Forum for the Future on the New Zealand economy

Media Release September 20, 2009

Unitec hosts Forum for the Future on the New Zealand economy

A series of panel discussions on the future of the New Zealand economy will be hosted at Unitec during October. Rod Oram, award winning business journalist and adjunct Professor at Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing, will faciliate the discussions.

The three-evening series is the inaugural programme in The Unitec Forum for the Future which has been established to help stimulate discussion about New Zealand’s opportunities and challenges in the global economy.

Rod Oram and his colleagues at Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing have identified a range of major topics for the Forum. Each topic will be tackled in a series of three 90-minute panel-style discussions bringing together sector leaders, academics, students and the public.

The first series will run October 8, 15 and 22 from 6.30pm- 8.00pm at Unitec’s Mount Albert campus in Auckland. It will examine the National-led government’s goal of having the New Zealand economy catch up with Australia’s by 2025. It has formed a task force, led by Don Brash, the former Reserve Bank Governor and National party leader, to advise it. The Unitec Forum for the Future will stimulate thinking on how the goal can be reached.

The October 8 session will consider the 2025 challenge – how big is the task and how will we do it? The two guest speakers will be Dr Rick Boven, director of the New Zealand Institute, and David Caygill, a member of the 2025 taskforce, chairman of the Electricity Commission and a former Labour cabinet minister.

The October 15 session will consider the Dairy sector’s strategic response with guest speakers Tim Mackle, chief executive of Dairy New Zealand, the industry research organisation, and John Penno, chief executive of Synlait, a large South Island dairy farming business that has built its own milk drier and processing plant in its drive for higher value, more customised products.

The October 22 session will explore the Tourism sector’s strategic response with guest speakers Graeme Osborne, chief executive of Tourism Auckland, and Ed Sims, general manager of Air New Zealand’s international operations.

Associate Professor and Head of Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Davis says, “The Forum is a great opportunity for our students, guests and the live audience to engage in a broader discussion about the role of enterprise in wider New Zealand society."

“Each programme will be filmed and edited for the web by students from Unitec’s Department of Screen and Performing Arts and made available on the Unitec website and a dedicated blog to allow for wider debate on the issues,” says Davis.

The Unitec Forum for the Future plans to run at least two such programmes a year.

Unitec's Department of Management and Marketing offers a range of business programmes including the New Zealand Diploma in Business, Bachelor of Business, Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Master of Business.

The Department is part of the Faculty of Creative Industries and Business with Unitec the first tertiary provider in New Zealand to recognise the importance of blending business with the creative industry.

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