Whiringa-ā-rangi | November 2024
Kia ora koutou, and welcome to our November pānui | eNews.
This is our final pānui edition for 2024 – keep an eye out early next year for more WRLC news and updates.
We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.
This month’s pānui | eNews features:
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2024 highlights of the Regional Economic Development Plan
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Meet the new WLRC Head of Secretariat
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Regional Climate Change Adaptation Plan annual wrap-up
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Updates on the Regional Dashboard
2024 highlights of the Regional Economic Development Plan
A look back at some highlights of the year, due to the implementation of the Regional Economic Development Plan (REDP), which is being carried out on behalf of the WLRC by WellingtonNZ.
The region’s screen sector is thriving with initiatives to attract productions and nurture local talent.
- The REDP supported the Screen Accelerator Project 2024. This programme upskilled a diverse group of producers to develop talent and television content for the global marketplace, with Wellington being pitched as the home for productions.
- International and local film and tv productions supported by Screen Wellington spent $495m in NZ in the last year. This includes the Avatar sequels, Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits, hit NZ Series After the Party, and the Blumhouse horror Wolfman.
- Screen Wellington has also led a collaboration of 30 creative digital businesses to create a showreel exhibiting the capability and the future of filmmaking in our region. The ‘Make it Here’ showreel has had significant media coverage and the awareness raised has amplified the talent in our region, made more international connections and led to more work for the businesses.
“This is exactly the kind of thing our region needs.”
– Screen accelerator project participant
Efforts to boost the tech ecosystem are creating opportunities for local businesses and fostering innovation.
- Taiawa, a hub for local tech businesses to scale up together, in partnership with Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington was launched. It’s now the fulltime office of 60 tech sector workers from 13 companies, with more room for, and interest in, expansion.
- A tech sector leadership series was delivered, with large events like the Climate Tech Summit and Growth Jam attracting over 250 attendees and exclusive scale-up sessions for leaders at 60 high-growth tech companies covering topics like international growth strategies and product management.
“The most profound learning experience I’ve attended in the last five years. Thank you WellingtonNZ for making this happen.”
– Tech Leadership Series participant
Investing in education and mentorship programmes to build a skilled and resilient future workforce.
- The reach of House of Science reached 70% of primary and intermediate schools across our region, as a long-term investment in developing our future workforce.
- We partnered with Ngāti Toa to support a STEM mentorship programme, providing practical, hands-on experience with a range of STEM activities at locations within Porirua. This programme is supporting students to develop skills that will be beneficial in secondary school and beyond, and engaging whānau in their children’s STEM education journey.
- Girls who Grow was expanded into our region, inspiring the next generation of female change-makers, leaders, and environmental guardians into climate-positive agriculture.
“[This] is so crucial when starting in the engineering industry.”
– Summer of Engineering intern
Strengthening collaboration and innovation in the food and fibre sector to drive regional growth.
- Contributed to the Kāpiti-Horowhenua food and beverage cluster which has over 125 members, enabling local manufacturers to access capability development, a shared logistics hub, and showcase their offerings.
Encouraging tourism growth with unique offerings aligned with local strengths.
- Supported a Dark Skies Business Capability Programme in the Wairarapa, which is building the capacity of 23 locals representing 16 businesses to engage in and benefit from astro-tourism.
- Established the Wairarapa Five Towns Trail Trust and securing a Board of Trustees to drive investment attraction for trail development.
Building capacity and capability of Māori enterprises in social procurement processes.
- We are launching the Opportunities for Impact through Procurement Report, which highlights procurement as an enabler and future driver of economic development.
Ensuring readiness for future growth by planning for infrastructure and land development.
- In the process of identifying future requirements for industrial land in our region, enabling planning to get underway to ensure sufficient land is ready for new and growing businesses.
“We gained so much motivation!”
– Visitor Economy Sustainability programme attendee
Meet the new WLRC Head of Secretariat
Haere mai Jaine Lovell-Gadd
Tēnā koutou
Ko Te Whānganui ā-Tara tāku kainga noho
Ko Tāmaki Makaurau te whenua e ngākaunui ana ki āhau
Ko Lovell-Gadd tāku ingoā whānau
Ko Jaine tāku ingoā
Tēnā koutou kātoa
Jaine was drawn to the role of Head of Secretariat at WRLC as it brings together her experiences in both local and central government and presents the opportunity to contribute to making Wellington a thriving region by working closely with councils and iwi.
