Community and business leaders came together to hear bold pitches for the region’s future at Future Geelong

Bold pitches were heard by the audience at this year’s Future Geelong event, with connectivity proposed as the thread to bring the region into the future.

Bold pitches were made at this year’s Future Geelong event, with developments in a proposed NBL stadium and Geelong’s future as a cycling city on the agenda.

Future Geelong is an event hosted by the Geelong Advertiser to bring business and community leaders together to discuss ambitious ideas and advocate for changes.

This year - the event’s third - speakers included the NBL’s owner Larry Kestelman.

Mr Kestelman made his pitch to the 300-strong crowd at GMHBA stadium that with “clear vision” the community could get the indoor basketball stadium that “it deserves”.

“My pitch is that Geelong and the Geelong community deserves an indoor facility to lead the community charge across sport, entertainment and wellbeing of the community.”

“You want to be a grown up, global city? Or do you want to be a regional small town?,” he asked.

“Which is it that you want to be, make a decision.”

He said connectivity between government, community and business the region would make the ambitious infrastructure “unstoppable”.

Other speakers at Future Geelong included legendary cyclist Cadel Evans, business leaders Richard Bisinella, Sam Almaliki and Jo Plummer, and politicians Richard Marles, Peter Dutton and Mayor Stretch Kontelj.

Cadel Evans speaking to Geelong Advertiser editor Nadja Fleet at the Future Geelong event. Picture: Alison Wynd

Geelong’s future as a centre for sports and events capital was also echoed by Mr Evans.

Australia’s only Tour-de-France winner was asked if he would like to see Geelong become the cycling capital of Australia.

He told the audience, “I dream about it most nights”.

“I really think Geelong has a potential to go even bigger. All the fundamentals are there to make cycling and Geelong a bit of a Mecca for cycling in Australia,” Mr Evans said.

He said it was important to change attitudes towards cycling in the region, something that he was doing through his race on the Great Ocean Road.

Mr Evans echoed one of the main themes of the event, that Geelong was well placed geographically to grow, including in elite cycling.

“A lot of cities can’t host (events like cycling) because of traffic issues, and just congestion. Whereas somewhere like a region like Geelong you can do that.”

Housing was one of the other big issues on the lips of the event’s speakers.

Speaking on a panel alongside Mr Kontelj, Mr Bisinella said Geelong was a region faced with “significant opportunity” as well as “significant challenges” when it came to housing.

Mr Bisinella raised taxes and growing red tape as huge obstacles to meeting the housing crisis and Geelong’s housing need.

“We’ve lost count in regards to the number of taxes from all taxes from all levels of governments,” he said.

He pointed to housing taxes in proposed development areas in Geelong’s northern and western growth areas, where taxes are significantly higher than in areas such as Lara.

“You can’t tax yourself into prosperity,” he said.

Mr Bisinella made a special mention of unapproved Precinct Structure Plans for these growth areas, which are currently sitting with the council.

For his part, Mr Kontelj said council needed to do better and “fast track” what they could do when it comes to opening up those permits.

“So that we can get to the ‘Build, Baby Build’ mode,” he said.

He said council’s biggest challenge was “managing success” in the city.

With a population set to boom up to 500,000, Mr Kontelj said he was prioritising transport, infrastructure, and fast-tracking housing approval, while adopting a “can-do, get-it-done attitude”.

Also on the panel was Settle Easy’s Sam Almaliki, who said “everything in life is about connectivity”.

Connectivity was the theme of the event, and Mr Almaliki spoke strongly in support of the concept.

“Unless you build genuine connections, you can’t get the community or commercial outcomes you want. So that’s why connectivity is so important,” he said.

Originally published as Community and business leaders came together to hear bold pitches for the region’s future at Future Geelong