Northland commercial and creative businesses have been challenged to throw caution to the wind and "think weird" to forge new paths to success.
Chris Carey, chief executive of Whangarei's Culture Heritage Arts Resource Trust (CHART), opening its inaugural Totems & Totara creative symposium at The Old Library in Whangarei last weekend, called on Northlanders to go for it in exploring ideas and seeing where it took them.
Later, Dame Cheryll Sotheran, a keynote speaker, said the same thing in different words: that New Zealand will only be able to compete in the global market by translating its values and creativity into what it offered the world, not "myopically" going on about how people were blown away by the scenery.
Carey was inspired by the late, great scientist and communicator, Sir Paul Callaghan, who was all for weird thinking, saying "our strength lies in the 'weird stuff' we do".
With funding from traditional sources now under scrutiny, New Zealanders had be creative in how they supported themselves as creative people, and businesses in every sector were being challenged in the materials and processes they used - "are they environmentally friendly, what will be our footprint on the earth?"
He said looking at the talent at the symposium alone he realised "we have plenty of the 'weird stuff' Sir Paul was talking about".
"This is not a derogatory concept but something to celebrate."
Sir Paul's comments recognised the ability of New Zealanders to be creative, to come up with innovative ideas.
"We should be encouraging the weird," he said. "We have relied too long on governments to set the direction, to fund, to support - and always to a three-year tune. We need to take ownership."
New Zealand had the ingredients to become a hotbed of innovative ideas, but needed to decide questions such as "where is our weird stuff, our weird talent? What do we have that can be made weirder? How can 'the weird' give us a brighter future, a brighter economy?"
Offering up some weirdness himself, he asked the audience "after this weekend, who will you ask to have a coffee with you?"
Not speed dating, just refusing to be held back from sparking ideas off someone interesting because you didn't know them, he said.
"Take entrepreneur Reid Hoffman - after he quit Paypal, Hoffman realised that he wanted to find a way to share an idea. So he thought 'why do I have to wait to be introduced all the time, why can't I just call up someone and ask them to have a coffee'. So 'Linked In' was born."
Carey challenged the audience to think about who they could discuss a weird idea with.
"Their idea and your idea might just work together. Whangarei Heads has just held a successful weekend to showcase the creativity in that area. Maybe that was the result of people sharing an idea. Maybe at the time it sounded weird. Or you can join in with an all ready established weirdness.
"How many of you have creative ideas all the time. How many of you are just waiting for the funding, or the right moment, or whatever to happen?
"Share it with someone and, you never know, it might just eventuate. It's called collaboration. Reid Hoffman also said 'constantly invest in yourself as a work in progress'. I would like to apply that to our community. I know that many of you are already making great work, but maybe one more contact might make one more sale."
The symposium was supported in a variety of ways by Whangarei district businesses Speedy Signs, Settlers Hotel, Oceans Tutukaka, Jeff Oliver Print, alongside Opus Consultants, the Oxford Sports Trust, NorthTec and the Whangarei District Council. Speakers included Peter Kageyama of the US, an international expert on community development and grassroots engagement; the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa founding chief executive Dame Cheryll Sotheran, now a strategic director for NZ Trade and Enterprise (her subject was "The creative sector as a foundation stone for regional and national economic growth"); architect Rau Hoskins, specialist in the field of Maori architecture; and Vicki Allpress Hill ("How you connect with and grow audiences for your own art form/product"). Peter Kageyama followed his address with an extensive workshop the next day and was also to be guest speaker at two other events for Whangarei business and local body leaders this week.