She has always enjoyed shaping projects and delivering outcomes to enhance a place.
Jaine has worked with local government in Auckland on projects such as managing and “growing” Mt Smart Stadium, developing the digital public transport journey planner, developing a mixed-use precinct in New Lynn and establishing the CCO governance supporting framework for the consolidated Auckland Council. She also had a role in the city transformation in Tauranga.
More recently, Jaine worked in central government, progressing the North-West and Drury Auckland Priority Development Areas, as well as a stint as the Hobsonville Point Housing Project Director.
Jaine and her husband have relocated to Wellington with their two grey Tonkinese cats and a big red Visla dog. They enjoy road and mountain cycling and recently explored the steep slopes of the Remutaka incline and the wild southeast coast.
Read articles that Jaine has published recently below.
Haere rā Kim Kelly
This month we say farewell and thank you to the outgoing Programme Director for WRLC, Kim Kelly.
Kim says, “I have met and worked with some amazing people who have great vision for the future of the region and a great passion to leave this region better for their work – this is across local government, iwi, central government, the business sector and other housing providers. This is inspiring and made doing this work a pleasure.”
We wish Kim the best of luck as she rejoins the world of consulting/contracting, which suits her preference of having a number of projects on the go to keep her busy.
Ngā mihi nui for all your mahi Kim!
Regional Climate Change Adaptation Plan annual wrap-up
2024 saw the completion of the Wellington Region Climate Change Impact Assessment. The assessment took a region-wide view of climate impacts and drew attention to their interconnectedness and highlighted some key areas of effort required. It was a milestone well received after a two year process and an even longer gestation.
The assessment put us in good stead for addressing those key actions. We hired a project lead to scope, plan, deliver and monitor what a regional approach to adaptation for the lower North Island | Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui needs to look like.
Project Lead Tom FitzGerald undertook (and is undertaking) a series of engagements, hui, meetings, catch ups (the RoadListen) to hear from practitioners about what the problems are, the knowledge gaps, current strengths, opportunities and needs for how our region can become increasingly climate resilient as we grow and evolve.
In October, the scope of works for the Regional Adaptation Project was signed off by the Committee. Five key deliverables were identified (in bold):
- The establishment of a new fixed-term roles to provide kaupapa Māori adaptation co-navigation across the project and each of the deliverables,
- The development of a Geospatial Resilience Information Tool (GRIT), to provide natural hazard and risk information and help place-based adaptation for use by all members and in partnership with Lifelines organisations,
- The development of a regional adaptation framework and associated toolbox for practitioners; critical to this will be guidance and support for tool use, and
- The development of a regional communications and engagement plan.
Detailed scoping and procurement for each key deliverable is underway and we look forward to continuing to deliver products and processes that can be picked up, tweaked, and used to deliver adaptation efficiency, better interconnectedness, and continuous learning.
Updates on the Regional Dashboard
WRLC has launched a new webpage for the regional dashboard, presenting key regional data on population, housing, and the economy. This page includes the data insights reports we published in October
There is a new section in the regional dashboard to provide insights into regional economic data, developed in close collaboration with WellingtonNZ.
In the “Housing” section, there is now a page to track and display newly announced developments across the region.
There have been continuous enhancements to improve usability and visualise new datasets.
Initiation of regular monitoring of regional data and are sharing our findings through insights reports. This will remain a key focus moving forward to ensure we continue providing valuable insights.
WRLC Publications
Contact Us
If there is something you’d like to ask, see more of and contribute, please get in touch: hello@wrlc.org.nz
About the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee
The Wellington Regional Leadership Committee is a union of councils, iwi and central government in the Wairarapa-Wellington-Horowhenua region, formed to work collaboratively on our shared, cross-boundary challenges. Our purpose is to collectively shape a region where people want to live, work and thrive.
Our projects cover the five key areas: iwi capacity, housing, climate, transport and economic development. Find out more on our project page.
