"We are now part of a significant economic bloc (with Guangzhou and Los Angeles) and the city needs to put its very best foot forward at next year's summit." says Auckland Mayor Len Brown. "We have the chance of displaying all our great high tech and innovation to a lot of potential investors and joint venture partners.
"We have formed deep political and cultural ties with the two cities, and the summit (next year) is one of the most significant commercial opportunities presented to the city."
The theme for the summit is "Making Connections" and Ateed has targeted five specialist sectors -- where Auckland has world-leading expertise -- to catch the eye of the visiting Chinese and Americans.
The sectors are: high-value food; advanced materials; screen, digital and gaming; smart data; and urban design. Ateed believes the visiting delegates will be keen on the research and development taking place in these sectors within Auckland's universities, GridAKL innovation precinct, Crown Research Institutes and innovative businesses.
"We want to make the summit inter-active rather than just having a two-day conference in a hotel," says Steve Armitage, Ateed's general manager -- external relations. "We will take delegates around the city and get them engaged with businesses and industry.
"The focus will be on networking -- if you don't provide the right atmosphere then it's hard to make genuine valuable connections. We want to showcase what's good in Auckland to the bigger international economies, and demonstrate that the city is a destination for business, trade and investment in key growth sectors."
The ground-breaking alliance agreement was signed by the mayors of Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles in November 2014. The cities agreed to work together to leverage economic opportunities, and the Auckland mayor led representatives of 43 businesses and organisations to Los Angeles for the first annual summit in June this year.
Nearly all the delegates reported that by participating in the delegation they gained a greater understanding of how to successfully do business in either China or the United States. They indicated that a total of 300 leads were achieved from engaging with contacts at the summit and other related events.
They are keen to strengthen those relationships and contacts at the Auckland summit, and will be joined by other local companies which didn't attend the first summit in Los Angeles.
Some of the developments in Los Angeles included Flux Animation Studio finding a potential new distributor, securing contract work with Disney and discussing two potential contracts with a Canadian production company.
Screen Auckland staff held discussions with Guangzhou and Los Angeles on co-production projects, which will result in more movies being filmed here -- productions worth tens of millions of dollars to the Auckland economy.
Whanau Tahi, part of the Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Los Angeles-based United American Indian Involvement (UAII) to deliver a framework for integrating health, education and social services, and improving outcomes for families -- based on the New Zealand Whanau Ora concept.
Stephen Keung, Whanau Tahi chief executive, will be back in Los Angeles next month presenting a plan to UAII that will lead to broader community engagement and greater funding opportunities. Los Angeles Country is home to 300,000 Native Americans, and UAII is keen to develop its own Whanau Ora-type centre.
Auckland will be looking to progress its involvement with Guangzhou incubator, InnoHub, one of China's largest network of incubators and investors with a presence in 10 Chinese cities. InnoHub is China's first internet-based entrepreneur services organisation, providing incubation, acceleration, investment and social networking via an online cloud-based data system.
Ateed chief executive Brett O'Riley signed a memorandum of understanding with InnoHub president Hongbo Xu, setting out a framework of cooperation under the tripartite agreement. InnoHub will establish a $20 million fund to invest in smart Auckland companies and it plans to establish an office in the city, most probably at GridAKL.
InnoHub is particularly interested in young media and telecommunications companies, and mobile commerce for food, tourism, education and agricultural products.
The New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards gala dinner and an innovation forum will be held in Auckland during the week of the summit -- providing the delegates with further opportunities to gain an insight into local technology developments.
