The third year of Ballarat’s Best Ideas

From more than 200 entries, 2023’s Ballarat’s Best Ideas have been crowned.  

The theme for 2023 is ‘People and Planet’, which was strongly reflected in the trend of this year’s entries.  These centred around issues of interest to Ballarat locals, relating to the environment as well as supporting people - including staff, customers, and the community.

The 2023 winning suggestions from our local “Gurus” are:  

• Guru Gabby, with the idea of a Community Garden in Sebastopol, near Phoenix College.  
• Guru Marty, with the idea of student built nesting boxes for native birds, at local Ballarat schools and Federation University.
• Guru Anne, with the idea of building a stock of dementia friendly toys that can be used in St John of God hospital for dementia patients.  

Special mentions for the 2023 competition were adopt a friend for aged care connecting younger people with those in aged care facilities and the Ballarat Native Garden Guide, a simple guide for new and existing homes of native plants that thrive in the Ballarat region and where to purchase them. 

The ideas were provided to businesses and organisations in the third Ballarat’s Best Ideas competition, held from 28 April to 19 May this year.

The entries were judged on five key criteria; positivity, creativity, impact for organisation, impact on the planet, people or the community and commitment or ease of implementation.  

The three best ideas for improving a Ballarat business or organisation were chosen by a panel of judges from the City of Ballarat, Federation University, Crazy Ideas College, Committee for Ballarat and an industry representative.

The prizes for idea givers this year include a choice of an Apple Watch, Trek bike, or Eco Escape voucher, each valued at more than $500.  

The winning business will receive $500 towards making the idea come to life, as well as support from Ballarat's Best Ideas’ partners, such as Federation University through the Community Impact Course, bringing multi-disciplinary student project teams and industry and community partners together to develop and deliver practical solutions to business and community problems.

The City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson said it was great to see a mix of people, planet and community themes in the ideas submitted.  

“This year's submissions have been incredibly heartwarming, from helping those in need, supporting our environment and community connections it’s wonderful to see such great ideas from our local Gurus,” he said.  

Suggest it co-founder Nick Clare thanked everyone for their ideas, congratulated all the winners and looks forward to watching and supporting these ideas coming to life.

“The community suggestion box was again opened during the third Ballarat’s Best Ideas competition, and we were inundated by an incredible variety of positive and actionable ideas for business and the community,” he said.  

“Ideas came in from people of all ages especially from the younger members of our community.