The International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is a AU$1.1bn business events venue currently under development as part of a $3bn upgrade of Darling Harbour, a waterfront precinct in the heart of Australia’s gateway city.
Once completed, it will deliver the nation’s first integrated convention, exhibition and entertainment venue and a cohesive precinct that embraces the local community, culture and businesses providing delegates with a world class, authentic Sydney experience.
The delivery of a new global events venue of any scale is more than the construction of the built environment; its true success lies within the people that will deliver the events within its walls.
In June last year, seven people walked into ICC Sydney’s temporary, pre-opening office overlooking the construction site of its future venue. When the world class business events venue opens in December 2016, it will have more than 300 full time employees and up to 1,500 casual staff.
With an extensive career in tourism, which exposed him to many international practices and cultures, ICC Sydney CEO and AEG Ogden Group director of convention centres, Geoff Donaghy has opened numerous convention centres, a hotel and a major stadium.
He says instilling a strong culture from day one is critical to building a successful team and delivering successful events.
“There are a number of factors that need to occur in order to build a strong culture and it must start at the very top of an organisation,” Mr Donaghy said.
“If the head of an organisation doesn’t believe, you are doomed from the start. How can you build a unified team that lives and breathes a culture if they can’t see those same values being acted upon every day by the captain of the ship? It’s simple. You can’t.”
In fact, he says, it is often these unwritten cultural codes that are more important than written statements. It is what a team sees, experiences and senses that often best conveys the culture of an organisation.
Furthermore, he says it is important to set values that are relevant to the business that you are in and in the case of a global events venue, values that are also consistent with the destination.
“Just as a culture is unique to a city, each destination’s major international venues and their people are unique to that city too. At AEG Ogden we strive to see our venues embrace what is essentially the spirit of the host city. Wherever you go, you can expect to see a friendly face and an outcomes focused team but each destination will have something uniquely local about how they approach each day.”
Donaghy says while there is no cookie-cutter approach, there are some constants in the values present across each of the AEG Ogden-managed venues. With the advantage of now having built new teams in cities across Australia, Asia, the Middle East and, with AEG Ogden’s American partners, taking on existing venues in Los Angeles and Hawaii, Donaghy says there are some core values that apply across the oceans.
“An excitement and commitment to achieving success for our clients is at the heart of every team that we build. That is why we get up each morning and it needs to be a core desire for all of our people,” he said.
Ultimately, a manager is only as good as what their people deliver, which is why getting the recruitment process right from the outset is critical and that starts with the leadership team.
“Finding the right people isn’t just about who is the most qualified on paper, especially if you want to build a strong service culture. It’s a 50/50 split between CV and chemistry,” he said.
Once you have handpicked your executive team, the next step is to unify them behind the desired culture so that they in turn can build departments of people that share those values.
“The journey to a strong culture is actually much easier to get right early on in developing a new team,” Donaghy said.
Once a team grows to several hundred, and in the case of ICC Sydney, from seven people to over 1,000 by the end of December 2016, things can easily sway off track.
“Don’t forget that while we are building a strong and talented team, blending experts from within the industry with new talent from further afield, we’re also travelling at light speed to build the infrastructure and operational mechanics behind the scenes that are required to run a large scale, world class venue which must be fully tried and tested before the doors open,” he said.
Donaghy values trust as core to a successful team and says that a strong driver of that trust and in developing a solid culture is clear and consistent communication.
Further to acting out your values every day, a key ingredient to building a culture and ensuring that its values permeate through the ranks is an ability to articulate those values.
“If your people can’t instinctively recall your values, understand what they are or how they apply to your work then perhaps you need to ensure that the message is getting through in actions and in words,” he said.
Don’t be afraid to test that the culture is still on track and your values remain relevant as the team grows.
Donaghy says a good time to pause and re-assess the team’s goals and values is once the move from a pre-opening environment into a fully operation team has occurred. Although the end goal remains the same; to deliver successful events for clients; the energy and dynamic within the team changes during this time, which presents itself as the right moment to take a pulse on how the team is feeling.
“Once the team is built, the venue is completed and test events have taken place, it is critical to keep the culture alive and flourishing. Often the hardest thing about opening a venue like this is the ‘come down’ period after it has opened. There is so much excitement and adrenaline involved in bringing a venue of this scale to market on an international stage, it is important to harness and maintain that excitement and passion once the venue hits its strides and becomes fully operational,” said Donaghy.
He says this is the point where strong management and leadership really come into play. This is a critical period to be watching for cues, supporting managers for success, testing and re-setting goals and of course continuing to gauge employee engagement; all ingredients of a strong culture.
"While it nurtures a closer team and a positive working environment, it is good for business. If you have a strong culture, your employees are engaged. If your employees are engaged and believe in what they do, then financial returns will follow,” said Donaghy.
This article was first published in issue 1/4 EW 2015. Any comments? Email Antony Reeve-Crook
