City Heart Task Force - Reimagine 2.0

As a City Heart Taskforce member, The Southport Chamber of Commerce was pleased to attend the City Heart Task Force Reimagine 2.0 Breakfast and Forum with the Honourable Ms Angie Bell MP and many other city leaders.

The three key elements of Reimagine 2.0 were opportunity, innovation and talent. This year, the Chamber focussed on Southport’s Health and Knowledge Precinct, with Board Member Ariana Margetts bringing together executive leaders, developers and government officials from the precinct to identify ways to accelerate collaborative opportunities within the precinct, attract and retain talent and invest in innovation.

The 200-hectare Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP) in Southport is a unique global business location for high-tech industry development, research collaboration and jobs of the future. Supported by over $5 billion in infrastructure, the GCHKP already includes the world-class Griffith University and two major hospitals, with a number of new development sites sold or under negotiation – including Proxima, an $80M development that will be home to Australia’s first combined children’s health and education centre.

In the coming years, this transformational project will be instrumental in supporting this city through our post-covid recovery. Learn more at the GCHKP website: https://gchkp.com.au/

Southport Chamber of Commerce Guests:

• Gareth Richardson, Development Manager, EDQ Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning
• Eloise Keeffe, Business Manager at the Institute for Glycomics
• Dr Alan Parnham, Director Gold Coast Private Hospital Dialysis Unit
• Benjamin Howe, Director of Cohort Innovation Space and LuminaX HealthTech Accelerator
• Mario Pinto, Director of the GCHKP Project Office
• Kelvin Ross, Founder and CTO Datarwe
• Daniel O Halloran, CEO TYMLEZ,
• Sandip Kumar, Executive Director Transformation and Digital, Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service

Some ideas put forward included

1. Further connecting the existing precinct partners through an integrated digital ‘precinct platform’ to share collaboration, career, project and partnership opportunities
2. Further support high-growth startups and SME’s to scale and take on more employees by continuing to invest in innovation and business support programs
3. A dedicated private-public innovation fund of approximately $1M to invest in Gold Coast led innovations and new technologies

The Chamber would like to thank Angie Bell MP for the invitation to contribute to the event, and for her work over the past 18 months in establishing and chairing the City Taskforce. The Southport Chamber and invited guests were pleased to be involved and we look forward to working together to drive outcomes for both the CBD and the Health and Knowledge Precinct in the years to come.