We were thrilled to welcome many of our valued clients to our newly refurbished office and present our 2024 Auckland Future Ready Megatrends Report to this key audience.
The function started with an official welcome by Pou Arataki Reginald Proffitt, and our Managing Director Ian Blair then took to the podium to introduce the event and set the stage for our guests.
Our Director of Strategic Advisory Grant Hodges spoke about the Auckland megatrends and the enormous changes they are likely to catalyse in the coming decades, before facilitating a lively panel discussion about the trends with Jolie Hodson, CEO of Spark New Zealand, Shayne Cunis, Chief Programme Delivery Officer, Watercare, Ross Roberts, Head of Engineering Resilience, Auckland Council, Vinny Minett, Director – Investment, WSP, and Vivienne Ivory, Technical Principal - Social Sciences, Resilience and Public Health, WSP.
The discussion was wide-ranging and broadly concerned with the importance of resilient infrastructure, and how our industry can work together to ensure our region is future ready – not only within the next 20-50 years, but for generations.
Our panellists were asked: what’s the one big thing you’d like to see happen for the future of Auckland? They said:
- Get public and private sectors working together to decide on shared values, planning and connection across industries.
- Solve the water-energy nexus and move from a cost-based to value-based approach for water.
- Decide once and for all: who is going to take ownership of making Aotearoa New Zealand more resilient?
- Use all the finance tools in our toolbox to find solutions, try new funding and financing methods, and figure out how to do more with less.
- Put the needs of our most vulnerable people at the forefront of all the decisions we make.
The event was a fantastic opportunity to deepen relationships with existing clients and make new connections. Sincere thanks to our WSP staff who hosted clients at the event – it was a memorable one and is sure to be the first of many such functions.