Internationally acclaimed city strategist comes to Hamilton

27 June 2007

For Immediate Release

Internationally renowned authority on city futures Charles Landry, will be visiting Hamilton next week. Hamilton City Council has with the support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, secured Charles Landry’s services as a world-class creative thinker and facilitator to assist in the development of Hamilton’s Creativity and Identity Strategy.

The Creativity and Identity Strategy is a key component of Council’s new strategic framework. Over the past few months, Council has sought opinion from a wide range of people to get perspectives about what they want to see as part of Hamilton’s future and their ideas about how the city can foster creativity and identity.

During Charles’ visit to the city he will be facilitating strategic think tanks with some of Hamilton’s creative thinkers and strategists. He will work directly with Council, local businesses and community representatives on a forward-looking city vision that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity during our city’s future critical development years.

Landry is author of the highly regarded ‘The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators’ and comes to New Zealand from Perth, where he is developing a strategy for Western Australia’s capital. Other city clients include Helsinki, Adelaide, Johannesburg and Glasgow.

His focus is to help cities make the most of their potential by facilitating cultural identity and creative strategies, mentoring city and cultural leaders, mediating urban change processes and focusing on finding imaginative solutions.

Landry says that city-making is a complex art and that there is no simplistic plan that can be mechanically applied to guarantee success, but there are some strong principles that can help send good city-making on its way.

“Creative cities should be concerned with enabling potential and creation to unfold, unleashing the ideas, imagination and implementation capacities of individuals and communities alike.”

Charles will be sharing the outcomes of the strategic think tanks and the public are invited to attend his session on:

ENDS

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