Hello everyone Another great evening at Bird’s Eye View last week! I know I have said it before but these meetings never fail to amaze me in terms of the calibre, energy and enthusiasm of each and every one of the women (and men!) in the room. Special thanks to Martin for his attendance and input this meeting. It’s great to see wider interest in women’s perspectives on the rebuild.

Another thing that amazes me is the sheer diversity of those attending Bird’s Eye View. Every meeting seems to draw a wider cross-section of the most interesting and well-connected people. I always leave feeling reassured about our future - you all have so much to offer Christchurch and we are lucky to have you. This month’s speakers provided valuable insights into two very different aspects of the rebuild. Sheila McBreen-Kerr Christchurch Central Development Unit and Senior Manager at Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (pictured at right) Sheila provided a reassuring and pragmatic perspective on how things are progressing with the rebuild. She has been involved in the Christchurch recovery since the first earthquake in September 2010 and played a lead role in the government sector response to the disruption the quakes caused to business and the private sector. Sheila now heads ‘Invest Christchurch’ - a facilitation service to assist owners, businesses, finance or debt providers to be part of the Christchurch recovery and rebuild. Key points of Sheila’s presentation: * Yes, the rebuild has started * SCIRT is spending $40 million a month on infrastructure repair and redevelopment * Invest Christchurch is currently run of feet with investor interest * Important to note most investors actually committing are locals, who tend to hold and don’t just want to invest and run * Relocated businesses DO want to come back into the CBD * The Blueprint is just the beginning – everyone seems to be able to find something in it that excites them. It has given people enough courage and confidence to stay early on in the recovery phase * Wider Canterbury is a HUGE contributor to the economy * Dire predictions of de-population have not eventuated * The rebuild is “the biggest game in the southern hemisphere at the moment” * We have to be nationally and globally relevant for this to work

* How do you build the growth underneath the growth – we don’t want a boom and bust economy * A lot of leaders, no matter how brilliant, will not be here in a couple of years’ time Coralie Winn Gap Filler (pictured at left above) Coralie’s impassioned presentation provided real food for thought about the creative and artistic side of Christchurch and its future. With a mixed and varied background in the creative arts, Coralie is a co-founder of Gap Filler, which she created with two others to bring creativity, positive energy, opportunity and life to Christchurch’s vacant spaces. She now runs the initiative full-time as its Director and has has 5 staff (3 FTE). GapFiller was recently featured in the Lonely Planet City Guide for 2013, where Christchurch was #6 on its list of top cities to visit. Key points of Coralie’s presentation: GapFiller came out of a desire to engage with the here and now, and with everyday people. The very first project was on the cleared site of the South of the Border restaurant in Colombo Street and for two weeks the economically-filled site functioned as a dining and seating area by day and by night, a fantastic music, arts and entertainment area featuring 32 bands, films every night and poets. Coralie noted lots of people had commented that they had seen this kind of thing in Berlin and London 15 years go.

GapFiller has made a name for itself in Christchurch, regularly teaming up with the Greening the Rubble team to create dynamic, striking, unusual and user-friendly spaces all around the city and beyond.

A CPIT design and build challenge is one way Coralie and her team would like to “get architecture and design students out of the classroom and their CAD designing.” One of their real success stories is the Dance-o-mat – which we know has now hosted royalty with the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla. The Lyttelton Petanque Club is another of their success stories, while their current (and HUGE) project is the Summer Pallet Pavilion on the site of the Crowne Plaza. Take a look!!

To conclude her presentation, Coralie added some thought-provoking comments and questions about the reality for artists and creative people in the new Christchurch.

All Gapfller experiments are made possible by volunteers There is an assumption artists will do things for free – we need to get a change in mindset about paying artists GapFiller would greatly welcome further monetary sponsorship Are there conversations with incoming investors to fund artistic and creative projects like GapFiller? How do we get young people interested/keep young people engaged Where is the affordable housing for people like artists – we are losing artists because they can’t afford the rents

and lease space Food for thought and perhaps something we can discuss further at the next meeting... Unfortunately our third scheduled speaker Diana Stil, a founding director of both Nikau Contractors and Nikau Environmental Ltd (with over 30 years’ experience in New Zealand’s construction and demolition industries) was unavailable at short notice as she was required to don hard hat and fluoros to take over supervision of the demolition of a central city building.

But we would still love to hear from her so we have pencilled her in for the next Bird’s Eye View… Thursday 7th February Bayleys Auction Rooms, Deans Avenue 5.45 pm We will get in touch again closer to the time. We hope also to have Karen Guilliland, CEO of the New Zealand College of Midwives.

Nicky Wagner MP for Christchurch Central Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160 DDI: +64 4 817 6633 Fax: +64 4 473 0469 email: nicky.wagner@parliament.govt.nz www.nickywagner.co.nz

103 Salisbury Street P.O. Box 21359 Christchurch DDI: +64 3 365 8297 email: chchoffice@nickywagner.co.nz