The Royal Adelaide Hospital is a significant and much-loved site, located at the east end of the North Terrace Cultural Precinct. It’s a place that many South Australians have a strong emotional connection with the Kaurna community, the medical profession, patients and visitors to the hospital, as well as the adjacent university communities, Park Lands users, Botanic Garden visitors and the East End business community.

When the new hospital opens in 2016, the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) site will start to become vacant. A unique opportunity exists to transform the site to ensure its successful ongoing use. It is an opportunity to create a new role for this high profile site that respects and builds upon its significant cultural history and location.

It takes many minds to imagine and shape great places. Open Ideas, the RAH site engagement process, provided a platform for discourse, debate, creative thought and inspiration. The process explored many possibilities for the site and captured a broad range of the best ideas.

Becky Hirst Consulting was contracted to prepare a detailed Engagement & Communications Plan for the project. Our involvement went on to project managing a Launch Event for key stakeholders in a vacant shop in the heart of the East End and an innovative ‘Open Ideas Market Place’ at the State Library of South Australia.

Things we are proud of about this project –

• The engagement process involved everyone from the general public to the Premier

• The project acknowledged the need for a detailed engagement and communications plan, for which we partnered with an Adelaide-based communications specialist

• The engagement activities were undertaken ‘on location’ in fun venues close to the site, using local businesses to provide catering

• The use of innovative tools such as the ‘Multiple Choice Sculpture’ and the Video Diary Room

• The Open Ideas Market Place at the State Library involved ‘stalls’ asking participants a series of questions based on the overall objectives of the project. This meant that relevant input was received from interested people. The stalls also featured different ways of seeking input – including a large scale map on the floor, the multiple choice sculpture, a timeline activity and the Video Diary Room. The event also included a ‘Speakers Corner’ and ‘Imagination Playground’ for children.

For further information on the overall project, visit the website. Alternatively, read the full project report (PDF).