23rd November 2016
For Immediate Release
Palmerston North City Council has been awarded 2016 ALGIM Excellence in Innovation at the ALGIM Annual Awards in
Auckland.
Their project, ‘Manawatu Heritage’, is a completely new type of digital heritage repository system that allows
communities to participate in collecting, creating and curating today's stories and tomorrow's heritage. It took out the
top prize of the evening, beating out entries from across the country. The judges commented that the project showed,
“great stakeholder engagement, was forward thinking and quite future-proofed, and in many ways will have potential for
reuse in other ways.” Lesley Courtney, Heritage Team Leader, accepted on behalf on the Council team.
“For this to be singled out is, of course, very special for the core team who have been working for three years to get
to where we are at present,” said Lesley. “It is a great innovation, one that we want to share with other Local
Governments.”
Coming in as a close first runner up was Environment Canterbury with their ‘Farm Portal’, which enables the public to
access their Matrix of Good Management and to gather information about region-wide nutrients loss.
Also celebrating was Joanne Proffit of Gisborne Regional Council, who was awarded the 2016 ALGIM Excellence in
Leadership Award. She had led a complete disengaged team to become one of the most high-involved teams in her Council.
ALGIM offered its congratulations to all the award-winning Councils and their staff for their significant achievements,
and its thanks to Information Leadership, who sponsored the Awards. They also celebrated Vodafone, who won the ALGIM ICT
Vendor of the Year.
ALGIM serves the entirety of the New Zealand Local Government ICT sector, with all 78 Councils as members. The Annual
ALGIM Awards highlight the best and innovative projects within our country to further develop the sector as a global
leader in information management.
ENDS