2 March 2016 at 9:00 am
Confidence in Christchurch
The conference drew together over 120 people, including delegates from other regions, a range of industry stakeholders the Christchurch Educated International Student Association and te presenters from industry and ENZ.
Murray Strong, Chair of the Canterbury Leadership Accord, joined Christchurch Educated Chair, Mike Hadley, in opening the day with a reminder of the Strategy vision and 2025 targets to lift student enrolments to 25,000 and economic value to $937 million. Murray noted that good progress is being made in a range of product and market development projects.
The Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, Peter Townsend, indicated that, with $100 million additional investment each week, the Christchurch rebuild will maintain its momentum for some time to come. Drawing on material produced by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Peter emphasised the bright future for the city as a place to learn, live and work.
Peter noted that; “The future of this region depends on the way we apply technology to our natural capital on a platform of product and service integrity”.
He challenged our industry to ensure that “service integrity” is central to all we provide for our customers.
Carl Everett, International Director, Christchurch Boys’ High School, commented; “There was a lot of talk about innovation, being flexible and thinking of new ways to approach the market, and then sharing all of that information together – especially here in Christchurch, where we are particularly good at sharing.”
Deanne Gath, International Director, Kaiapoi High School, particularly liked the definition of collaboration suggested by keynote speaker, Education Consultant, Chris Clay; “I like the idea that collaboration is working together to an end goal, but not necessary all doing the same thing. It’s about not putting all our eggs in one basket, but trialling different things to see what works – with the end goal being that we all want to increase international student numbers in the Canterbury region,” she said.
The Conference was closed by Christchurch City Councillor Jimmy Chen, representing Mayor Lianne Dalziel, who emphasised the contribution of international education to the region and the commitment of local government to support future growth aspirations.
Above: Conference attendees
