"Size doesn't matter - I see plenty of natural affiliations between our two organisations."
The dinner included video messages from Prime Minister John Key, and California University president and high-powered American politician Janet Napolitano, and a performance by Dame Malvina Major.
Those taking part in the ceremonies included Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, Waikato University chancellor Jim Bolger, new Waikato University vice-chancellor Neil Quigley, and Ian Taylor, head of innovative Dunedin-based Animation Research. Local MPs Simon Bridges and Todd Muller, and US deputy chief of mission Candy Green were also among the broad cross-section of business and civic leaders who attended the dinner.
Mr Adams described the new collaboration agreement as "an incredible opportunity" to help boost Tauranga's growth and develop the Waikato University campus in the city".
"The timing is right for Tauranga to position itself as the centre of several elite sports, with the High Performance Sports Centre," he said, citing the potential to bring rugby sevens and Black Caps cricket training to the city, a concept that was endorsed by university leaders at the event.
The collaboration was also expected to enhance co-operation in the areas of coastal marine and freshwater, environmental science, indigenous studies, agribusiness, computer science, management and education.
"The potential crossover into our key developments in the region is immense," said Mr Adams.
Animation Research's Ian Taylor said the future of New Zealand lay in the power of the regions coming together to work collaboratively rather than in competition with each other.
"We shouldn't be competing as regions or universities, we should be taking on the world together."
Universities strive to make a better world
Waikato University vice chancellor Neil Quigley told gala dinner guests the university was on the cusp of finalising the paperwork for the new Tauranga campus.
"We will provide a viable education and research development platform for students and business in Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty," said Mr Quigley, who also endorsed the concept of the university collaborating in the establishment of a High Performance Sports Centre in Tauranga.
Waikato University chancellor Jim Bolger said it was a privilege for the university to deepen its ties with "such a great centre of learning" as California University.
"We have a surprising number of synergies in our teaching and research," he said. "This extended agreement will provide even more opportunities to work together."
Noting that 42 per cent of first-years at California University were the first generation of their family to attend a university, he said one of the drivers for the campus was to develop the mechanisms to allow more young people to attend university.
Mr Bolger, a former prime minister who is familiar with the US from his term as ambassador to Washington, spoke of the existing strong ties between the two universities.
"Both organisations share a passion to make the world a better place," he said.
"From my perspective, two areas of research that will dominate in the future are population growth and climate change."
Mr Bolger noted that the world's population had grown from 2 billion, when his old friend Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew had been born, to 7.75 billion, when Mr Lee died last month at the age of 91. And it was expected to reach 9 billion.
"Adequately sustaining and feeding such a large population is well within the capacity of the world, if and only if we treasure our land and water and use them, complemented by responsible science to produce the required healthy food the world desperately needs," he said.
