Talk to explore how to influence change

Respected New Zealand academic, author, journalist and economist Max Rashbrooke has been invited to speak in Wanaka about the town's "growing pains" and to suggest how people can positively influence change.

Mr Rashbrooke has been a speaker at Aspiring Conversations and said whenever he visited Wanaka, everyone he met wanted to tell him about the town's rapid growth and the proposal to expand Wanaka airport.

"They are rapidly expanding, and know that they have to engage the public in a discussion about what that looks like, who is affected, and how infrastructure copes.

"But at the same time, they face a public increasingly dissatisfied with the traditional forms of engagement and the predominance of the usual suspects in consultation processes."

Mr Rashbrooke has been invited by Link Upper Clutha, in partnership with Ignite Wanaka Chamber of Commerce and Scope Media, to deliver his talk "Power to the People? Leading Change in Wanaka and New Zealand" at the Lake Wanaka Centre on Thursday, August 1, at 7pm.