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Upcoming Breakfast Event: Auckland in 2025 – Enhancing Auckland’s Urban Experience

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Upcoming Breakfast Event: Auckland in 2025 – Enhancing Auckland’s Urban Experience

The Committee for Auckland is excited to announce an upcoming breakfast event that promises to be both insightful and inspiring. Scheduled for Thursday, 5 December 2024, from 7:30 AM to 8:45 AM, the event will be held at the Warren and Mahoney offices, located at The GRID/Mason Building, 139 Pakenham Street West, Auckland CBD

This event will focus on enhancing the Auckland experience and exploring how the city can improve its appeal to younger generations, grow its cultural offerings, and build a more vibrant, visible urban environment. The discussion will center around the theme “Auckland in 2025 – Enhancing the City Experience,” with a lineup of distinguished speakers who will share their insights and plans for the future.

Speakers Include:

  • Scott Tasker, Chief Customer Officer, Auckland Airport
  • David Reeves, Chief Executive, Auckland Museum
  • Tom Irvine, Chief Executive, Whai Maia, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei
  • Prue Daly, General Manager, New Zealand International Convention Centre (via video)
  • Annie Dundas, Director Destinations, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

Each speaker will present a “short-sharp” presentation, discussing what’s on the horizon for 2025 and sharing specific activities their organisations have underway or are involved with to enhance the Auckland experience. The presentations will be graphically-led, focusing on visual content to engage the audience effectively.

This breakfast event is an excellent opportunity for attendees to gain valuable insights into the future of Auckland and network with key stakeholders committed to making the city a better place for everyone. We look forward to seeing you there and working together to create a more vibrant and appealing Auckland.

You should have received an email invitation to this exciting event, please ensure you RSVP for catering purposes.

Qunitin Blackburn

FAL alumni profile – Qunitin Blackburn

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Quintin Blackburn

FAL Alumni profile – Quintin Blackburn

Quintin was a member of the 2010-2011 cohort of the Committee for Auckland Future Auckland Leaders Programme and returned a few years later as part of a panel of industry experts helping guide future cohorts with their second year legacy project.

Now with 30 year’s experience, Quintin is a Senior Principal and Technical Fellow in Major Project Delivery. He leads the development of Beca’s Job Director training internationally, with a cohort of over 90 new Job Director’s graduating earlier this year.

Quintin has been involved in the leadership of some of New Zealand’s largest infrastructure projects including; Auckland’s Central Interceptor, Puhoi to Warkworth Motorway and Transmission Gully PPPs, Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) and Auckland Airport’s main runway replacement and A380 readiness programme.

Highly active in the industry, Quintin has recently published two articles on PPP’s in New Zealand. In May Quintin joined the infrastructure NZ delegation to Europe with 26 other industry leaders looking at how Ireland, the UK and Denmark deliver and manage infrastructure; and since late last year he was a member of its Funding & Finance working group advising government on how to develop New Zealand’s PPP model.

Quintin lives on AKL’s North Shore with his wife and two teenage kids, and is an amateur musician, playing bass guitar in covers bands around the Auckland music scene.

Newmarket Innovation

UoA Members Tour of the Newmarket Innovation Precinct

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The committee for Auckland group at the Newmarket Innovation Precinct

UoA Members Tour of the Newmarket Innovation Precinct

The recent visit to the Newmarket Innovation Precinct by Committee for Auckland Members was both exciting and informative. The tour provided a behind-the-scenes look at this dynamic hub, showcasing its potential as a driver for Auckland’s economic and technological growth. Members explored standout features such as co-working spaces designed to encourage creativity and partnerships, and a vibrant start-up community, as well as laboratories working on groundbreaking projects in biotech, sustainability, and software development.

The visit highlighted the precinct’s role in fostering collaboration between academia and industry.

Lisa Davis

Lisa Davis joins the Board, succeeding Tom Irvine

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Lisa Davis of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei

Lisa Davis joins the Board, succeeding Tom Irvine

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Tom Irvine, of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, for his invaluable contributions and unwavering commitment to the Committee for Auckland. Over the years, Tom has played a pivotal role in driving our initiatives forward and ensuring the success of our projects. His dedication and leadership have been truly inspiring, and we are deeply appreciative of the time and effort he has invested in our committee.

As we bid farewell to Tom, we are excited to welcome Lisa Davis, also of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to the Committee for Auckland. Lisa brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective that we believe will be instrumental in continuing our mission. We look forward to working closely with Lisa and are confident that her expertise will be a great asset to our team.

This will not be the last we see of Tom, as he will step in as a delegate whenever Lisa cannot attend any Committee for Auckland meetings and events.

Thank you once again, Tom, for your exceptional service. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. And to Lisa, welcome aboard! We are thrilled to have you with us and look forward to achieving great things together.

Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

UoA Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship 21st birthday

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UoA Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship 21st birthday

On 16 October, the University of Auckland’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) celebrated 21 years and announced the winners of the Velocity $100k challenge. In addition to speeches by senior leaders of the University, guests were treated to inspiring talks by a selection of alumni and successful entrepreneurs. Amongst such luminaries, one talk that stood out was that given by serial entrepreneur Naomi Ballantyne, founder of Life Insurance company, Partners Life. Naomi gave a very frank account of what it takes to found and grow a successful company. Suffice it to say, it is not a journey for the faint-hearted!

