April 26, 2013

Learn about late night economies at Mainstreet Australia Conference

“Both day and night time economies are important to the life of our cities and towns.

There is great potential in the night time economy for our ‘main street’ businesses if we can get past the red tape barrier to innovation,” says Suzie Matthews, a keynote speaker at the upcoming National Mainstreet Australia Conference.

“There are challenges for many centres across Australia at night. This includes too many or too few people, alcohol-related violence, poor transport, a lack of economic diversity, balancing residential amenity with economic growth and the calibre of our public spaces. These ‘problems’ create enormous potential and opportunity for transformation and change.

“For Sydney doing nothing was not an option as this was about our reputation at risk as a safe, attractive global city. Done well, we recognise that Sydney could become a leading night time city of the Asia-Pacific region. My presentation is about OPEN Sydney, the process we went through to ‘rethink’ our city at night,” she said.

Suzie is the manager of the Late Night Economy, Safe City & Business Precincts for City of Sydney, where she works to make Sydney a world class night time city, with safe, economically strong and vibrant local economies. She has worked in the crime prevention and public policy field for over a decade, in 2010 Suzie used her Churchill Fellowship to examine how other global cities are delivering safe, diverse and sustainable night time economies.

She brings her experience engaging businesses, visitors and the local community to improve the night time economy in the Sydney CBD and main streets to her keynote speech ‘Rethinking cities and main street at night’ at the National Mainstreet Australia Conference being held at Federation Square in Melbourne on May 12 to 15 2013. This year’s conference theme is new challenges, new opportunities, new values.

The biannual conference will be attended by business and trader associations; local government officers from key areas including economic development, community development, strategic planning, place making and tourism; and marketing coordinators and those who work in special rate programs.

Mainstreet Australia is a membership-based association that exists to support the economic, social and environmental benefits of main streets, town centres and community activity centres. The association identifies the important role that main streets play in the fabric of our communities and make our cities, towns and suburbs great places to live, work and play. Strong community relationships, local employment, small business opportunities, events and activities are just some of the benefits of a successful and vibrant main street precinct.

For further information about the conference please visit or call Steve Bentley on 0418 311 417 or Nicole Maslin on 0403 230 412.

For further information - Karen Morath - 0400 328 789