MCGUINNESS INSTITUTE MEDIA RELEASE 3 MARCH 2014
TalentNZ goes nationwide: Creating a place where talent wants to live.
The McGuinness Institute announces its next step in the TalentNZ project – a March 2014 tour throughout New Zealand
meeting Members of Parliament, City Mayors, Councillors and other interested parties through a mix of private and public
meetings.
Wendy McGuinness, chief executive, states that “the TalentNZ project builds on the thinking of Sir Paul Callaghan’s
vision of making New Zealand ‘a place where talent wants to live’ – a vision first spoken at the 2011 StrategyNZ
workshop hosted by the Institute.”
The 2013 TalentNZ Journal: Creating a place where talent want to live – “was our way of learning from 30 kiwis about how
New Zealand might best implement Sir Paul's vision – the creation of a talent-ased economy. From this work it became
apparent that the potential initiatives could be divided into four integrated work streams, what we have called four
pillars: grow, attract, retain and connect talent.”
“The 2014 TalentNZ Tour builds on the learnings from the Journal – that cities and towns that have the vision, the tools
and the commitment, are likely to be great places to live in five years' time.
Therefore our focus is on how best to identify and communicate the tools that work. This is why the Tour will report on
the latest research on talent and, most importantly, will be a collaborative exercise to create a TalentNZ: Menu of
Initiatives that focuses on how to create a talent-based economy.”
At each public event Wendy McGuinness will give a short introduction about the TalentNZ project, explaining what we mean
by ‘talent’ and how this translates to connecting talent in local cities and towns across New Zealand as a whole. This
will be followed by a brief discussion and a Q session with a number of the 2013 TalentNZ Journal interviewees. Koha drinks and nibbles will be available afterwards
where you can discuss the ideas presented.
As the late Sir Paul Callaghan said:
So my take is, we simply push on, ignoring the pessimism, and lead by example. Then suddenly we find ourselves
surrounded by success and telling ourselves that it was always meant to be this way.
[ENDS]