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.”
