Evolving technologies, social changes, shifting economies and environmental pressures can be a challenge, but a new Victorian initiative aims to collaborate with councils and identify new opportunities.
The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) is a membership association and the legislated peak body for Victoria’s local councils. The MAV has a long history in the state, having been formed in 1879, with the Municipal Association Act 1907 officially recognising MAV as the voice of local government in Victoria.
MAV is a driving force behind a strong and strategically positioned local government sector. As part of its 2024-27 Strategic Plan, ‘Shaping Our Future’, MAV established MAVlab – an initiative focused on helping councils navigate the challenges of our changing world.
Through innovation and collaboration, MAVlab will work to support Victoria’s 79 local governments to find interventions that address the challenges and opportunities facing the modern sector.
Communities of the future
MAVlab is led by MAV’s Chief Innovator in Residence Bonnie Shaw. It will bring an innovation lens and collaborative ways of working at scale, to support local governments in their responses to critical social, environmental, economic, technological and leadership challenges.
Ms Shaw was the Practice Lead for Australia’s first (and multi-award winning) smart cities team at the City of Melbourne. She co-founded a successful data analytics startup and has worked with variety of commercial and public sector innovations labs, non-profits and global brands. She has been appointed as an adjunct professor at several universities and has received awards for work in innovation and advanced technologies. This diverse experience gives her a unique perspective and skillset that she brings back to councils.
“I believe that robust and resilient local government is critical for healthy communities, environment and democracy and I’m excited to help catalyse a broader civic imagination for the possibilities ahead. The MAVlab approach will be data informed, wilfully optimistic and wildly collaborative – both with our colleagues in council and more broadly across the sector,” Ms Shaw said.
Ms Shaw says MAVlab will take a deliberately collaborative approach to facing the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century.
After it’s launch in July, the first action for the lab was to open nominations for people working in local government in Victoria to join the MAVlab Innovation Associates Network. This group will access coaching and training to share knowledge and capability and join opportunities to collaborate with the lab on an exciting collection of projects.
“MAVlab will keep a clear gaze towards the horizon. We intend to share both our processes and our outcomes so we can learn together – and move faster and more efficiently – towards achieving better outcomes for our people, places and the planet.”
MAV President Cr David Clark said the association was proud to be working with the future needs of councils and communities in mind.
“MAVlab is an example of the MAV bringing a contemporary approach to leading the local government sector into a new era in Victoria over the coming years,” Cr Clark said.
Meeting complex needs
No one understands the challenges facing communities in the 21st century better than local councils. Our local communities – and the governments that represent them – are at the forefront of multiple transformations happening simultaneously.
The combined pressures of rapidly evolving technologies, significant social changes, community health and wellbeing challenges, shifting economies and a variety of growing environmental pressures are creating a volatile context for local government leadership.
“We will work with a rich diversity of partners and collaborators to ensure that our work reflects the needs, resources and skills of local governments, local communities and the broader sector together,” Ms Shaw said.
“We know that many councils are already testing bold interventions and partnerships to address some of our most significant environmental, economic and community wellbeing challenges. MAVlab will seek out and showcase this innovative work with the aim to share knowledge and accelerate impact.”
As MAVlab grows and matures, there will be a wide range of opportunities for councils and the sector to get involved with MAVlab activities. There will be opportunities to directly participate in projects, to share data and lived experience on specific challenges, to host interventions and to collaborate with world renowned practitioners on some of the most important challenges facing our communities today.
Innovation Talks
One of the first initiatives MAVlab is rolling out is its Innovation Talks seminar series, a new event series that will act like innovation acupuncture by showcasing inspirational public sector work and the extraordinary practitioners leading it.
Monthly events began in August and will be hosted online, convening a collection of international luminaries with leading local practitioners sharing work from around Victoria and the world.
Talks will focus on themes of community health and wellbeing, climate futures, future gen, connected places, tomorrow’s infrastructure, local leadership and emerging tech and data practices.
The first event focused on connected places and featured a conversation between two living legends of public sector design: Nathalie de Vries (the DV from the world-renowned Dutch architecture practice MVRDV) in conversation with Jocelyn Chiew, Director of City Design at the City of Melbourne.
A visionary architect and urbanist, Ms de Vries is known for designing innovative, unexpected, and joyful mixed-use buildings that transform urban spaces. As a principal architect and urbanist, she has played an important role in establishing the research-by-design methodology of the firm, resulting in many award-winning buildings, masterplans, and research projects worldwide.
Ms Chiew meanwhile is known for her unwavering commitment to high-quality public-sector design. She has led multidisciplinary design teams in consultancy, university and local government sectors, to deliver enduring public spaces and buildings for diverse communities. She is passionate about inclusive and participatory design that contributes to safe, sustainable and place specific architectures. Ms Chiew’s projects have won multiple state, national and international awards for design.
Facilitated by Bonnie Shaw, the session explored topics such as how good public design can engage community in social spaces, the role of public design and architecture in activating cities and citizens, and how provocative design can empower greater participation in the public realm.
Only the beginning
These early forays into innovation are just the beginning for MAVlab. As the lab builds and matures, there will be a wide range of opportunities – for councils and the sector –to get involved with MAVlab activities.
Councils and their employees will be able to participate in projects, share data and lived experience on specific challenges, host interventions and collaborate with world renowned practitioners on some of the most important challenges facing our communities today.
“We’re thrilled to have introduced MAVlab to the sector, and we look forward to working directly with councils on their innovation initiatives now and into the future,” Ms Shaw said.
For more information, visit www.mav.asn.au/mavlab
Featured image: MAV Chief Innovator in Residence Bonnie Shaw and attendees at the MAVlab launch. Image credit: MAVlab.
