A former rock band singer – 50 years ago in chart-rating Wairarapa group Kal-Q-Lated Risk, emanating from his days at St Joseph's College in Masterton and a short stint at Victoria University in Wellington – he was bestowed a knighthood in the 2021 New Year Honours.
Sir Ian will be at the expo thanks to the support of Pāmu, or state-owned agency Landcorp, the country's biggest owner of rural land, as it is otherwise known.
Pāmu head of communications Simon King said: "Sir Ian is an extraordinary Kiwi with a great story to tell."
"We are really are really proud to be helping bring Sir Ian to the Expo so that farmers can hear his take on innovation and the environment – both areas that Pāmu is also passionate about," he said. "As a large farmer, we can often try things, and innovate and pass on our learnings to the wider farming sector."
"We share Sir Ian's desire to see innovative thinking solve some of the issues that farmers face."
According to an expo media release, Sir Ian said: "We met the challenge of Covid that shut down all of our overseas events by designing a remote studio platform that means we now do all of our sports coverage globally – from our studios here in Dunedin – reducing our carbon footprint from air travel by almost 90 per cent."
"We approached the pandemic as an opportunity, not a challenge, and it has changed the way we do business globally," he said.
But as high-flying as it all is, his feet remain firmly on the ground in New Zealand.
"Ko ngā tahu ā ō tapuwae inanahi, hei tauira mō āpōpō," said the proudly Ngati Kahungunu Sir Ian. "The footsteps laid down by our ancestors centuries ago create the paving stones on which we stand today."
He sparks and enjoys conversations with youngsters, and said: "Innovation is in our DNA. The greatest human migration of all time was undertaken 4000 years ago by our Polynesian tupuna."
For him, the lightbulb moment came when he heard a presentation from Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith, a principal investigator for National Geographic's genographic project.
From Africa to Aotearoa tells how a small band of humans left Africa 60,000 years ago, spread across the entire globe and finally journeyed to Aotearoa – the longest and most dangerous mission of all.
"The voyage across the Pacific was arguably the most spectacular untold story of history," he said. "That was my tupuna and I had never heard it before. I realised the two cultures coming together is what has made us what we are."
He struggled to raise the $1million to produce the Mātauranga platform that would be a free tool for schools across Aotearoa to use, build their own regional stories and share with others. That was until Christchurch businessman Dennis Chapman gave him $500,000.
There is also a partnership with his own Ngati Kahungunu iwi.
He worries that not enough people are listening to (earth mother) Papatūānuku, and explained: "Look what happened during Covid – Papatūānuku is speaking to us but we aren't listening. She showed us what happens when you take cars off the road, planes out of the air, talk to your neighbours ... and that as we face the next big challenge of climate change that we need to be working together.
"Farmers listen – they are the closest to Papatūānuku in many ways," he said. "We are a very clever technology-focused country, so we need to encourage farmers to use technology to do the job better.
"So many of them are doing amazing stuff, but we are driving wedges between farmers with cows and townies ... and yet we go to the supermarket and buy three plastic bottles of milk and take all the meat from the chiller.
"We should be leading the way," he said.
"It doesn't solve the global problem, but for New Zealand the future of farming lies in high-value products from a sustainable practice."
