Businesses help ‘refresh’ Marlborough’s economic plan

How should Marlborough approach economic development? Business owners have considered that question – meta, macro and micro – in a series of workshops tapping industries and sectors.

Marlborough Chamber of Commerce organised the latest one last Friday morning. Twenty participants spent two-and-a-half hours brainstorming in a Scenic Marlborough Hotel conference room.

The input will go into the Economic Development Refresh report for Council. Once the outreach sessions wrap up in May, a draft should go out in June for review, with the final version expected around October.

This will, in effect, update the Marlborough Economic Well-Being Strategy 2022-2032, whose process started four years ago. Dorien Vermaas, Council’s Economic Development Portfolio Manager, told the chamber group that of 107 designated actions, 90 were achieved and eight are ongoing.

The workshop, she said, aimed to elicit “a variety of perspectives and views to help Marlborough prosper.” Those could turn into initiatives for the next three years.

Framing the ensuing conversations, Chamber Executive Officer Kylie Cornelius said the organisers “want you to think big” and focus on “a long-term vision based on things we can control, with actionable items.”

Talking points
Through a sequence of tabletop exercises, participants culled ideas which facilitator Colin Bass coalesced into “top opportunities” he recorded on a whiteboard. Each person then voted (by affixing sticky notes) for the two they found most meaningful.

Leading concepts clustered in a top six:
· Improve connectivity with the outside world.
· Leverage unique Marlborough features.
· Double Blenheim’s population by 2050.
· Advocate and support Sauvignon Blanc.
· Increase opportunities for youth and families.
· Connect new businesses into the broader community.

Specific talking points included capturing our share of the “Southern drift” (which has bolstered Christchurch), strengthening the CBD, creating a logistics centre (with Riverlands as the suggested site), and expanding pathways to careers.

Council’s economic development team already interfaced with Angel Investors, Marlborough Business Trust and aviation/aerospace industry leaders. Upcoming outreach encompasses forestry, aquaculture, and viticulture.

As Kylie summed up the endeavours: “If the region prospers, we all prosper.”