Dream for Wellington - The Rotary Forum 1 August 2017: Peter Biggs, Chair Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency

·       Dreams can be disturbing things, scary, memorable – come from the unconsicous

·       Whittakers runs of instinct and feel – no consumer research

·       Steve Jobs – can’t connect dots looking forward – only backwards – somehow have to trust

·       Uber – and Air BnB doesn’t own cars / rooms

·       We as human beings can’t cope with the rate of rapid change in the world – world dranatically being reshaped – turmoil around the world caused by rate of change

·       Cities are more important (GDP) / dangerous than countries

·       The world wants us but is a threat to us:

o   Always to islanders – danger is what comes from over the sea – Allen Curnow

·       Successful places:

o   Talent

o   Connectedness

o   Innovation

o   Distinctiveness

·      We need to be a small region with a larger way of thinking – the most impaginative captial and region in the world. Regional and urban development

·       Three things we can do:

o   Concentrate: On lighthouse identity – how can we capture the world’s imagination (how the F did they do that?)

o   Coordinate: One Team Wellington – how can we work as one region – go fast = go alone; go far = go together

o   Communicate: End “winking in the dark” – habit of putting money in frastructure but failing to tell people about it around the world