Sky set to screen Catching the Knowledge Wave conference

Next month's Catching the Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland will be broadcast on Sky Television's digital service, on channel 25.

The broadcast of the August 1-3 conference, organised by the University of Auckland, the Government and leading business and community groups, is being billed as a unique television event in New Zealand.

Sky will broadcast three days of intense debate, analysis and commentary as 30 of the world's leading experts from government, business and academic backgrounds join 420 New Zealand participants in the conference to be co-chaired by Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland, Dr John Hood.

The conference is designed to develop goals and action plans that will enable New Zealand to become a more prosperous and socially cohesive, knowledge-based society.

Dr Hood welcomed the Sky broadcast agreement as a major boost to the conference's ability to reach a wide New Zealand audience.

"This affords us the opportunity to open up the conference to a much bigger audience than we could possibly have physically catered for," he said. "Through Sky, viewers will be participating in what we hope will be a watershed event.

"Our aim is to encourage all New Zealanders to think about how we can achieve the better economic performance we urgently need to deliver greater prosperity.

"The conference will be considering what we need to do as a nation to find our own solutions to the important questions facing us.

"These include how we can achieve economic growth, build on our talent base, create new jobs through new knowledge and achieve a more socially cohesive society all without sacrificing our environment.

"These are important issues for New Zealand and the broadcast will make a major contribution to raising awareness of them and of the choices for action that are available to us."

Sky's chief executive, John Fellet, said Sky was pleased to be able to contribute to improved communication of an important national initiative.

"This will be a unique event in New Zealand television history and we are designing our coverage to enable New Zealanders to get involved," he said. "They will be able to watch great minds in live action and have their say by contributing to the broadcast through the internet."

href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57032">Catching the knowledge wave

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