How Geelong Wine Built a Plan Its Members Could Get Behind
Geelong has one of the most compelling wine tourism propositions in Victoria. Bellarine vineyards slope down towards Port Phillip Bay and some of the region's winemakers are setting the benchmark for Pinot Noir.
Talk to the people behind it though and you'd barely know. They're hardworking, down to earth and remarkably modest about what they make. I loved that about working with them.
So when Geelong Wine asked me to help refresh its direction, I wanted to give them something as practical as they are. I've seen plenty of associations handed a glossy three-year plan that never gets opened again. The longer the plan, the harder it is to deliver.
A room full of questions
Members had plenty on their minds.
What is the Association here to do?
What are our events for?
What's coming up this year, and who's doing it?
Those are fair questions. They're also the ones a long strategy document tends to skip on the way to the vision statement.
When the room shifted
We started with a facilitated member workshop in the region. Members had strong and different views, and my job was to put the hard calls on the table and work through them out loud. Through that conversation the room started landing in the same place.
Bringing up to thirty stakeholders into alignment is tricky for an Executive to manage on its own. That's when an experienced external facilitator, one who's comfortable being assertive, earns their keep.
By the end, four things were clear:
Purpose first. Members wanted to understand the Association's role before talking about events.
Events need to sit inside a bigger picture. They still matter, but they should support member value rather than be the end goal.
Money and capacity count. Members wanted clear financial principles and a program the Association could realistically deliver.
A year-round view. Members wanted to know what was coming and when.
There was plenty of goodwill in the room. What members wanted was more certainty about the Association's role, its financial priorities, how event decisions get made and how they'd hear about them.
Making the calls
In January of this yeare I ran a two-hour working session with the Executive to turn what members had said into decisions. We worked through the Association's purpose in 2026, its priority outcomes, the role events play in funding, engagement and regional positioning, and the financial and decision-making principles behind it all. We also agreed what the Association would and wouldn't prioritise this year.
Checking back with members
Before anything was finalised, members had their say again through a short survey. It tested the proposed priorities, gauged appetite to get involved, and kept members in the loop without adding pressure on their time during vintage.
What we built
It all came together in the 2026 Operating Framework & Events Strategy, a concise, board-ready document covering:
The Association's purpose and role in 2026
Financial and decision-making principles
A top-line 2026 calendar of events and activities
Roles and responsibilities for the Executive, delivery partners and members
Communication commitments to members
A 90-day action plan for the immediate next steps
Alongside it sat an Executive-ready summary to help share that plan with members.
The framework deliberately stops short of detailed event delivery, so the Executive and its delivery partners have clear direction and the detail stays with the people delivering it.
Geelong Wine owned the direction and led the conversation with its members. My role was to run the process, ask the hard questions and turn a room of strong opinions into a plan the team could deliver.
In John White’s words
"The member workshop was a turning point. It surfaced what members actually wanted: clarity around vision, financial principles, and a year-round operating calendar. The 'aha' was Holly's recommendation not to jump straight into a three-year strategic plan, but to focus on a solid 12 months of clear, well-communicated delivery first to rebuild confidence before tackling longer-term strategy.
Holly's approach was practical and grounded throughout. She never tried to push us into more than we needed. The phased approach of workshop first, then operating plan, with the option to revisit longer-term strategy later, was exactly right for where the association was at."
John White, Treasurer, Geelong Wine Association
Sound familiar?
John recommends this work for "any regional wine association or industry body that's lost momentum and needs to reconnect with its membership." If that sounds like your organisation, let's talk about your strategy.