First place in the Velocity challenge and a cheque for $25,000 went to QuickMas, an agritech solution designed to detect whether a cow has mastitis, help identify the pathogen causing it and determine whether the cow has responded to antibiotics. Second place and a $15,000 prize went to the team behind ROSS, an AI-powered platform designed to support engineers in the resolution of equipment breakdowns in the food and beverage manufacturing industry by accessing a global knowledge base.

Judith Collins

Boosting Science, Innovation and Technology in Auckland – Hon. Judith Collins, MP

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Frances Valintine and Hon. Judith Collins speak at the Innovation and Technology event

Boosting Science, Innovation and Technology in Auckland - Hon. Judith Collins, MP

Fittingly hosted in GridAKL’s Futures Lab on 19 July, the talk by Minister Collins traversed a wide range of topics, from the prevailing economic conditions (characterised as being tougher than the 2008 GFC) to the need for direct flights to Denver, Colorado and altering laws to facilitate gene technologies.

Minister Collins aspires to New Zealand being an exporter of science, innovation and technology and talked about the importance of promoting our capabilities to the world, such as our leadership in geothermal energy projects), and travelling to large markets to do so.  The Minister also talked about capturing digital nomads via more favourable immigration settings, reflecting a focus on addressing regulatory barriers, as opposed to dispensing grants – a recurrent theme.

The ensuing Q & A session was facilitated by AcademyEx founder and CfA board member Frances Valintine.  Selected soundbites:

  • Singapore has a commitment to be brilliant. Do we collectively aspire to NZ being a really wealthy country?
  • We ned to move beyond 97% of our companies being SME’s (ie: less than 50 employees).
  • The importance of boosting graduate confidence and sparking entrepreneurship.
  • Dunedin has positioned itself as a digital hub (eg: Sir Ian Taylor’s Animation Research). Arguably Auckland is unique in the NZ context as the only city of critical size to get certain things done but doesn’t present aggregated sector capability to the international market.
  • The last innovation strategy was developed in 2012. We’re overdue for an updated strategy we can all get behind.
Screenshot 2024-08-16 132330

State of the City Update

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State of the City Update
It’s three months since Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Auckland and Transport Minister Hon Simeon Brown unveiled the 2024 State of the City international benchmarking report, which found Auckland retains its distinct natural environment advantages, has improving resilience to respond to crises and maintains an overall liveability appeal. However, the report highlighted Auckland’s persistent transport infrastructure deficits, housing affordability problems and the impact of a slower than average economic recovery.
The Committee has prioritised two of the lowest ten pillars for action. In the innovation area, Auckland struggles with underinvestment in research, fragmented support for startups, and limited collaboration across sectors. In the knowledge/skills area, the city faces challenges in attracting and retaining skilled talent, aligning education with industry needs, and fostering effective knowledge transfer.
The Committee convened a panel of business, economic development and university leaders during TechWeek, to prioritise the actions required to strengthen Auckland’s innovation ecosystem. Some of these were: much better storytelling of the innovation Auckland has underway; greater support for early entrepreneurship and improving the start-up pathways; initiating new Auckland and New Zealand innovation strategies to update those done in 2012; strengthen global connections as both Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Mayor Wayne Brown are doing with the trade missions they are leading and build greater bipartisan support to boosting R&D investment.
Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins spoke at a Committee event on enhancing Auckland’s role as an innovation bub, strengthening the science and technology ecosystems and a commitment to working on innovation barriers such as skills shortages and regulatory hurdles.
We also took Committee members on a tour of the University of Auckland’s impressive Newmarket Innovation Precinct (refer attached story).
You will see State of the City references increasing as the report becomes an essential reference to promotion on the important assets Auckland has and action on the significant challenges it has that are currently holding it back.
SOTC Sydney

The State of Sydney

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The State of Sydney

The Committee’s sister organisation, the Committee for Sydney, released its latest State of the City report in February. The report found Sydney is the epicenter of Australian innovation with NSW attracting 57% of venture capital raised nationally, and around 75% of the innovation hubs, programs and businesses supporting emerging technologies based in Sydney.

Sydney has steadily reduced its emissions on average by 3.2% each year, while economic activity has grown by 50 percent

Economic transition in the west of Sydney is underway, with higher levels of educational attainment and growing value-added industries closing the education gap between Eastern and Western Sydney.

7.2 million people attended Sydney’s diverse suite of major events in 2023, achieving a new record.

Most categories of violent crime in Sydney have declined markedly over 20 years, but there is rising incidence of domestic violence and intimidation and harassment.

Home ownership rates are declining by 4% every 10 years and the city is not on track to deliver the 30,000 new homes it needs each year until 2041.

Average temperatures in Sydney are increasing. In 2023, Sydney recorded its all-time highest monthly average temperatures in March and July

Sydney is a reference city for Auckland in our own annual State of the City report. Auckland’s State of the City 2024 will be out later this year.

Frank Bloomfield

CfA Director Receives New Year’s Honour

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CfA Director Receives New Year’s Honour

The New Year’s Honours List announced that CfA director Frank Bloomfield will receive the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to neonatology.

Professor Bloomfield is a neonatologist and perinatal researcher who has made a significant contribution to improved health outcomes for mothers and newborn babies.

Frank worked as a clinical and academic neonatologist in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Auckland City Hospital from 2003 to 2020. He was Director of the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland for eight years, and since 2013, he has been Professor of Neonatology at the University of Auckland. He has led ground-breaking research into the optimisation of protein intake and nutrition for premature babies. He has been a member of numerous national and international committees and advisory boards promoting the health and wellbeing of pregnant women and babies. Professor Bloomfield was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Auckland in 2023 and he joined the Committee for Auckland board last year.

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