Council
19 January, 2023
Expo failed to attract young
An attendance figure at the Horsham Rural City Council Talks Expo that looked good on paper is hiding a missed opportunity. Compared to its rural neighbours, Horsham is a relatively “young” municipality, yet this would not have been evident to...
An attendance figure at the Horsham Rural City Council Talks Expo that looked good on paper is hiding a missed opportunity. Compared to its rural neighbours, Horsham is a relatively “young” municipality, yet this would not have been evident to anyone attending this year’s inaugural Talks Expo. In total, 714 people participated in the three-day expo – on the surface, a highly encouraging result. However, at its final meeting of the year, HRCC heard that of the 409 who took part in person at Horsham Town Hall, the overwhelming majority were aged 75 or older. This was despite the median age of residents across the rural city being only 41. “Survey data from entry competitions indicate attendance was heavily dominated by people aged 65-plus (73 per cent) and in particular aged over 75 (39 per cent),” co-ordinator of community relations and advocacy, Susan Surridge, told councillors in the department of governance and information’s post-event report. While the overall tally was positive, the crowd consisted largely of senior men and women (split 50:50 across the genders). “The expo format and venue suited older people,” Ms Surridge said. “Almost two in five attendees were over the age of 75. “We clearly had feedback from people aged 65-plus on a range of topics (but) there was very limited participation by anyone under 35 – 12 per cent – so we have not successfully engaged with this age group.” During council’s discussion of the report, Cr Penny Flynn highlighted the lack of input from many of the municipality’s citizens. “Obviously, moving forward we need to look at other ways of being able to engage with a younger audience,” Cr Flynn said. With its median age sitting only three years above the statewide figure of 38 - and a year younger than in 2016 - Horsham has a population that’s considerably younger than that of its surrounding Wimmera and southern Mallee local government areas, where median ages range from 49 to 52 years. Through the expo, members of the public were asked by council staff for their views on topics including Horsham’s community inclusion plan, heritage and 10-year capital works pipeline. Ms Surridge told council that the “engagement feedback, while useful” was “not representative of the broader demographics of our community” as it did “not reflect the 50 per cent of our population that are equal to or younger than the median age of 41”. In addition to the 409 in-person participants, the September expo attracted 305 visitors to its website. Online attendees were not asked to share demographic details – something which Ms Surridge said had been noted “as an area that can be improved for future expos”. Council voted to repeat the event in the second half of 2023,with activities designed to appeal specifically to younger people, such as a youth council session on the Saturday morning. Initiatives are also likely to include an expanded line-up of workshops, some of which will have a rural focus.