gemba announces new venues and facilities division

Sports consultancy gemba has announced the establishment of a new Venues and Facilities Division.

The new Division will work closely with Gemba's existing Strategy Division and will be headed up by Chris Beattie. Beattie joins Gemba with ten years of experience in venue and facilities, having most recently been at Coffey Sports and Leisure where he was a Senior Consultant specialising in sports, leisure, stadium management and facility development.

Prior to Coffey, Beattie was a Project Manager at the London Fire Brigade, Facilities Project Manager at the City of Casey and Recreation Officer at Mildura Rural City Council.

gemba has completed projects with a diverse range of stadiums and entertainment venues in recent years including the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Etihad Stadium (Melbourne), Mount Smart Stadium (Auckland), Forsyth Barr Stadium (Dunedin), Westpac Stadium (Wellington) and the Hi Fi Bar (Melbourne).

The launch of the new Division will provide a deeper service offer and increased capacity to focus on this growing part of the industry.

gemba Chief Executive and Director Rob Mills explains "the move into Venues and Facilities is a logic extension to the existing gemba strategy offer.

"Over the past few years we have completed several stadium related projects and increasingly our clients are asking for advice in this area.

"Furthermore, we believe that our proprietary consumer research program will provide a unique advantage for this new division. In 2012, the gemba Active Sports Participation study will be able to profile participation characteristics at a local government level. Gemba clients will not only understand how many people participate in sports but how often, their motivations, barriers and preferred place of participation. This type of information will be a valuable resource to our Venues and Facilities team."

The new Division commences its operations this month.

gemba's existing Strategy clients in Australia include Tennis Australia, the National Rugby League, Football Federation of Australia, Melbourne Storm and Australian Sports Commission.

For more information go to http://thegembagroup.com