On a chilly winter afternoon under clear blue skies at the Lower Hutt Events Centre, the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee held its inaugural Annual Partners Forum, this Monday 27 June.  The Forum bought together governance members of all partners to the Committee, to share an update on our work programme, as well as to support two-way engagement, to seek their views on upcoming work, and to create a space for connection, networking, and dialogue on our collective responsibility for building a healthy future for the region.

The 85 attendees included councillors from across the region, board members of iwi organisations in the region and officials from central government agencies, along with the teams responsible for delivering the projects.

We had fun employing a multi-media approach to sharing the story of our programme, with a 20-minute video which was a truly collective effort, featuring project leads speaking about their project and its place in the context of the broader work programme, along with imagery to share the vision we are working towards. Attendees were updated on the status of year one projects (2022-2023) and informed of the projects to take place in year two (2023-2024).  There will be regular updates on these as they progress so remember to keep an eye on our website, enews and linkedin. There was then time for attendees to circulate the room encircled by a series of booths, showcasing each project. Valuable discussions were had between attendees and project teams.

The second half of the forum involved a workshop designed to capture the views and experience of attendees.  Our region is required to undertake a Future Development Strategy, in time to inform the 2024-2034 Long Term Plans of councils. We gathered input and thoughts from attendees about some elements of our current regional spatial plan, the Wellington Regional Growth Framework, and the extent to which these elements are still relevant for a Future Development Strategy.

We plan to hold the Partners Forum annually, to support all the partners to the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee to engage with our work and stay informed.

The forum video will be available to view on our website in early July so connect with us on linkedin to ensure you get the announcement!

A huge thank you to the many people who’s efforts were behind the success of the forum, including the Project leads and their teams, and genius behind the final video: Brayden at Mediasol.