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Outdoor body calls on governments to ditch regulation and embrace ‘vision’ for city planning

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Moldrich: “Our cities need outcomes driven by vision, not regulation”

The head of the Outdoor Media Association has called for governments to work with rather than regulate against the industry to “create outcomes that benefit us all”.

Speaking at the Future Cities Conference in Sydney, CEO Charmaine Moldrich suggested the current relationship was “constraining innovation and our cities are ending up with outcomes that are regulation driven rather than being led by vision.”

Her speech comes in the lead up to the City of Sydney’s scheduled release of its plans for the future of outdoor advertising in the city in the coming weeks. The OMA has been lobbying the council hard for changes after opposing the original proposals.

The OMA has organised the series of Future Cities events in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, bringing town planners and academics from across the globe to discuss the evolution of the urban environment.

“Governments, by nature, are risk averse because its duty is to consider the implications of everything it does on all of its citizens. Industry, on the other hand, is by nature more nimble and focused on outcomes,” Moldrich told the audience in Sydney.

“So the nature of industry has been to push the boundaries and government’s role has been to contain this with laws and regulations.

“I believe it is constraining innovation and our cities are ending up with outcomes that are regulation driven rather than being led by vision.”

Moldrich said while the body, which represents many of Australia’s out-of-home companies, supports “reasonable regulation” she called for legislation “to allow for the evolution of advertising signs to meet the digital age that we are in.”

During the speech she also highlighted some ways in which digital outdoor signage had been used to improve cities and address the challenges of rapid urbanisation of populations.

A Peruvian billboard which purified the air

A Peruvian billboard which purified the air

“Outdoor advertisers have transitioned from being producers of static advertising posters to providing digital inventory that utilises interactive technology to street furniture that creates social urban spaces for the community,” she said.

Moldrich suggested that advertising such as awareness-raising campaigns that provide real-time information on air pollution or real-time information on public transport, could support safe, healthy and functioning cities.

She added: “What these examples speak to is that partnerships between government and business can create outcomes that benefit us all.”

Moldrich hopes the re-modelling of the relationship between communities, business and government to a more collaborative approach will have positive benefits for future cities.

“I believe that we need to enter into a dialogue; outdoor media is here to stay, it is part of the ecology of a city or town and contributes to what makes that city or town vibrant,” she said.

Rather than work against each other as adversaries, we need to work together to create better signs and better creative messaging.”

Zoe Samios

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