|Index|Introduction|Welcome|Programme|Workshop streams|Plenary Speakers|Plenary Speeches|

Inspiring Regional Development

Food for Thought

Regional Specialisation - The Food Hawke's Bay story

Key Points

• Get the right people on-board - people with belief, passion, commitment and controlled egos.
• Ensure you have the right structures to support the project.
• Learn from mistakes and move on.
• Involve business leaders to get their commitment and financial support.
• Having the right people on-board attracts more of the right people.
• The impact can be broader than just the food industry.
• Do not get hung up on 'sticking to the contract' - do the right thing.
• Keep the end goal in mind.
• Build on regional strengths including people, regional activities like the food markets, and industry clustering like the Food Group, existing brands and points of energy such as regional belief and passion.
• Projects need champions, regions need champions, and to be successful champions are best based from an industry focus.
• Find the champion with a passion that people will get behind.
• It is important to have a credible governance structure in place with private sector involvement a key factor.
• Need to consider:
  • Regional project and polytechnic relationships
  • What milestones the project has
  • How are the politics are managed
  • More linkages between regional will be a key activity in the future.
• Need to have flexibility in the contract to respond quickly to new projects.
• Outcomes such as increased jobs or regional GDP may take longer than three years to be realised. It is important to have a long-term view and be committed.
• There are three key areas that, if offered, will attract business attention:
  • Increased sales revenue
  • Decreased costs
  • Business capability.

|Index|Introduction|Welcome|Programme|Workshop streams|Plenary Speakers|Plenary Speeches|