ITM Taupō Super400 wins national award

Taupō District Council have won a national award in New Zealand following the ITM Taupō Super400 held in April this year.

The council beat 66 other local councils in New Zealand to win the Association of Local Government Information Management's (ALGIM) Web/Digital/Communications (WDC) Professional Excellence Team of the Year Award.

The Taupō District Council won the award for their assistance in the communications supporting the ITM Taupō Super400, which saw crowds flock to the town of Taupō and the Taupō International Motorsport Park.

The on-track product was also supported by the popular Track to Town initiative, which saw hundreds of spectators line the streets and flock to the Taupō waterfront as all 24 Supercars took to the streets.

The ITM Taupō Super400 also claimed an award at the Supercars Gala Awards, where the volunteer officials were named the Best Volunteer Group.

"The ITM Taupō Super400 Supercars event was unprecedented for Taupō. The work put in to make the event a success, for our locals in particular, was phenomenal," says Taupō District Council’s General Manager for People and Community Partnerships Libby O’Brien.

“Our Communications Team is made up of nine very talented individuals that gel together to create a super-team. Their differences are their strengths, but as a team they have made a conscious effort to humanise stories and speak in simple language that makes sense to everyone.

"This team not only work well together, but work to individually bring their own creative talents to what can at times be a very demanding space in local government. Despite constantly battling the demands of the community to answer any manner of curly social media questions, or jumping on reactive comms when projects don’t go as planned, they always band together to support Taupo District Council’s many communications needs, while working to get the community on side by being as open and transparent as possible.

"All that, on top of delivering top-notch communications for our recent Supercars event, working with event organisers and stakeholders across Australasia to deliver messages across a range of platforms to many different audiences. We are immensely proud of our Communications Team, one of the nicest and hardest working teams I’ve ever worked with.”

The Repco Supercars Championship will return to Taupō in 2025, with more racing action to be seen across the weekend at the rebranded ITM Taupō Super440 from April 11-13. Tickets for next year's event are on sale now.