Community Group Formed To Consider Convention Centre

A community taskforce will take a fresh look at the issues around establishing a significant convention centre in the Wakatipu, Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Vanessa van Uden announced today.

A Convention Centre Group has been formed and will be chaired by Mayor van Uden.

“This is engaging the same principles that we are using for the Shaping Our Future process by tapping into the talents and skills held within the community,” she said.
The initiative, supported by fellow Councillors, would allow the issue to be tested “outside the Council machine”.
“Multiple possibilities have been raised over the years. We need to strip everything back and take a fresh look at this issue with an entirely open mind,” she said.
The group, which included membership from the Queenstown Chamber, Destination Queenstown Convention Bureau, the arts and the accommodation sector, would establish criteria with which to evaluate various options.

The membership of the group was: Sir Eion Edgar, Miles Wilson, Penny Clark, Kylie Brittain and Steve Wilde.
“I am also very grateful to Jim Boult, the former chair of the Remarkables Centre working party, who has agreed to act in an advisory capacity to the group,’ Mayor van Uden said.
The concept had been evolving over the last six months.

‘I don’t think there is any question that the interest around this issue is gaining momentum,” she said.
The group would convene as soon as possible and meet regularly.

“I would like to think that we will make good progress and be in a position to have some direction on the issue before the end of the year,” Ms van Uden said.