What’s been happening since Inspire Day 2012?

You will remember that the delegation spent the afternoon of 29 May tackling the day's key question, "How to build stellar global companies from Wellington?"

The collective conversation gave Grow Wellington, our partners including Kea New Zealand and the business community at large, valuable insight into what we can do to help companies go global from here. And we thank all those who took part.

Following the 2012 Inspire Day, Grow Wellington committed to driving forward some initiatives that aligned with the four work streams. We’d like to share our progress and some new and relevant initiatives with you. Read on, and you will see that collaborating and telling the Wellington story are key to our success.

1.    Our value proposition

• ‘Destination Wellington’ – in September 2012, Wellington City Council, Positively Wellington Tourism and Grow Wellington announced they were embarking on a collaborative project to attract business, investment and talent to Wellington. Fundamental to the ‘destination Wellington’ programme is the development of Wellington’s value proposition for targeted overseas markets and industry sectors, a value proposition that all Wellingtonians can use when they talk about how great it is to live, work and do business here. More about ‘destination Wellington’ here.
   
•  Untold Tales – in November 2012, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held its premiere in Wellington city. Park Road Post Production and Grow Wellington took advantage of the visiting international media to promote the Wellington region’s value proposition as a digital innovation hub, to the world.  Untold Tales was a very successful platform for 250 of Wellington’s brightest technology entrepreneurs, screen & digital creatives and business investors to explore opportunities to collaborate for business and sector growth.
  Watch the Weta Workshop Untold Tale below or click here to see more of the videos we produced to showcase a sample of stellar screen and digital companies going global from Wellington.
   

2.    Collaborating to take advantage of business opportunities

• WellCan – in March 2013, Grow Wellington and partners – including Wellington Employers Chamber of Commerce, ANZ, Brendon Burns & Associates MACRO and Wellington City Council – hosted a forum for providing business owners in the Wellington region with insight into the Canterbury rebuild, and start conversations about collaborating with businesses in Canterbury to support rebuild activity. Almost 200 people attended to hear from Cantabrians and Wellingtonians alike about their business collaboration experiences, and their successes and lessons learned. Grow Wellington saw this forum as an opportunity for networking but equally as a learning opportunity for businesses in the Wellington region to first learn how to collaborate with other businesses to take advantage of a national opportunity, before exploring international collaborations. More on WellCan here.
   
• Collaborate Canterbury is a new online portal for helping Canterbury business owners access products, skills and services from outside their region, and Grow Wellington encourages any business with technology, digital, professional services, design, engineering, planning, manufacturing and construction capability to register their profile here.
   
•  EdTech for Export – in April 2013 Learning Media, Education New Zealand and Grow Wellington collaborated on eT4e, the inaugural national conference held at Te Papa for the emerging and globally significant education technology sector. EdTech includes a diverse range of learning-focused products and services including games, apps, educational software, courseware and environments. The conference unpacked export success stories, provided global EdTech world views, and explained potential funding and business development support. eT4e also kickstarted a process for developing a collaborative EdTech sector for New Zealand where networks and partnerships can be built for an EdTech exports future. Click here to see interviews with the speakers or watch our the interview below with Stephen Knightly from InGame.
  
   

3.    Developing a global mindset

• Kea World Class New Zealand Inspire Day 2013 – Grow Wellington is delighted to be hosting this event again in 2013. This year’s message is “From Thriving to Surviving” and we will hear not only from the 2013 World Class New Zealand award winners, but other thought leaders who will share their observations of what it takes to think and do ‘global’.
   
•  Developing world-class business owners – to be competitive internationally, it is essential that business owners actively build their management capabilities. New Zealand Trade & Enterprise co-invests in the skill and entrepreneurial development of the region’s business owners through their Capability Development Voucher Scheme, administered by Grow Wellington. Grow Wellington has helped NZTE invest over $500,000 in the Wellington region each year for the last three years, and the majority of the funding has been targeted at development of entrepreneurial and business strategy skills, international marketing and export readiness, investment readiness, financial management, marketing and sales skills – capability that is the hall-mark of businesses that succeed offshore.
  As an extension of the Voucher Scheme Grow Wellington takes an active role in helping businesses connect to trainers, coaches and professional services providers that demonstrate credibility and capability in helping businesses succeed offshore. The transfer of skills and knowledge is invaluable.

4.    Attracting talent

• Attracting international students – Education Wellington works alongside the region’s tertiary education institutions and secondary schools to promote Wellington internationally as an exciting, safe and innovative place to live and study. International students play a vital role in knowledge creation and transfer, contribute significantly to the local economy and bring with them a global perspective.
  
  
• Grow Wellington plays an important role in connecting the region’s business owners with under-graduate, graduate and post-graduate student talent through internships. This gives businesses access to new skills and fresh thinking in their business and on special projects, and gives students real-world and commercial experience to augment their academic learning, connect them locally with innovative businesses and improve their employability.
  
  
• ‘Destination Wellington’ – this tri-partisan, collaborative project will drive activity to attract business, investment and talent to Wellington, with the ultimate aim of growing the economy and prosperity of the region.
  Attracting highly-skilled and experienced migrants, as investors or staff, is critical for ensuring that Wellington’s businesses can access a local talent pool that has the technical and commercial expertise needed to compete internationally.

A big thank you to our 2012 workshop facilitators:

2012 World Class New Zealand Inspire Day Videos