Activities
Our business model is to avoid becoming a project organisation by allowing good ideas to spin-off and become independent.
The Committee’s past initiatives that have successfully developed to become self-sustaining organisations. A sample of these appear below.
Click on the following headings to visit the organisations' website:
Culture Card Victoria
Culture Card Victoria provides a great way for international students, who are enrolled at post-secondary school institutions, to enjoy what is on offer in Victoria through a great mix of special offers at sports, arts, and many other events in our community. Culture Card Victoria was created to welcome international students choosing to study in Victoria. Many of Victoria’s top cultural organisations and tertiary education providers are involved to make sure the program is a success. The actual wallet-card style Culture Card is free for international students, but must be registered via this website at prior to use. Activities on offer by participating organisations are designed specifically to welcome international students and therefore be unique to the Culture Card program. The Culture Card program also provides an opportunity for international students to meet outside of study.
BioMelbourne Network
A 185 member network initiated by the Committee in 2001 and now self sufficient. It connects Victoria’s biotechnology research institutes, public and private companies, and service providers, to promote the capabilities of this dynamic local biotech industry on a global basis. Half of Australia’s biotech industry belongs to the network, whose activities not only assist individual members, but helps shape government policy.
Melbourne Prize
A Future Focus Group-led project developed in 1998-1999, the annual Melbourne Prize recognises and rewards excellence and talent through one of Australia’s richest arts prizes in Urban Sculpture, Literature and Music; and following its third successful year. The Melbourne Prize Trust is now independently run at the Victorian College of the Arts.
UN Global Compact Cities Programme
Initiated in 2002 to serve as the Melbourne-based International Secretariat of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme and now partnered with RMIT University’s Global Cities Institute who has international research teams investigating various areas of urban management. The Cities Programme leads an international UN urban program currently involving 12 cities around the world.
Moving Galleries
In 2005, the Committee for Melbourne gathered a team of volunteers who created a project to foster young and emerging Victorian artistic talent and make creativity accessible in Melbourne’s public spaces. The first Moving Galleries featured parallel programming of both student artwork, and public poetry on the Melbourne train system and saw 480 artworks travel around Melbourne on 20 Connex trains. The inspiration for Moving Galleries came from public transport art and poetry initiatives from other countries.
Overwhelming community appreciation and support for Moving Galleries subsequently attracted funding to the project. In 2007, the project secured long-term funding enabling it to evolve from a ‘one-off’ exhibition to into an ongoing non-profit initiative dedicated to promoting creativity in Melbourne’s public spaces.
Future Focus Group Activities, Events and Organisations
Our leadership training Future Focus Group, also creates activities and organisations to improve Melbourne. You can see more of the 2008-2010 intake activities here. Projects 2008-2009