Case Study: Taronga Zoo closed for first time since WW1 — launched Taronga TV

Taronga Zoo closed its doors during the pandemic for the first time since World War 1, forcing the business to consider new ways to remain connected to the community.

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Paul White, director of information and digital technology at Taronga to discuss the organisation’s digital transformation agenda, and their investment in digital during this time.

According to White, the zoo’s closure came as a shock to the business.

“To put it into perspective, Taronga doesn't even close on Christmas day. So, closing our doors at all was a significant task for us and a bit of a culture shock to the organisation itself,” he said.

While the zoo was closed to visitors from March to June in 2020 and for 12 weeks in 2021, inside the gates, daily operations to ensure the animals’ welfare were business as usual.

“The animal welfare aspect was maintained and we were doing what we needed to do. And getting supplies and obviously food deliveries and all that sort of thing that people often don't think of when it comes to visiting the zoo. There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background.”

Taronga Zoo began using monday.com in early 2020 to help with collaboration, communication, workflow and automation said White.

According to Dean Swan, regional director Australia Pacific and Japan at monday.com, the relationship began as a trial in the IT department, and quickly extended to the broader business.

“After the small trial, other teams at Taronga Zoo requested to use the Work OS platform for their work after seeing the benefits. It was a very quick and organic relationship and we now span across many aspects of the business including executive strategy, governance, events, philanthropy, finance, and registrations,” said Swan.

“The monday.com team and partner Upstream worked closely with Taronga Zoo to ensure the platform met their business needs and offered training for quick adoption across the team.”

One innovation that came as a result of the Covid shut down was Taronga TV, which has since been watched by over six million viewers around the world.

According to White, Taronga TV was launched from concept to realisation in one week.

“We wanted to make sure we stayed in touch with the public and our members, and maintain our messaging, which we found a difficult concept given that we were closing,” said White.

“So we leveraged existing technologies, CCTV, and other tech that we had, and were able to very quickly implement, the Taronga TV platform, which started off as very much live streams of some of our animal exhibits, which is fascinating and an interesting way to continue our message.”

Taronga TV receives millions of views a month and its content library has an education focus to assist with home schooling he said.

According to monday.com’s Swan, the organisation’s work operating system (OS) platform was leveraged for Taronga TV’s launch.

“Taronga TV was born from a creative idea, developed by a marketing team, and executed through one agile Work OS platform,” said Swan.

“It allowed all the marketing and creative initiatives to be planned and coordinated in one place.”