How would you eat, meet, work and play in Charlestown’s newest space?

Lake Macquarie City Council is upgrading Charlestown's Pearson Street Mall to create a new and inviting smart space, which will form part of the Charlestown Innovation Precinct (ChIP).

To help the community imagine what this new space could look like in the future, Council is staging ChIPfest, a pop-up event filled with food trucks, technology, live music and more, on Thursday 30 November from 5-8.30pm.

Council’s Acting Manager Asset Management, Brendan Callander, said that Pearson Street Mall will be re-energised and designed to be a more welcoming and connected community space.

“Whether it's free WiFi and on-demand electronic bus timetables or more live events and casual catch-up spaces, we'd love to hear what the community and workers in the area would like to see in this re-imagined part of Charlestown,” Mr Callander said.

Taking cues from the Lake Macquarie Smart City, Smart Council strategy, where the power of technology and ideas are harnessed to improve the lifestyle of our residents, the idea is to develop a pilot precinct where we can test technologies such as ‘plug and play’ outdoor digital kiosks, virtual graffiti walls and live bus maps with real-time timetable updates.

The location of the smart mall will complement the DaSH hub, the nearby co-working space run by Lake Macquarie’s economic development company, Dantia, expanding the culture of start-ups and innovation to the public area outside.

ChIPfest is a free event, and members of the community are encouraged to come along and share their ideas.

You can also take our ‘Tinder tool to Shape Pearson Street Mall’ or use the interactive map to provide feedback.