Helsinki trip a win for region

DEPUTY Mayor Carol Taylor believes the Toowoomba Regional Council winning an international project management award will put the city and region on the map.

Cr Taylor yesterday praised the efforts of council staff in her assessment of the delegation she led to Helsinki in October for the International Project Management Association’s global achievement awards.

The TRC won the category “regional development project” for its flood recovery program following a series of natural disasters from 2011.

The trip, which cost the council nearly $15,000, involved the award ceremony, a tour of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, a two-day conference and meeting with one of the city’s three deputy mayors.

“I was very fortunate and very proud to be able to represent our community over there to accept that award,” Cr Taylor told her colleagues.

“They (Helsinki council) would like to continue a relationship with our council, because they were interested in the way things happen over here.

“I’d like to thank council for approving Mr (Steve Holland, project services manager) and I to go over there.”

In his report to the council, Mr Holland said the award win introduced Toowoomba to the world in a positive way.

“The most notable outcome of the trip to Helsinki has been to put Toowoomba Regional Council on the international stage in relation to project management, and to provide council with substantial credibility and reputation in its project delivery,” he wrote.