Case study | Award submissions
I wrote the award submissions behind five awards for Placemaking NSW in 2024: three wins and two Highly Commendeds, across the Place Leaders Asia Pacific Awards and the National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards.
The brief
Placemaking NSW looks after some of Sydney’s best-known harbourside precincts: The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Barangaroo and White Bay Power Station. Its teams had years of work to show across culture, events, digital experience, heritage and economic revival. The task was to turn that work into entries two different judging panels could assess, across five categories, each with its own criteria.
What I did
I started with the judging criteria and worked backwards. For every question, I asked what evidence would answer it most convincingly, then went and found it: interviewing key stakeholders and pulling material from across the business, from reports to presentations.
The risk with five entries from one organisation is that they blur into the same story. So I built each submission around the most specific criteria in its category, choosing the details that brought that particular work to life rather than recycling the same material five times.
I worked closely with Placemaking NSW’s Design, Place and Marketing teams, having written for The Rocks and Darling Harbour since 2016, and for the launch of White Bay Power Station.
The result
- Winner, 2024 Place Leadership Award (Place Leaders Asia Pacific) for the transformation of The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Barangaroo and White Bay Power Station
- Winner, 2024 Digital Placemaking Award (Place Leaders Asia Pacific) for its strategy for connecting people with Sydney’s iconic places through digital storytelling, technology and real-time data
- Winner, Judges’ Choice Award, 2024 National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards for the revival of White Bay Power Station
- Highly Commended, Placemaking for Prosperity (Place Leaders Asia Pacific) for The Rocks Revitalisation Strategy
- Highly Commended, Place Engagement (Place Leaders Asia Pacific) for the Power Up Festival at White Bay Power Station
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