By Mitchell Pham, Chair of the Digital Council for Aotearoa New Zealand.
Stakeholder meetings
Last week, we met with people from the arts and creative industries, which was fascinating.
They told us about the importance of storytelling and getting New Zealand stories and perspectives out into the world. They said the medium doesn’t matter. Instead, it’s the quality and the diversity of stories we can tell. It’s our stories that help make us unique. Stories sit at the core of what people consume and why they consume it.
People from the creative industries told us they want government to invest in capability building. Business skills and monetising content doesn’t come naturally to all creatives. However, with the right support, the industry has plenty of potential to grow.
Meantime, Victoria Blood, leader of WeCreate, expressed the organisation’s enthusiasm for working more closely on future projects and initiatives with the Digital Council.
Digital Council Alliance
As part of our stakeholder engagement work, we’re also in the process of establishing a Digital Council Alliance.
The Alliance will be made up of a range of key stakeholders keen to help us consult widely and diversely with New Zealanders in August (when we plan to invite people to feed back on our main research ideas) and better understand the issues we need to focus on as a Council.
Techweek 2020 in July
We’re excited to say we’re scoping a possible Techweek 2020 event in late July and (fingers crossed) will have more to say about that shortly.
Future Government Summit in August
We’re also pleased to confirm the Digital Council will attend — and host a session — at the Future Government Summit on Thursday 20 August.
Held in Wellington, at Shed 6, and also online, the summit is aimed at public sector chief executives, chief information or operating officers, tech leaders and advisors.
This year’s one-day event features a wide range of speakers covering four main themes: technology, collaboration, citizen-centric engagement and leadership.
The Council’s speaking slot is scheduled for 3:40pm and will explore our role and work to date.
Sign up to attend. We look forward to seeing you there.