Geoff Donaghy is about to hands in his front door keys to ICC Sydney after a decade of massive change. Key advice to his successor? Keep it about the people.

To ICC boss, Geoff Donaghy, it’s all about the people. The people he works with, the people who walk through the numerous entries, the people he greets with that disarming smile, the producers he invites into the kitchen, the winemakers, the chefs and even the casual staff.

It’s one of the things people notice who have worked with ICC Sydney, including this writer, that there is a strong engagement level. Everyone is gracious about what they do, and very giving and very generous.

“I appreciate that observation,” he says in our interview before his departure this Friday, “because that’s exactly what we set out to achieve, and that’s what we want the culture of the place to be based on.

“One of the many stories I shared with people right at the start was that there’s no such thing as a successful Convention Centre, only successful clients. Our total commitment together was to drive the success of our clients.”

Also a success is the way the departments are managed, no role is too big or too small, no person ignored.

“The analogy I used was a cricket team. The skills and even the personality and the body build of a fast bowler and a wicketkeeper couldn’t be more divergent. But you can’t have a successful fast bowler unless the wicketkeeper is successful.”

The word boss doesn’t sit well with this former schoolteacher either, despite three decades in tourism and eight years running one of the most successful convention centres in the world.

International Convention Centre Sydney crowned Best Convention Centre outside of the US by Skift

His official title is ICC Sydney CEO and Group Director – Convention Centres, ASM Global (APAC) but his role is more than that. And ICC Sydney is more than a building.

“The building structure is one thing, but finding the people to populate it, to create that culture that’s got to be a process, a selective process. It all takes all types of people to be involved in a venue of this size.”

So, what does her look for when someone wants to join the fold?

“We had a very, very deliberate recruitment philosophy of CV plus chemistry. CV meant you got the skills to do the job and … what will you contribute to the chemistry of the place?”

What he got was caring, passionate team of professionals who work on the principle of purpose: The purpose of the organisation, the purpose of each department, the purpose of each team in that department, the purpose of each person in each team which has to be known and fully understood. That is shared among the 400 full- and part-time staff and a pool of about 1200 casuals.

“Everyone knows what their role is. Everyone knows what their contribution is as well, and everyone knows what you know the person beside them. It’s that knowledge and that they all need to work together.

“(There is) the story about sending a rocket to the moon. If you’re out by one-thousandth of a degree, you miss by thousands of miles. Our purpose needs to be very, very clear, very absolute clarity and certainty, and everyone needs to understand it.

“Our motto here is that never go home wondering. You know, anyone’s entitled to ask anyone any question that they want to know, anything they need to know.”

Build it and they will come, then along came Covid

“I’d been involved in a lot of openings. And they’re very addictive,” Donaghy says. “They’re adrenaline-filled and (there’s a) great sense of achievement when you go from a building site to an operation and a team that’s delivering all the magic of events.

“But I’ve also been through a number of crises. It’s the advantage of being in the industry for so long. Yeah, none as drastic as Covid, although the pilots dispute in Cairns, when I was running the tourism bureau, just decimated the industry.

“To use a Winston Churchill quote … ‘When you’re going through hell, just keep going’.”

And keep going he did. Under his stewardship, the ICC Sydney team has now delivered more than 3,665 events since opening in December 2016, attracting 6.4 million visitors who contributed A$3.9 billion in financial benefit to the local economy. Across his time at the helm of ICC Sydney, he and his team have also received 95 industry awards, achieved an average delegate satisfaction rating of 97.4 per cent and 98.2 per cent client satisfaction rating. Even during Covid it received special permission to conduct events and host meetings.

“From my experience, there’s two certain things about crises. One is a finish. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, you don’t know when, so, we took the approach here of very much a dual approach. One foot in the present, just kept everyone as safe as possible, and then do best job that we could, and we kept the place technically open. Then the other foot was in the future and making sure that we’re going to come out of this. And let’s be ready for it, which we were.”

That included keeping in close contact with clients, utilising in-house equipment and technology and creating three broadcast standard studios that it made available to industry, to government, and to agencies pro bono.

“When everyone else was down to 10 people, I think we were allowed to bring 100 people in to run those things, plus the size of the venue, literally, and because of the very stringent processes and plans we had in place as well.

“That turned into commercial opportunities as well,” he says, effectively making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
“In fact, our business came back far more strongly than our team did, because it was very hard to recruit. But we went through a period where everyone pitched in. All hands to the wheel…”

Food philosophy and Feeding Your Performance

One of the other exciting initiatives was Feeding Your Performance, offering lighter meals – of restaurant standard – and a range of lighter alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

He employed the best possible people to set that up, starting with the directors in those in those areas, such as ICC Sydney’s director of culinary services, Lynell Peck, now departed executive chef Tony Panetta, and award-winning sommelier William Wilson.

“The philosophy there, very simply, was to set out to establish five-star food and a five-star restaurant standard, but be able to do it for 2000 people at a time, if need be, which comes down to, you know, meticulous planning and preparation.” he says.

From ICC Sydney’s INView magazine, 2019.

Engagement from outside and within

Having something to contribute to important aspect of ICC Sydney’s philosophy under Donaghy and that includes engagement with organisations such as the KARI Foundation. Internally, ICC Sydney partners with the Indigenous KARI to engage its team members with fundraising, volunteering, donation drives and cultural awareness training. Opportunities such as the City2Surf fun run, KARI Christmas appeal, and yarning circles feature readily on the team’s calendar.

“It just comes down to mutual understanding and respect. We’re very clear what our role is in being more than a venue and making a difference in each of those areas, making a difference to our clients and our attendees, making a difference in the community, we clearly define that and define the areas where we do want to make a difference.

“That almost automatically identifies the players in those in those areas like if we really wanted to make a difference in the First Nations community. So, we knew that there was organisations like Supply Nation, the Metropolitan Land Council.

“We went to engage them, and once again, with an open mind, and it wasn’t about going to them and saying, ‘Well, how can you help us?’ It was about us going to them and saying, ‘This is who we are, and this is what we do. So how can we help you?’

It’s a bit like that moon rocket analogy, he says.

“If you if your aim is absolutely precise, you’ll get there. And if your aim at the start is out, you’ll miss it by a long way.”

Donaghy, far right, at ICC Sydney in the early days.

Where he will land now

There will be a handover process for the yet-to-be named new CEO, but Donaghy promises to spend more time in the garden at his house in Bowral, more time reading, more time cooking and more time sleeping.

While the trophy cabinet in the office foyer is full, he’ll leave it there for his successor to admire.

“My success is the success of the team. I mean, I that’s, that’s really what my whole career has been based on.

“My job’s done,” he says. “My job and contribution, and the satisfaction I’ll take away is that there’s a great team with a great cultural platform, which will continue.”

And the ubiquitous legacy question?

“That he made a difference. Made a made a difference in venue management. Made a difference in the associations I’ve involved.”

Donaghy with William Wilson and Hunter Valley winemaker Bruce Tyrrell.