Tuesday, 9 April 2013

The Importance of Collaboration



New Zealand!
Over the next few weeks I will be visiting regional centres all over the South Island promoting ways that companies outside of Christchurch can be actively engaged in the post-earthquake rebuild. The message is fundamentally about collaboration. Local companies have the ability to unlock opportunities and outside companies have the ability to build scale. There is a growing number of examples of this happening already  and we see this trend gaining significant momentum as the pace of the rebuild accelerates. With regional GDP growth at 7.5% and the knowledge that we are just at the beginning of the recovery process, there is a growing realisation of the enormity of what we have ahead of us. I encourage you to go to www.collaboratecanterbury.org.nz  and join over 600 companies who are investigating the merits of being involved in collaborate relationships.



The World!

In mid-May CECC will be represented at the USNZ Pacific Partnership Forum in Washington. Many of the  expected 200 participants were in Christchurch on 22 February 2011 attending the NZUS Forum so they are familiar with what we have been through. Christchurch has been given a specific slot in the forum to present our case for the future of the city. This will be an opportunity to develop international connections and yes, collaborative relationships relating to education, tourism, investment, infrastructure and construction.



More details on this initiative are available by emailing CECC's General Manager, Leeann Watson leeannw@cecc.org.nz. Over 100 influential New Zealanders will be attending the forum in Washington with an equal number of political and business leaders from the USA. If you would like to be part of this initiative contact Leeann now.

Here is an excerpt from the draft programme, just to give you a flavour of  the Christchurch presentations.



The City of the Future | Building Brilliance
How to “Build Brilliance” into Cities of the Future – for Canterbury and Every City in the World.  
Global Lessons from the Rebuilding of Christchurch:


The City of the Future is a vibrant and dynamic urban place, offering employment and lifestyle choices that support a high quality of life for all ages and incomes. In the City of the Future land uses are carefully planned to allow citizens to rely on sustainable methods of transport including walking and biking to meet their daily needs for living, working, playing and learning. The resulting urban form is integrated with infrastructure tied to the self-organisation and self-maintenance of ecological processes to create beautiful, liveable places.  Business models have changed to respond to the new environment.



In this session speakers from Christchurch, recently devastated by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, and US urban planners will talk about inspirational new ways of building communities, supporting innovation and collaboration and creating spaces to complement and support the environment and its people. This session will describe how this delivers economic and social success. There are lessons here for communities not just devastated by natural disaster but by financial and commercial disruption as well.



Stories of collaboration will be told, where NZ and US research, government, business, architecture and construction are working together, inspiring us all to look to each other as we build cities of the future.”

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