor professional. The difference is one is education driven, the other is anyone in the outdoor industry. There's an outdoor education practitioner category and service to outdoor education, and then an overall outstanding contribution to the outdoor industry. Now you'll see the asterisks. The asterisks mean that they need to go through the outdoor education Australia portal because that's where the outdoor education awards are held. Now, while they're still being judged in the same process that uh we will be judging all of these awards, it's just a different link. And that doesn't mean anything to you other than going through a different portal to enter. You'll still be able to be partaking in the industry night and get the feedback from the judges. But the only benefit of entering the education awards more than the others is that if you win at New South Wales and ACT level, you will go through to the Outdoor Education Australia Awards. And they will be held at the National Outdoor Education Conference, which is being held in Cannes late this year. So that will be in September. Now, onto the program and organizational awards. We have an education program ward. We've got an education organization of the year, adventure tourism organization of the year, therapy organization of the year, and recreation and adventure event of the year. So all of these categories are about the organization and what they've instilled in good practice going into what they saw in 2025 into 26 and uh telling us about some of that um content to be able to judge. There's also an outdoor play award and a supporting organization of the year. Now, this is open to all of those organizations that are probably not out there getting people into the outdoors, but supporting organizations doing getting people out into the outdoors. So this could be our insurers, it could be our land managers, it could be our retailers and manufacturers, um, it could be a local council. Whoever is supporting the ability for us to get more people outdoors more often is in that category 13. Now, the two categories you can't enter into directly are the outdoor organization of the year, which is made up of all of the finalists and winners across all categories, and then judges making a call on who that overall winner will be. And number 15 is the Industry Choice Award. So when we get to the pointy end where we release all the finalists' names, they will be put onto a voting portal where we get industry to vote for their favorite. And that is that category. So that's truly out of our hands and in the hands of who is actually attending your uh programs or your friends and family or just general public. So a great opportunity to get all of your customers involved and supporting you if you are a finalist. So here's the Outdoor Education Australia categories, and they were on the previous page as asterisk, but you can apply through education, sorry, outdooreducationaustralia.org.au and uh that's where you enter those categories. We are calling for judges. So if you don't see yourself actually applying, but you want to support this program and support others in developing their product and their programs for best practice, we call on you to get involved. If you can scan that QR code and fill out that form, we would love to see you being part of our judging team. Now, there is a few little hours involved, not too many, but you will get a selection, a category to judge. We will have multiple judges looking at the same category to ensure a very transparent and fair process. And we'll be providing you the criteria of what to look for and giving you guidance in that judging process. So if you'd like to be involved and certainly help out the industry by being a judge in the awards, we'd encourage you to do so. Now, oh, that image is gone, but the key dates, let me talk you through them. So the key dates are entries are open now. They do close on the 10th of May. So it gives you uh a little while to fill out the uh questions, which we'll go through in just a minute. The judging will then take place pretty much over a month period. Um, then we will have the announcement of the finalists, the opening of the uh industry choice award will then open with the event being held on the night of the 16th of July. And this is the process. You select the category in which you want to enter. So whether it is the outdoor education categories or other categories, depends on which site you go to. So for the outdoor education categories, remember you need to go to the OEA website to enter those. For all the other categories, go through the Outdoors New South Wales page, which is the link on the bottom of your screen there. And remember that it's free for every member of Outdoors New South Wales and ACT to enter. And you can enter as many categories as you like. If you are not a member, it's a$29 entry fee for all individual categories or$59 for organisations. All categories, whether it be education or other, will then be judged by the New South Wales and ACT judges. The winners will be announced on the 16th of July, and then for the education categories, they will go through to be judged for a national award, which will be announced in September 2026. Okay, let's get into the questions. So the first question asks for a summary of your submission. This is an incredibly important question to give the judge a bit of a feeling of the business or the person or the activity which you're conducting. It is really your executive summary, keeping it short, sharp, but gives them a really good picture. If you can't vision what this product or this person is like from that, I urge you to go back and have a good look at it to give judges that real good picture. Paint a picture of this activity. Section one is your overview. This is only 250 words, and that is often a challenge. The smaller your words, the harder it is to answer. You need to tell us about you. If it's the individual ward, you know, how are you contributing to your aims and goals? If it's your organization, then what is your vision, your mission, and why you actually exist? What are you trying to do in the outdoor industry and what sectors do you operate? Again, this really sets the scene for the judge in understanding what your vision is. If they understand your vision, then they can evaluate the rest of the questions to see if what you're doing is going to help you get there. Section two is about delivery. So, what makes you or your organization stand out in your category? What is it you do that shows excellence