Symposium 2025
CREATE Symposium 2025
17 & 18 JUNE 2025
The inaugural CREATE Symposium will bring together leading creators and innovators from across Aotearoa to inspire, empower and activate collective creativity.
Uniquely targeting both the business and creative sectors, the two-day event will explore how to harness the transformative power of storytelling in the context of business, innovation, creative practice, and community.
This event is being organised by Ngā Toi Creative Hawke’s Bay, the arts council of Te Matau-a-Maui Hawke’s Bay, in partnership with Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc. and Creative New Zealand, supported by Hastings District and Napier City Councils.
CREATE SYMPOSIUM
WHEN: 17 & 18 June 2025
COST: $595 per person,
WHERE: Napier Conference & Events Centre, Marine Parade Napier
CELEBRATION DINNER
WHEN: 17 June 2025
COST: $150
WHERE: Black Barn Estate Winery, Havelock North
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
DAVID TRUBRIDGE
DAVID DOWNS
EMMA SLADE
CATHERINE WARREN
REGISTRATION CLOSES | 6 June 2025
Theme
Storytelling has been a part of the human experience since the dawn of time. We use stories to connect with others, experience emotions and feel understood. In business, storytelling plays a powerful role in driving change, building trust and credibility.
‘The Power of Storytelling’ celebrates the synergy of business and art -creators and innovators – our solutionaries. Our aim is to weave together our business and creative sectors to show that at the heart of all good practice is a strong kaupapa (story).
We forget facts, but we remember stories. Imagine the difference it could make to your business, your brand, your influence, if you harnessed the power of storytelling.
Great things grow here! Yes they do…Te Matau-a-Maui Hawke’s Bay is home to a broad range of world leading individuals, businesses, products and organisations. We are known for our innovative thinking, creative practice and skills in developing cutting edge ideas and resources.
Food bowl of New Zealand – exporting 64% of New Zealand’s apples to global markets as well as other fresh produce, meat, fish, seafood and artisan cheeses. New Zealand’s oldest wine region, recently crowned 12th Great Wine Capital of the World.
With such a creative and innovative community, Hawke’s Bay is also home to World leading designers, innovators, architects, artists, wine growers, film makers and rocket scientists.
Matariki
In winter, the appearance of the Matariki star cluster on the eastern horizon, directly above the rising sun, signals the arrival of Matariki, the Māori New Year. This is a time to remember loved ones who have passed since the last rising of Matariki, to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest, and to plan for the future. Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Inc has been celebrating Matariki – the Māori New Year – with fireworks since 2002, and this tradition has become immensely popular across their rohe (territory) from Te Wairoa in the north to Wairarapa in the south.
The Matariki holiday is on Friday, 20 June this year. Come for our symposium, stay and enjoy Matariki Celebrations with us and engage with our Te Matau-a-Māui story
Celebration Dinner
Black Barn will host a dinner for up to 100 participants. Transport for those who require it will leave Napier at 6.00pm and return once the evening is completed.
The CREATE Symposium Team invites you to join us at Black Barn to celebrate local food and wine, creative practitioners and hear from David Downs in a more intimate setting. It is a chance to network and connect in one of Hawke’s Bay’s most iconic restaurants just under Te Mata Peak. Kim Thorp owner of Black Barn will welcome the group and share their story. It will be a night filled with music, poetry, performance and laughter so make sure you secure your place as space will be limited.
Keynote Speakers
The CREATE Team have secured three amazing keynotes to inspire, ignite ideas and share their journey in both the creative and business sectors. They will weave together the importance of creative thinking, the evolution of their personal stories and the importance of collective storytelling to build awareness.
CATHERINE WARREN
(to be confirmed)
President of FanTrust, a pioneer in community-building and digital innovation, Catherine is a media-tech innovator, economic development CEO, and seasoned Board Director. Catherine’s leadership has resulted in $3B+ in high-impact investment to Canada since 2018. As Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Economic Commission, she led a portfolio including the Vancouver Film Commission, the world’s largest animation and visual effects sector, delivering $3.8B in annual production; smart cities technologies such as AI, quantum computing and the green and impact economies. Catherine’s portfolio includes building North America’s fastest-growing tech sector in Alberta and establishing an accelerator fund for Edmonton, known as a global AI capital. She has also served as the CEO of Canada’s Centre for Digital Media, an innovation district for startups and university partnerships in the heart of Vancouver.
