After two years of wrangling committees, drafting policy and elevating social media to an advocacy artform, Kyall Smith is moving on from his role as Policy Officer with the Property Council’s SA Division.
He’s taken on a role as a Union Organiser with the powerful and influential Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association. It might seem at first glance an odd leap, but it’s a good fit for Kyall and the skills he’s developed during his time at the Property Council.
“I’ll be dealing with members on an intimate basis and trying to get a better deal for our members, which is what I’ve been doing here,” Kyall says.
“In the long term I want to get into politics, and here I’ve learned about dealing with members’ issues, and understanding the policies and regulations that affect them.
“One of the most important things (in my new role) will be understanding members’ needs, issues and policies from their point of view; a lot of the time you hear things and read things and you think ‘this makes sense’ but when you talk to the people it affects you realise the problems there could be with an issue, or different ways of interpreting those issues.
“In my new role I’ll be going out there and helping out our members when issues arise, a lot like we do at the Property Council, but instead of working with State and Local Government to get a better deal for our members I’ll be dealing directly with employers.”
Kyall leaves a legacy that includes an effective new approach to developing policy papers and, from his more recent work, a revamped social media strategy that underpins the industry image campaign, Property on Track, as well as the Make Adelaide Work blog push. He leaves us with these campaigns in healthy shape, successfully reshaping Property Council messages in terms that engage a wider South Australian audience.
These web-based campaigns have their genesis in the SA Divisions first-ever blog, also one of Kyall’s babies.
“One of the things I’ve been most proud of was the predecessor to the Make My City Work campaign, propertyozsa.org; that was a precursor to the MMCW campaign from an Adelaide point of view,” Kyall said.
“With the industry image campaign it was good to show to the wider community that it’s not all just about mining like people make it out to be.
“Also, with the MMCW campaign there’s been a big build up for Adelaide, where we’re heading and where we want to be in the future.”
Kyall also ranks among his achievements the formation of the Mainstreets Committee which came online during his tenure.
“The Mainstreets Committee has been doing some wonderful things; they’ll soon be holding an event in a laneway to showcase what’s so great about retail beyond the big shopping centres,” he said.
Kyall’s last day with the Property Council will be Friday 7 December. On behalf of the Property Council team, the membership and all the stakeholders Kyall has worked with over the past two years, we’d like to thank Kyall for his effort and his enthusiasm, and we wish him well as he moves into his new role.
