A Coffs Harbour Approach to Meeting Community Needs, with Fiona Barden

Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a delightful chat with Fiona Barden. Fiona works with Coffs Harbour City Council, leading the Industry and Destination Development section, which looks after the economic development of the region and fosters tourism attraction and visitation. In this episode, Fiona begins by telling us about her interesting and varied background, her passion for business and in particular looking at economic viability for regions, and discusses some of Coffs Harbour's current top sectors and industries. Fiona then tells us what a Smart Community means to her, a few of the changes she has seen in her local community in the recent years, and then discusses a few of the projects she has been working on with the council. Fiona then talks about the councils approach to the Covid-19 pandemic and how this helped the community, as well as the councils Economic Development Strategy and their approach to digital economy. We finish our chat discussing several emerging trends including; long term recovery and resilience after natural disaster events, meaningful sustainable development, and lastly how data is used and how it is useful for people in our communities. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Fiona via email: fiona.barden@chcc.nsw.gov.au or via LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital