Practical, accessible guides that help communities understand, plan for, and attract investment in ways that reflect local priorities and build genuine capacity.
These guides translate complex investment and development processes into clear, actionable steps – enabling communities to take the lead in shaping their own futures.
What we’ve developed
Drawing on extensive experience working with rural, remote, and regional communities across Australia, we’ve created practical frameworks that help communities become investment ready.
Our approach builds on the methodology established from Making a Case for Investment in the Upper Spencer Gulf and later through Inside Intelligence: Building an Investors’ Guide, developed for Invest Australia. This framework has been successfully used by communities nationwide to identify their assets, gather investment-related information, and develop compelling cases for inward investment. Inside Intelligence was awarded an Australia Day Achievement Medal for services to regional Australia.
How investment attraction guides support communities
Investment guides help communities to:
- Understand different types of investment and define what is appropriate investment
- Identify and articulate local strengths, opportunities, and priorities
- Develop compelling cases that resonate with investors and funders
- Navigate approval and planning processes with confidence
- Build the evidence base needed for partnership proposals, applications and submissions
- Maintain community voice and control throughout development processes
- Create a foundation for economic and social development planning
Our approach
The guide is designed to enable local leads to:
- Engage the whole community in identifying assets and opportunities
- Collect investment-related information
- Coordinate input from councils, businesses, associations, and residents
- Translate local knowledge into language that connects with your audience from business to funding bodies
- Build local capacity to update and maintain investment information over time
Guides are designed to be used independently or alongside facilitated support, depending on community needs and context. We can support communities through the entire process from initial scoping to final presentation or provide frameworks and coaching for communities to lead their own development.
Recognition
The Inside Intelligence methodology has been used by communities across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. The approach recognizes that communities are best placed to see their own opportunities for development and investment potential.