The TalentNZ initiative has been underway for a month now and we are in the planning stages of a speaking tour for early next year. Our first major output is the journal TalentNZ: Creating a place where talent wants to live. The Journal comprises three major sections; talent, cities and economy.
Talent
The Talent section focuses on the experiences and ideas of talented kiwis. Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, who helped fund the TalentNZ initiative, opens this section with his thoughts on talent and what New Zealand needs to do to attract and grow our talent base. Following this, 30 talented kiwis answer seven questions on how New Zealand can create a talent based economy.
Cities
The Cities section is all about attracting and connecting talent in New Zealand. The Mayors of New Zealand’s four major cities, Len Brown of Auckland, Celia Wade-Brown of Wellington, Lianne Dalziel of Christchurch and Dave Cull of Dunedin, give an overview of how their cities are striving to become a place where talent wants to live. Wendy McGuinness, McGuinness Institute’s Chief Executive, then discusses how to connect the talent within our cities to develop talent hubs.
Economy
A summary of the late Sir Paul Callaghan’s keynote presentation at the 2011 StrategyNZ workshop opens the economy section. In his essay, Sustainable economic growth for New Zealand: An optimistic myth-busting perspective, Sir Paul lays out a strong case for investing more in research and technology industries with greater growth potential than an agricultural based export economy. Shaun Hendy, who co-authored Get off the grass with Sir Paul, discusses how to create networks within New Zealand to create collaboration between researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Hayden Glass, an economist with the Sapere Research Group, outlines the flows of human capital and New Zealand immigration and diaspora, John Trail, Head of Sales and Marketing at Magritek, discusses his experience taking ideas and businesses to international markets and Wendy McGuinness examines how to empower youth and cities.
