Digital leadership: Why it’s essential for Brisbane 2032
The 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a lasting digital legacy for both South East and regional Queensland. But not without digital leadership.
Major events like the Games demand a heightened level of coordination across all facets of the event, whether that be venue and village construction, transport infrastructure, local government precinct activation, operations centres or public safety networks. Because of the scale and prominence of the Games, coordination is expected to be the primary topic of discussion across key stakeholders and governance groups, leading the delivery efforts.
The questions on Evinact’s mind as digital and data experts are:
- Can coordination be optimised using digital (and data) tools, to ensure infrastructure projects are built on time and on budget? Making sure there is a consistent, seamless experience across all venues, precincts and regions, including accessibility, inclusion and public safety.
- Are digital and data pervasive in the language, strategies, plans and projects that are being contemplated for the Games, both as key enablers and as part of a meaningful legacy?
- How will digital leadership occur?
What is digital leadership?
Digital leadership – in the context of Brisbane 2032 – means leading and coordinating the collective investment, effort, and capability of the Games organisers, delivery authorities, and government bodies at all levels. It also involves working with industry partners and communities to envision, adopt, and govern digital technologies and data-driven practices such that:
- The Games infrastructure, venues, precincts and regional initiatives are delivered in a coordinated, integrated, efficient, resilient and sustainable way, and to a high standard.
- The digital- and data-led approach sets new benchmarks for how a once-in-a-generation investment stimulated by the Games can be modelled, visualised, governed and coordinated, so that it is delivered in scope, on time and in budget.
- The digital and data capabilities and infrastructure result in a sustainable and lasting legacy beyond 2032.
Digital leadership means we lead with digital and data thinking, which is pervasive in how we look to overcome the wicked challenges that we know will present themselves in the scale and complexity of the Games and related investments.
We know that resource capacity will be challenged, we know there could be supply chain pinch points, and we know that it will be hard to create seamless user experiences across venues and precincts unless standards are established. Digital leadership can help model, predict, plan, coordinate and govern to optimise these investments.
Examples include:
- Establishing a strategic digital leadership model, like a digital PMO, to align many projects and stakeholders to avoid siloed and fragmented digital investments.
- Use technology like digital twins, integrated data platforms, and agentic AI, to model, simulate, predict and coordinate the planning, design, build and operationalisation of all projects to avoid supply chain pinch points and budget and time blow outs.
- Embedding smart infrastructure, IoT, connectivity, public safety, accessibility and inclusivity technology, real time monitoring and analytics across transport, venues and precincts. This enables live monitoring of operations across venues, precincts, and transport networks, and ensures venues and precincts are accessible to all.
- Ensuring that digital and data capabilities built for the games translate to create lasting precincts and regions.
Why digital leadership is crucial for Brisbane 2032
With the Games venue budget alone being between $7bn – $8bn, the technology portion of that investment is anticipated to be at least 2% or approximately $150m – $200m. The larger venues will be digital twin-enabled and will include smart connected infrastructure. So, digital and data will already play a large role across these major infrastructure projects.
With digital leadership in place, we can start the work to model, plan, predict, and optimise the collective investment, effort and capabilities of the Games infrastructure delivery. Leveraging digital and data technologies like digital twins, data platforms and AI, combined with a centralised digital leadership framework such as a Digital Project Management Office, ensures that all digital initiatives are aligned, scalable, future-proof and create a lasting legacy.
How Evinact can enable digital and data leadership
At Evinact, we believe in harnessing the power of data and digital to create a lasting impact in the world.
The Brisbane 2032 Games is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our region, our state and our country to create a lasting digital and data legacy.
Evinact delivers tailored solutions from strategy, vision and governance to solution architectures, ICT blueprint and data models. Our expertise includes:
- Strategy, vision and governance – creating the digital leadership and governance framework
- Solution architecture and enterprise data models – To establish digital twins, data platforms, reporting, analytics and insights
- ICT blueprinting – to establish the ICT standards for venues and precincts to ensure seamless connectivity and experience
- Requirements definition – translating business goals into precise technical requirements, ensuring every solution delivers measurable impact.
- Digital project governance – supporting digital leaders create the conditions for successful project delivery across the project lifecycle.
The time to act is now
Digital leadership isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a strategic imperative. For Brisbane 2032 to succeed and leave a meaningful legacy, it must embrace a bold, coordinated digital strategy that incorporates technology, governance and culture. That means investing in leadership, platforms, and partnerships that will not only deliver the Games, but shape the future of Queensland.
Get in touch with Evinact for more information.
Stay up to date with us on LinkedIn.
