A Report from Across the Ditch: Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo 2024
While disasters are never welcomed, they can often become the catalyst we need to spawn new innovation and help push us beyond existing boundaries. In Australia we had a big taste of this when our way of life was up-turned during the Covid Pandemic. Many things that we once considered too hard were suddenly rolled out in record speed and have since become the norm (Eg, enabling staff to work remotely from home).
Within that context, when I was invited to attend the Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo in September 2024, I was curious to see how this beautiful city on the South Island of New Zealand had overcome the challenges presented by the two major earthquakes that literally knocked much of the CBD to the ground in September 2010 and December 2011.
The Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo was a 2 day event on 27-28 September which was actually part of a broader collection of events under the "Innovate Otautahi" banner between 23-28 September. Additional events during the week included the "New Zealand Aerospace Summit" and the "Canterbury Tech Summit". I was only able to make it for the Innovation Expo, but that was enough to leave full of admiration for the work of the Christchurch City Council and their partners, and full of inspiration for ideas I plan to explore further back in Australia.
The Innovation Expo was held in the impressive Te Pae Convention Centre, which itself was built anew as part of the post-earthquake rebuilding process and opened in 2021. Across a range of spaces were exhibitors which included things such as:
Electric Vehicles
Virtually reality video games
Special purpose drones and robots
Drone gliders
Smart City devices and sensors
STEM Learning Kits
University Innovation Program Start-ups
Earthquake monitoring sensors
Emergency management displays
Ag Tech
In addition to the exhibitors there were a range of programmed activities such as:
Innovation Stage: Programme of speakers
Local Government Innovation Workshop
E-Game competitions for high-school and primary-school students
Robot challenges and demos
Across the 2 days over 10,000 people attended and there was a steady stream of people coming and going throughout the event. The Innovation Ecosystem in Christchurch is clearly thriving with lots of key players involved in the event, and a strong interest from the general community.
My role was to make a presentation as part of the Local Government Innovation Workshop. It was great to meet with fellow local government counterparts in New Zealand and learn about the key challenges they are facing, and hear about some of the great innovations that are being rolled out.
It was particularly pleasing to see so many ASCA alumni involved in the event. We had Zoe Eather busy across the two days as the MC and a key-note speaker. Andrew Nilon from Delos Delta gave a great presentation to provide insights into the development of Smart Community Strategies. We also had former ASCA President and co-founder, Matt Shultz from Gravelroad Group sharing some insights on how to leverage City Assets.
It was a great honour to be able to represent ASCA at the event, and it is a continuation of the MOU that ASCA signed with Christchurch and Wellington Councils in 2022. The purpose of the MOU was to share information, and promote best practice across the two countries, and this was certainly evident at this event.
ASCA looks forward to welcoming Michael Healy from Christchurch City Council as a key-note speaker at our upcoming Summit being held in Melbourne on 28 November 2024.
Beyond the expo, it was great to get a chance to explore the Christchurch CBD which has all but been totally rebuilt since the earthquakes. Clearly a lot of work has gone in to re-designing the city using best practice urban design, and there was a buzz of activity across the couple of days I was there. I'd highly recommend a trip to Christchurch to anyone, and if you can align the trip with the annual Innovation Expo all the better I think. (TIP: The whole family would enjoy the experience of the expo, as well as it being a great professional development opportunity for ASCA members.)
Report by:
Bruce Marshall
President
ASCA