Enthusiasm at brainstorm event in city
IF two brains are better than one, then 70 brains working together promises almost a guarantee of success.
That was the hope behind the Grow Dunedin Partners Great Dunedin Brainstorm event at the weekend.
About 70 people of varying demographics collaborated on Friday night and all day Saturday to find initiatives which would crack the social and economic challenges brought on by Covid19.
Grow Dunedin Partners chairman John Gallaher said the event centred around three main themes.
Theme 1 prompted ‘‘the brainstormers’’ to come up with initiatives to create new jobs in a postCovid world.
He said people were having to reinvent their careers due to job losses, and young people were facing employment and career planning difficulties.
Theme 2 asked the groups to come up with ways of raising hope and social connectedness in the city.
Evidence suggested the social and economic impacts of Covid would be felt more intensely by Maori and Pasifika, youth, women and other vulnerable populations.
The groups were asked to come up with projects to promote connections within the community to lessen the social and economic challenges.
And theme 3 called for new ways of helping local businesses to thrive following the operational challenges brought on by the pandemic.
He said many of Dunedin’s businesses would need to make changes to survive and to ensure they were prepared for future challenges and opportunities.
Mr Gallaher said the event was an extension of the core economic development strategy that Dunedin had been working under since 2013.
‘‘This is just another way of getting the community involved in that process.’’
Some of the ideas put forward to the Great Dunedin Brainstorm judging panel on Saturday would be presented to the Dunedin City Council in the hope of gaining council funding to develop the initiatives, he said.
‘‘This is pretty exciting as far as the city is concerned.
‘‘It’s a diverse group of people coming together and looking at ways in which Dunedin can innovate and respond to some of the challenges from Covid.
‘‘The city has a good culture of innovation and this is just a part of that.
‘‘It’s a great opportunity to come up with something new, and I think people have responded to it with lots and lots of enthusiasm.’’