The Project Team utilised a range of approaches to ensure that the Ballarat ICT Cluster consultancy's benefits would be maximised for the Ballarat ICT industry and the region more broadly. The sections below detail in more depth the management structure and the design of the engagement program that the Project Team utilised to implement the Stage 2 activities, as well as the methodology that was adopted to evaluate Stage 2 activities.

At the outset of the project the Stage 1 Project Team was reformed with Helen Thompson acting as Project Manager. Rather than focusing on a single facilitator, it was felt that the team approach would bring a broader range of skills and experience to the project. These would be drawn on as appropriate. What was missing, however, was someone on the ground, who could activate the engagement program and build profile information on local capability by engaging directly with members of the Ballarat ICT Industry and regional stakeholders. A Project Officer was appointed to provide this resource within the Project Team. The Project Officer was located at the Ballarat Technology Park to facilitate access to ICT firms and project partner support. This location also allowed for frequent interaction with and supervision by the Project Team.

The Project Officer worked closely with Project Team members to implement the array of Cluster engagement program components outlined under Section 1.3, including ongoing gathering of business intelligence; profile and marketing activities; ICT demonstration projects; and the identification of professional development and export opportunities for ICT firms.

The Project Officer's main tasks were to help establish effective communication channels with Cluster members; progressively build and communicate Cluster data and intelligence; coordinate newsletters and forums; manage and maintain the Ballarat ICT directory; and provide activity reports to the Project Team.

The Project Team viewed all engagement program components, including visits to individual firms; business intelligence, profile and marketing, demonstration projects, professional development and export opportunities, as interdependent and therefore took an integrated program approach to implement Stage 2 of the Ballarat ICT Cluster. All components built on the Stage I research with Ballarat's ICT firms, which identified their capabilities, size, relationships and needs. The program also benefited from the concurrent development of the ICT 2030 Strategy for the City of Ballarat.The Project Team developed a program that had the objective to engage both existing ICT firms as well as new entrants. Strategies included regularly scheduled activities and targeted new events, which either built on existing industry activities and/or were complimentary activities to provide value for ICT Cluster firms. Similarly, in identifying professional development and export opportunities for ICT Cluster firms, the Project Team built on existing partnerships and programs to deliver win-win outcomes for the region.In consultation with the Steering Committee, an engagement program, including individual firm visits and a series of workshops and events, was agreed upon for rollout during the project timeframe. This approach allowed for the incorporation of actions/events that were either timely vis-à-vis other scheduled events taking place in the region or might emerge from the engagement process.

Both formative and summative methodologies were adopted for the evaluation of the Stage 2 Cluster project. To facilitate formative evaluation an action research approach of continuous cycles of action and reflection was adopted. The processes of action and reflection, which were adopted by both the participants and the Project Team in this project, is particularly suited to ICT-related change as it enables inquiry into and integration of the technical, economic, organisational, human and cultural aspects of the intervention (McDonagh & Coghlan, 2001).

To facilitate the continuous action-reflection evaluation design, a series of online evaluation questionnaires were designed. Feedback processes were included in all stakeholder consultations and the Balllarat ICT website www.ballaratict.com was used as the central location for the ongoing collection of evaluation data and feedback from ICT Cluster participants.

After each scheduled event, participants were prompted via email to visit the website and provide feedback via a brief online survey. Answers were captured via online software and analysed on an individual activity basis (see Appendix 1 for sample questionnaire). A database of stakeholders' participation activities was also constructed.

As part of the summative evaluation process, all formative evaluation data were collated and analysed for key themes and tangible performance measures include the number of firms that joined the Cluster during Stage 2; individual gains by firms; the number of meetings/events that were organised and attended by the number of Cluster stakeholders, etc. Where possible, more intangible Cluster measures such as recognition of the Cluster, business climate and performance, impact of Cluster activities and resulting Cluster dynamism were also taken into consideration.