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Executive Director Report
What a fantastic summer Auckland has been experiencing and I am not just referring to the weather, a subject that continually dominates Aucklanders' conversation. It has been a summer full of events; a veritable 'something for everyone'. And if that was not enough we welcome the Cricket World Cup, Auckland Arts Festival, Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival, Polyfest and many others all of which contribute to Auckland being a great place to live, work and play.
So it would seem the timing of the Committee's Auckland as a Creative City report has been perfect as we highlight both the economic and social benefits of advancing the cultural and creative industries. This report is already receiving a great deal of support and we will continue to update members as we progress support for the recommendations.
Members will have noted my recent opinion piece in the Herald regarding the need for an international standard convention centre in Auckland. The Committee for Auckland has long been an advocate for an international convention centre to be built here in Auckland as an essential contributor to the visitor economy. In my article, I outlined the substantial benefits such a convention centre will bring, not just to the Auckland region, but to New Zealand as a whole.
Once again Auckland Council is being asked to address issues regarding port expansion and the reclamation. The Committee's position based on our Three Waters: Auckland as a Maritime City report was that no substantial reclamation should proceed until the second stage of the UNISA report had been completed. This second stage was to scope and undertake an examination of long term options for freight movement through Auckland including consideration of the relationship between the port and Auckland's urban form and the opportunity cost of each. In 2013 Mayor Len Brown, promised to commission such a report so Aucklanders could have a proper and informed discussion about whether the port should expand or otherwise, underpinned by a robust study that included consideration of economic, social and environmental factors. Given the latest NZIER report itself states the port could well be at capacity in 20 years, this promised study needs to proceed with urgency.
In the meantime Council approved two extensions to Bledisloe wharf prior to Christmas and has moved further reclamation from non-complying to discretionary status. The port has also announced its intention to reclaim the 3 ha of seabed between these two 'finger' wharves on Bledisloe Wharf to increase parking capacity for its car imports. Is it not time for Auckland to have that informed discussion about the future of the Waitamata Harbour on the back of the much anticipated study?
Heather Shotter
Executive Director
News in Brief
 Auckland as a Creative City Launch
The Committee’s Auckland as a Creative City report launched in December last year aims to galvanise action to advance Auckland’s creative economy. By publishing the report, the Committee for Auckland intends to kick-start part two of Auckland’s Arts and Culture Strategic Plan to focus on a strategy that will build stronger communities and attract more innovative, skilled people and investment to galvanise city pride and advance our economic growth which all contributes to making Auckland a more liveable city.
The report follows on from our 2012 business case proposal Unleashing the Creative Economy which suggested that an effective, forward-thinking strategy is vital for Auckland’s success. Our latest report offered five key recommendations to maximise value from the cultural and creative industries – starting with a comprehensive mapping exercise to identify the current scope of creative and cultural activity and following up with a symposium to ensure buy-in from all stakeholders.
As a comparison, the report investigates seven international cities to examine how they have harnessed the strengths of their creative sectors to achieve a range of economic, social and cultural outcomes that have improved the quality of urban living.
To celebrate the launch, the Committee for Auckland invited members and special guests to a breakfast event at the Auckland Museum to be inspired by a panel of creative experts. Chaired by Simon Wilson, editor of Metro magazine, they shared their own experiences and thoughts on the opportunities a successful creative city provides.
The panel included Paul Owens of BOP Consulting London who offered anecdotes via video link about his personal experience of developing a cultural and creative industries strategy for London. He highlighted the rewards that having an innovative, all-encompassing strategy has made possible for this truly great global city.
James Hurman, advertising strategist and the Principal and Founder of Auckland innovation consultancy Previously Unknown spoke of the need to identify those people in our cultural and creative industries who have a history of creative excellence with exciting creative ideas. “We really need to work to put these projects into the hands of people who have genuine talent and vision.”
Richard Grant, Chairman of the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand reflected on the importance of collaboration going forward. He added, “it’s crucial Auckland takes the lead in driving the creative process”.
Roy Clare CBE, Director of the Auckland Museum, said Auckland needs to own the creative space and work in partnership with Te Papa and also the waterfront precinct – “there is a rich opportunity here.”
Patrick McVeigh, General Manager Economic Growth, Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development pointed out the need to build a stronger narrative about what’s happening in Auckland that’s owned and shared by the city. “The danger is looking down not out.”
Richard Didsbury, Chairman of the Committee for Auckland noted: “We’ve got to move the political processes on from thinking they are subsidising the economic contribution. By measuring the economic performance of our cultural and creative industries, we can see their achievements justify the funding.”
The report generated significant interest from the media as well as in the wider community.
