Meet the Mainstreet Australia Hero: Simon McCuskey – Events and Marketing Coordinator, St Albans Town Centre
I’m Simon McCuskey – presently the events and marketing coordinator for the St Albans Town Centre, 20km north-west of Melbourne. I got involved in Mainstreet Australia circa 2000, when I was working as a place manager in local government throughout Melbourne’s western suburbs for over 15 years. During this period, I attended Mainstreet Australia conferences and workshops – they were a critical element of sharing best practice in the industry, learning, and taking back nuggets that I could share with our traders, Council and community to continuously make our town centres better places to work, rest and play. Mainstreet Australia was, and is, mandatory ongoing professional learning and development for any stakeholder in the Australian street strip environment.
Personally, my biggest achievement was winning best presentation at the Mainstreet Australia Conference in Adelaide in 2011. I was personally motivated and learned so much from a fellow town centre manager in 2010, who presented a very simple and powerful Mainstreet Australia initiative that Kalgoorlie delivered. They won best presentation in 2010, and it was fully deserved. Learning from fellow professionals taught me that less is best, and it’s a principle I incorporate into any presentation to this very day.
Externally, I used my influence as a place manager to create a network of place managers that met across Victoria quarterly. Bit by bit, the network grew from a handful to up to thirty place managers. Being able to work in partnership with Mainstreet Australia ensured place managers had access to a community of professional networking and learning opportunities for the industry.
Two things stick out most in the 30 years of Mainstreet Australia’s existence – the Mainstreet Australia Awards and COVID. First, the Mainstreet Australia Awards – they are the benchmark for excellence, acknowledging high achievers and defining what good looks like for the entire sector. This creates a healthy sense of competition that pushes any stakeholder to innovate, refine their processes, and elevate their standards. Over three decades, these have built trust, credibility and pride of place across many town centres in Australia.
Finally, whilst the retail sector shut down in parts of Australia for two years during the pandemic, Mainstreet Australia rose to adversity and proactively worked with all tiers of government and relevant sectors to broker in-kind and financial assistance for main streets. This was communicated effectively and demonstrated that when the chips were down, Mainstreet Australia was there to support the industry.
