Kia ora e te whanau,

I trust you enjoyed the 2018 NZILA Tuia Pito Ora City Tāone conference.  I certainly did.  With the strongest line up of international speakers at an NZILA conference I can recall and a program and theming that was absolutely on point, I have heard excellent feedback from members.  Henry Crothers and his Organising Committee did a herculean job of pulling together a top conference under a very tight timeframe.  

The Organising Committee was ably assisted on logistics by Vicki Clague and our conference organiser Jan Broadley.  Thanks also to our very high calibre group of international speakers for making the journey and for sharing your stories from around the globe with us in Aotearoa.  

Financially and creatively, the 2018 NZILA Tuia Pito Ora Conference will go down as a success and a model for future conferences.  

As announced at the Conference, we had hoped to co-host the International Festival of Landscape Architecture in 2019 with AILA in Christchurch.  Unfortunately that won’t work out this time around, but we are working on an MOU with AILA that will pave the way for future events.  In the meantime, we are working hard on logistics for our 2019 Conference.  More on that soon.   

The AGM held prior to the 2018 Conference received a presentation on the Governance Review we are undertaking from Graeme Nahkies from BoardWorks International.  This is one of the most important projects that the Institute are currently working on and it could completely re-shape our organisation and how we deliver services to our membership.  If you have an opportunity to provide feedback or to participate in the governance review, then please do, as it is all about our members.  

On 10 May, Shannon Bray and I met with the Minister of Conservation, the Honourable Eugenie Sage and senior department staff to discuss the Landscape Assessment Guidelines project.  We received a warm response from the Minister and are now working on a further briefing paper for the Minister for the Environment.  It seems likely that we will get further support and financial backing for this important project from the government.   Thanks for your ongoing energy for his project Shannon.   

There are some great project and personal profiles going up on the Landscape Architecture Aotearoa website, as well as videos and summaries from the Conference.  Take a look and get in touch through the website if you have something to share. 

Finally, I have visited two of our University providers, several practices and have had many conversations with a number of our members over the last six weeks or so.  I am starting to get a better picture of where priorities lie for our membership.  If you have anything you want to share with me, then please drop me a line president@nzila.co.nz  

Nga mihi,

Brad