in delivery? Making sure you look at any innovations that you have conducted in the last year. Any uh testimonies from your customers will verify the quality of the experience you're offering. Try to look at your measured outcomes. You might even bring a little bit of this is what we budgeted, this is what we got into your commentary. Now keep in mind the secret of um success in anything to do with tenders, awards, contracts, applications like this is really giving the detail of the measurables. So often we state a claim, we justify a claim, but we want to show measurement about that claim. So that three-step process is really key because the judges will have some criteria to say, okay, did they prove that that's what they've done? ChatGPT can come up with all the words under the sun, but unless you're justifying it with actual data or actual information from your business, the judges won't be able to score full marks. So that justification element is crucial when it comes to delivery of your content. Section three is about sustainability and environmental responsibility. A maximum 300 words here, again, not that much. But does your business have a sustainability policy? What are you doing in your actions around operations and programming? Um, it may not mean that you're the world's best in sustainability, but we want to see aims and progress and what you're aiming to do in this space. This gets points. You don't have to all done it all, but certainly making sure that you're moving in the right directions. For individual categories, talk about how you are delivering sustainable action or commentary around how you're working in this space. How do you communicate your actions with staff, guests, colleagues, industry? How are you being an example in sustainability and environmental responsibility? Section four is about social and cultural inclusion. As you know, I've spent uh a lot of time bringing these sorts of topics to summits and various things because it's so, so important in today's world where we need to be more inclusive and accessible together with not just our First Nations communities, but also our called communities. And as a growing nation of people that have come from other countries and speaking different languages other than English, we have to be more inclusive in what we deliver in the outdoor industry. So, this is an opportunity for you to tell us around what you are doing in your social and cultural inclusion. What's the organization planning? What are your goals in this area? And how are you actually delivering on that promise? And when it comes to individuals, how are you again laying an example for others in this space? Section five is about your professional and business development. It's that old adage of if we don't grow, we don't learn, and if we don't learn, we fail. So if we can continue learning in a space about what we can do, we never know it all. So, how do you invest in your own professional development, your organizational development, uh, your staff capability? What are the projects that you are investing in to make sure that this is a key area? Section six is marketing and client engagement. So this is all about communication and delivery of value and ensuring you maintain a good relationship with your clientele. So this is a short one, it's only 200 words. So uh it will be a challenge to get it down to 200 words, but I'm sure you'll be able to concentrate on how you are relating to your clients in this category. And section seven is your industry contribution, an important element for anyone that is involved in uh the industry to make sure that they are keeping abreast of what's going on, but also how they're mentoring others. Um, again, a crucial area. I mean, even attending these sessions that you all are today, this is a great thing to put into your industry contribution. We make sure we're in contact with the peak body, we're understanding what the updates are so it informs our industry, but I get to network with others. Do you sit on boards? Do you sit on committees? Are you involved in the AAAS review? All of these sorts of things are part of industry contribution. And the judges are really looking for that element of how you're empowering others and your business is succeeding because of your industry contribution. And then the final thing is just supporting evidence. This is totally optional. Encouraged because if you want to add images, it really gives judges a bit of a flair for understanding what you're doing and putting it into reality in a visual format. Um, or you might want to attach a business plan or something that you've referenced in your submission. The important part with supporting evidence is make sure you reference it. Make sure you talk about it in your submission so that the judges then can go and see that evidence as they're looking at your submission. For any individual category submissions, we require two referees, and they we encourage our colleagues or clients or people that are connected with you in the capacity of the outdoor industry. So a lot there, I know, but um as you can see, it's not onerous. There's probably around uh just over 1200 words in total, um, but a great opportunity for you to reflect on what you've achieved in the last uh 12 months. And also, as I've been running, um, been involved in awards for for many, many years, more so in the tourism awards, I continually see how entrants into these awards have managed to grow again and again by doing this reflection and sparking ideas for what they can implement in the next year ahead. So that is really our goal here is to celebrate success, but also encourage that ongoing development into future years. And uh we look forward to having these awards um every year from this point forward. So, any questions on any of those sections? There's a lot there. What we might do is we'll stop the recordings uh for today and we might open it up for a bit of discussion. Um, so thank you everyone for bearing with us on this uh journey this morning to take you through the very first outdoor industry awards for New South Wales and ACT. And we look forward to seeing you all next week.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

Thank you for joining the weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum. Brought to you by Outdoors, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, your peak body for the outdoor industry. Together with our members, we're shaping the future of the outdoors. See you next week for more insights and collaboration.