On a more positive note. I was fortunate on Wednesday afternoon to MC an event held in Tauranga by Priority One and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
It was called the Bay on Display, which showcased business innovation and lifestyle in our beautiful region.
Guest speaker at the function was legendary sevens coach Gorgon Tietjens, but more about his talk shortly.
The event was held in the amazing Crystal Palace in the Masonic Park precinct on The Strand to highlight what an amazing region the Bay of Plenty is to do business in and as a lifestyle area to bring up families.
One of the topics I spoke about in my welcome was "why we love the Bay".
And there were a whole lot of reasons. It is a great place to bring up families; we operate New Zealand's largest port; commercial property is attractively priced and there is a strong business infrastructure and support network.
James Graham, who moved his business to Tauranga from Durban in South Africa, backed up that latter statement during the presentation from Multifid Technology International. James travelled extensively in New Zealand looking for a city in which to set up his custom electronics and software design company and he chose Tauranga.
He chose our city for a number of reasons. One, it was a great place to bring up a family and, having come from Durban, the beaches were a real drawcard. The other reason was Priority One and the wonderful job they did in making it easy for him to set up.
He said in his speech that Priority One was like a one-stop shop for business people looking to move to the Bay. They take care of everything from finding suitable locations to setting up lawyers and accountants to help the transition. So, well done, Priority One.
Several other business leaders spoke along similar lines, all praising our region's attributes.
One other thing that came through is the ease of access for business in Tauranga. Our roading network now makes it far easier to transport goods in and out of Tauranga, in particular, containers into and out of the port.
Certainly, large businesses doing business with the Port of Tauranga would vouch for that compared to getting into and out of the Port of Auckland. Then there is the ease of air travel between Tauranga and Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington. The regular Air New Zealand services are excellent and I have noticed that more Grabaseat deals have come up into and out of Tauranga recently.
Well done, Air New Zealand.
As I mentioned earlier in the article, our world champion sevens coach, Gorgon Tietjens, was the guest speaker. What an amazingly motivational man he is. After hearing him I can now see why in the past 12 years since Rugby World Sevens has been run we have won the title nine times and won four Commonwealth Games gold medals.
There is no doubt that "Titch" is a hard taskmaster but a fair one.
I know he has had some input into the current All Blacks team as they prepare for tomorrow night's final and if his Wednesday speech was anything to go by and the accompanying DVD ... look out, France.
The afternoon also highlighted some amazing businesses that operate out of the Bay, from Zespri, which sells kiwifruit to more than 60 countries, to wineries such as Morton Estate, Mills Reef and Birds. Then there is Hotmilk, the underwear manufacturer, that is becoming market leader in its specialty field, along with Comvita and Grove Olive Oil. We certainly are a region to be reckoned with. Well done, Priority One.
