"We've used that before and we've also used the family friendly vision strategy, which we've been hanging our hats on for the last 10 years. But what does 'family friendly' really mean? Aren't we already family friendly?"
Ms Main said these were initial phrases only "and are not set in stone".
"It's about what kind of place we want to be in the future and how do we get there, what is council's role in that and what part will the community play."
She said council was not "wedded" to the key phrases from those workshops.
"It's not like we're going to put an ad in the paper saying 'This is Wanganui - powered by creative smarts'. It's about what we want to happen here, and we want creative and smart people to be part of that."
She said the outcomes from those workshops were aspirational and were the skeleton to build a strategy on.
Ms Main accepts not everyone will agree with a final strategy but it was about understanding "we are different and want different things, and being respectful of other people and how they live".
"I don't mind the phrase 'leading edge' but that doesn't mean we're going to hang a banner at the entrance to the city saying 'Welcome to Wanganui - leading edge'.
"If you don't know where you're going then you're not going to get there are you? And it's about looking for positive outcomes in everything we [council and community] do.
"For me, it's as simple as understanding where we want to be as a place to live and we like our way of life. There are some things we'd like to improve and a lot of that is around economic opportunities and jobs," she said.
Ms Main admitted she baulked at first to the phrase "flowing with richness" but then talking to people at the workshops, she found out it referred to the environment in which people lived and how important that was to them, and how much it means to others choosing Wanganui as a place to live.
Council adopted the new vision and purpose statements at its meeting on October 28. Its next step is to develop the strategy alongside the 10-Year Plan over the coming months to be adopted by June 30 next year.