Ralston Saul and ex-Oz Editor to Speak at Conference

Celebrated Canadian essayist John Ralston Saul and futurist Richard Neville will be in Wellington next week to lead a high-powered line-up of speakers at the annual conference of New Zealand's top Council managers. 

John Ralston Saul and Richard Neville are keynote speakers at the Society of Local Government Managers' annual conference on 26-28 August in the Town Hall.

SOLGM Wellington President Andrew Dalziel says the conference theme is 'Local Government 2020' – and that there are "plenty of major challenges that local government will have to face up to in the years to come. These challenges will be well-covered at the conference.

"I'm confident that John and Richard will get people thinking. John is noted for his visionary thoughts on everything from globalisation to individualism.

"We've asked him to look at the future of local government in the context of international trends and developments."

Richard Neville, twice-jailed as Editor of the notorious Oz satirical magazines in Australia and the UK in the ‘60s and ‘70s, has since made a name for himself as a futurist and social commentator – covering subjects as diverse as globalisation, the creative economy, smart drugs and cyber-sex.

Issues likely to dominate discussion at the conference include:

Climate change, its implications, and environmental sustainability
The future for local-government structures – more amalgamation versus adequate representation
Globalisation – how it is developing and what it means at the grass-roots level
The shift of central-government responsibilities and enforcement duties to local government
Transport – especially the provision of affordable public transport
Citizen engagement and representation
Local-authority partnerships with business and central government.
Andrew says the issue of local government representation in Auckland – and the fact the Government has announced a Royal Commission to look at its future – is an obvious indication of why the future of local government has to be treated with the utmost seriousness.

"Local government has an enormous ability to influence New Zealand's future and, if we get it wrong, to hinder our future. That's why this SOLGM conference is important."

Other key conference speakers include:

NIWA weather and climate expert Dr James Renwick
Business commentator Rod Oram
Professor John Seddon, a UK occupational psychologist and management thinker
Marcus Akuhata-Brown, educator.
To register for the conference visit www.cmsl.co.nz/go/solgm.

Related Links
SOLGM website