From owning a surf shop to being involved in the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund Dr. David Wilson has been on quite the economic development journey.

As a surf shop owner, David felt how New Zealand’s small businesses could be at the mercy of bigger social trends. This led him back to university to study social policy and psychology.

And he didn’t stop there.

With a drive to address the deep problems in society and a growing interest in regional economic development he completed a Masters in Public Policy and his Doctorate in Governance and Regional Economic Development.

David’s focus is creating positive change for communities through economic development. You can see this in his recent joint submission to the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s Draft Report on Frontier Firms, with Ifor Ffowcs-Williams and Dr. Dough Galwey.

You can reach out and connect with Dr. David Wilson via LinkedIn.

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Kelly Ann was partway through facilitating a codesign workshop when the group asked them to sit down and stop facilitating.

Ouch.

But this experience proved to be a pivotal moment.

It showed Kelly Ann the limitations of their design training and kickstarted a journey of personal and professional discovery.

Fast forward a decade and they are now leading the next evolution of codesign. Their recent book Beyond Sticky Notes brings together a significant body knowledge (along with some personal stories) to showcase what codesign really looks like. (A hint: it’s not about shiny methods and fancy post-it note exercises.)

You can reach out and connect with Kelly Ann via LinkedIn or Email.

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A driving force for citizen value and engagement within Auckland Council, Helen has played a lead role in shifting the Council’s culture of community engagement over the last 7+ years.

You’ll find this won’t come as a surprise…. as community engagement has always been a big part of Helen’s life.

From her childhood running amongst local markets where her family were stallholders, to later co-founding the Ponsonby Street Markets where she loved connecting with the local designers and makers. Helen is not one to sit still for long.

Fast forward to now, and you can feel Helen’s excitement about using digital platforms to leverage the wisdom of Auckland’s diverse communities.

You reach out and connect with Helen via LinkedIn.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Growing up Sean wanted to be a chef. Fortunately for Wellington City, he instead became obsessed with how you can use technology to create thriving cities. He’s all about leveraging data so communities can make smarter and faster decisions.

Today Sean is part of the Innovations team at Wellington City Council.

His approach?

Pushing boundaries of how we can use technology to make data more accessible. Uncovering what’s really driving how a place forms and grows. Supporting a collaborative approach to developing solutions tailored to local issues and opportunities.

Sean’s emerging leadership in this developing field was recognised on a global platform when he won the 2020 Smart Cities Leaders Award for Australia and New Zealand.

You can connect with Sean via LinkedIn where he regularly shares thought-provoking articles and updates.

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Beyond Consultation’s very own host, Paul McGregor, is leading us into 2021 with a new transformational model being developed at Business Lab (currently at the prototype stage).

When he's not delving deep into going beyond consultation with incredible guests, Paul is bringing energy through his facilitation and leading exciting projects, establishing models and working with diverse organisations and community.

Paul is an action taker.

He sees something that doesn’t work well. Gathers data. Learns. Makes transformation happen.

Through his consulting work he recognised this continuous pattern of community engagement being treated as an afterthought. Driven by his passion to see organisations having engagement embedded into their DNA, the prototype was born.

Bursting to share feedback on the model?

Connect with Paul via

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After years of working in and around government in both Australia and the UK, Matthew co-founded Bang the Table to apply technology to the problem of connecting people with the issues that affect their lives.

He had seen how the same people would respond to government consultations, time and time again. And he figured that technology must be able to help scale up community engagement.

And he was right.

Since 2007, Bang the Table has connected with millions of people on behalf of hundreds of clients in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the USA. And they’re only just getting started.

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Atawhai Tibble has the superpower of building partnerships between Māori and the Crown.

He developed a framework for engaging with Māori, called the 5 Wai's framework. It’s all about how you engage with Māori in a way that works for Māori.

Atawhai has been involved in the development of Te Kupenga, Stats NZ's first survey of Māori wellbeing.  When the COVID lockdown hit, he played a lead role in an initiative called Manaaki, which was about ensuring iwi had a voice in central government decision-making. And recently he founded Tūhono Māori Network to connect young Māori professionals and more experienced Māori professionals.

You can connect with Atawhai on LinkedIn.

With a cameo from Donelle Manihera

Donelle Manihera is one-half of Kauati Limited - the consulting firm that helps organisations to engage Māori on all things environmental. Her iwi is Ngāi Tahu - and Te Rūnanga Ngāi Tahu a former employer.

We invited her to share the “one thing she wished her clients did” when it came to engaging with Māori, and included this in the show.

Connect with Donelle on LinkedIn or learn more about Kauati Limited here.

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Alicia McKay is New Zealand’s leading voice in strategy, change and leadership.

Former strategy consultant and facilitator, she has worked with New Zealand and Australia’s most senior leaders in government, business and community as a coach, trainer and mentor.

She’s watched people go around in circles, burn themselves out, and waste their time on bullsh*t for years - and she’s done all that too. But not anymore.

Former foster kid, teen parent and all around shit-magnet, Alicia is passionate about supporting others to create meaningful change.

Originally out of the public sector, Alicia has worked with local, regional, state and central government across New Zealand and Australia and has partnered with leaders in transport, infrastructure and engineering, banking, finance, professional services, education, health and social services.

Alicia reaches global audiences online, has a dedicated LinkedIn following and co-hosts popular What's On Your Mind podcast with Digby Scott.

She is the author of two books, From Strategy to Action: A Guide to Getting Sh*t Done in the Public Sector with her next book due for publication in May 2021.

You can connect with Alicia on LinkedIn or contact her via email.

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Mike began his career in local government in 1985 with a community advisor role in Christchurch City Council, not anticipating HOW interesting it would be.

Fast forward 35 years, and Mike is New Zealand's leading expert on everything local government.

Mike obviously has a big brain, and you can hear that in this episode. He's quoting studies and reports as if he read them all this morning in preparation for the interview. Mike’s most recent project has been leading the Localism Project with Local Government New Zealand.

You can connect with Mike on LinkedIn or contact him via email.

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Paul Brown doesn’t shy away from challenging the status quo.

His parents passed on values of kindness and compassion. As he put it…

And this led him from a successful corporate career to CEO of Child Fund New Zealand. For the last 15 years he led the rejuvenation of Child Fund, continuously pushing the boundaries on the norm of non-profits.

If you find yourself continuing to hit a wall on taking risks towards social innovation, this episode is for you. Paul shares simple and powerful ways for your organisation to embrace the challenge of change.

You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn or contact him via email.

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