Since the launch, we have continued to progress the debate around developing Auckland as a creative city by sending a regular opinion pieces to the media for publication. Our first opinion piece was published in the NZ Herald on 10 February: Let’s keep the creative party going.
As the first step in our strategy of obtaining buy-in from stakeholders, Heather Shotter and Richard Didsbury are presenting to both local and central government. The first dialogue is with the Council’s Arts, Culture and Events Committee on February 25. We have also been invited to meet with Hon. Maggie Barry, the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage to discuss how to move the recommendations forward.
We will keep you informed on the progress we make during these discussions.
CFA in the News
The Committee for Auckland continues to respond to key infrastructure issues as they arise in the media. By promoting a well-researched and well-considered point of view, our aim is to lift the debate beyond a short-term horizon to ensure the community and its leaders respond positively to our visionary agenda.
The Committee received wide spread coverage as a result of our Auckland as a Creative City media activity. Several articles were published. We gained radio coverage on Newstalk ZB and look forward to the first of several “creative” op-eds appearing in the Herald.
The NZ Herald featured its annual Project Auckland supplement on December 9, 2014. This supplement tracks Auckland’s progress on a range of issues to determine where we are at in our goal of becoming “The world’s most liveable city”. Heather Shotter’s opinion piece about the importance of having a forward thinking strategy was prominent.
Heather also was interviewed as part of a broader piece on Tourism in the same Herald issue.
Our ideas were featured in the Transport pages on January 26.
And Heather Shotter’s piece on the urgency of building an international convention centre featured on January 28.
Future Auckland Leaders Programme
The Future Auckland Leaders gathered for their Year 2 ‘Project Weekend’ in February, hosted by Ngati Whatua at Orakei Marae.
Their 5 Legacy Projects were buoyed by new team members and inspiration gathered over the Christmas break. Our weekend programme included:
- Team building & team charter development
- Alumni ‘tips and traps’ & project mentoring advice
- Philanthropic and funding advice from “dragon” Jenny Gill
- A full one day workshop on ‘Design Thinking’ led by Richards Partners. The overarching theme to launch the day’s activities was ‘How might we make Auckland the world’s greatest place to live, work and play?’ The aim of this event was to embed the methodology of knowledge transfer and professional development for the workshop participants in design-thinking skill sets. The groups then considered how a design-thinking methodology may be applied to advance and accelerate their own legacy projects
Group reflections from Year 1 included comments on renewed ‘engagement and understanding’ of how Auckland works to the importance of understanding one’s leadership style. Our 31 leaders are now deeply immersed in Year 2 with clarity and energy being focused on their 5 projects:
- Donating Brains
- Community Kitchen
- TĪMATA TOURS
- Garden of Knowledge
- Volcanic Field
Member News
 Committee for Auckland welcomes Holmes Consulting Group as a new member
Holmes Consulting Group (HCG) is a structural engineering consultancy with five offices in New Zealand, an affiliated office in San Francisco and a practice that is global in scope. Our focus is on providing solutions that are cost-effective, pragmatic and thoughtful. The range of projects to which we have contributed is impressive.
We are specialists. Our analysis methods are so advanced that often we create our own tools because there is no software that can do the job right.
This high-level analysis ensures that every consideration is given to the safety of our projects and the people who inhabit them, but also allows the vision of architects to soar.
We live in a land that is stunningly beautiful but is one of the most seismically active in the world.
We think a lot about safety - in fact, our engineers are often involved in reviewing the standards that govern building in New Zealand.
As we are specialists, we happily merge into the project teams. We do not attempt to expand into other aspects of the design and build process.
Our people are committed, enthusiastic and above all, very smart. We pass along our collective wisdom to each new employee.
 Auckland Arts Festival Begins
Not long to wait for the Auckland Arts Festival. It kicks off on 4 March with an explosion of theatre, music, cabaret, dance and visual arts. Festival highlights include South African award-winning director Brett Bailey's arresting and utterly original opera, Macbeth, the New York success story Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, the world premiere of Skin of Fire, a spectacular outdoor show of fire, projections and pyrotechnics by Groupe F, Sir Michael Tippet’s choral masterpiece A Child of Our Time and the previews of some stunning New Zealand theatre, dance, music and visual art. Click here for more info.
Upcoming Events
Dialogue Session with Hon. Murray McCully MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Associate Minister for Sport and Recreation and MP for East Coast Bays
Date: Thursday 26 February
Time: 4pm - 6pm
Location: Westpac, Britomart
Minister McCully will be addressing our members about New Zealand’s role at the Security Council including outlining expectations of the reform agenda and what the Ministry hopes to achieve for the future. RSVP now.
Dialogue Session with Mayor Len Brown
Date: Tuesday 14 July
Time: 12:15pm - 2pm
Venue: TBC
More details will be available soon.
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