On the media and broadcast side, Catherine has led two decades of digital relationships, rights, and revenues for international entertainment clients in streaming, TV, film, video games, eSports and, more recently, in the exploding sector of AI revenue-generation. Prior to founding FanTrust, Catherine was COO of a broadcast tech company that she and co-founders took public on the Nasdaq, growing it to a $300M market cap.
A veteran board director and CEO, Catherine shares her enthusiasm for inclusive innovation and AI in an accessible way for executive audiences and boards, delivering strategic relationships and significant capital to global clients. She serves on the boards of media funds and influencer media companies, and spent much of 2024 creating global AI strategies for broadcasting and production. A champion of the AI-media transition since 2016, Catherine has spoken on the topic of “AI for Entertainment” to executive audiences large and small, including at MIPCOM, and is part of a team building a fair and transparent marketplace for rightsholders to receive compensation from AI Platforms for creative content.
With an academic background in climate physics and journalism, Catherine integrates her expertise in sustainability with a focus on storytelling, guiding clients to do the same.
DAVID TRUBRIDGE
From David’s beginnings as a forester and furniture maker, a deep connection to nature was built. His sea-fearing journeys around the world gave him an even deeper respect for nature. With his young family in the 80’s they stayed onshore in various pacific islands which gave him an awareness of living in harmony with the earth. The company is no different, every single product is the result from inspections and inspirations from mother nature. The processing and manufacturing of our designs is done as environmentally as possible.
DAVID DOWNS
David Downs BSc, CMInstD is a consultant and board director, with a portfolio of interests keeping him busy, across some key theme areas of technology for public good, healthcare and education. David is currently CEO of the New Zealand Story, an ambitious organisation marketing New Zealand to the world.
He’s an ex-comedian, TV and Radio actor, semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year, and a genetically modified organism who documented his battle with cancer in the book A Mild Touch of the Cancer. David is a popular MC and speaker, and he regularly presents and gives talks on his cancer journey and on the power of positive thinking and optimism.
EMMA SLADE
Emma Slade runs production company Firefly Films. Her producing credits include 1981 Springbok tour drama Uproar and Margaret Mahy tale The Changeover. She was one of the producers of Ant Timpson’s “deranged comic” thriller Come to Daddy, Chinese-Kiwi fantasy Into the Rainbow, and an associate producer on Brazilian/Kiwi drama Little Secret. In 2017 Slade was one of six founders of the Screen Women’s Action Group (SWAG), which advocates against sexual harassment. The group was inspired by the #MeToo movement, after US producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of rampant sexual abuse.
Workshops
Nga Toi Creative Hawke’s Bay has identified current trends that a broad range of sectors are asking deep questions about how we can do this better. Throughout the CREATE Symposium we will be providing an opportunity for participants to engage with the following:
WORKSHOP 1:
MY STORY
Overview:
Focused on honing your story and exploring vehicles and ways to best present it to the world. Led by an experienced brand marketing specialist this workshop will provide you with current examples and models being used today to generate audiences locally, nationally and internationally. This will be a practical workshop and participants will be encouraged to collaborate, share and explore together. All resources and materials will be shared with participants.
WORKSHOP 2:
OUR STORY
Overview:
A masterclass from David Downs and the impact your story can have on others. It will explore current ways New Zealand is represented and identified from a global perspective and explore how best to position your story in a noisy marketplace. With practical examples, good humour and lots of creative ideas to inspire. David is a master storyteller and current CEO of NZ Story.
WORKSHOP 3:
CULTURE AND STORY
Overview:
Led by Māori innovators and creatives this workshop will explore how culture is at the heart of all stories. It will explore a range of cultural competencies and discuss how best to engage with Te Ao Maori, implementing Tikanga and Mataurangi Māori practices into creative thinking and your story. It is an opportunity to explore together the significance of our culture in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
REGISTRATION
To register for CREATE Symposium 2025 please follow the link below. This includes registration for the Symposium and the Celebration Dinner.
NOTE:
Deadline for registration – You must be registered for the CREATE Symposium 2025 by 6 June 2025
Payment to be made at time of registration.
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