Launch of Localeye

Thursday 31 October 2002

• We have a new term for tourists here, we call them future immigrants.
• Lost count of the number of people I meet doing things locally who tell me how they just came here for a visit initially. Then they came back. And stayed.
• The great thing about Christchurch immigration is that the city attracts those who want to share and respect our lifestyle...if they want a faster, flashier pace they go elsewhere.
• Many people coming here report they found us at first on the Net...
• We are a netted up city. We have over half New Zealand's total electronics and computer companies here in Christchurch.
• It is estimated that about one in 500 of our workforce are involved with the software industry.
• We are attracting what they call the gold collar workers in high tech because of our lifestyle and size...the world's Best Garden city is in itself a huge drawcard.
• We are becoming a city of innovation and increasing visibility for our creativity.
• We like the Web...as a city we are enthusiastic users of the web as a way of finding out things.
• It is timely that Localeye pulls together all these threads to make it easier to find out what is on around Christchurch and Canterbury.
• It has been amusing in recent weeks to watch the national media grappling with the idea of public/private partnerships for common good goals.
• In Christchurch we broke down the barriers between the sectors years ago and set up models that have just helped make life better for everyone. Today we have another example with the links between our libraries and the Alchemy Group helping put Localeye up.
• Now for the risky bit. The script calls for me to both launch Localeye and to also invite you to now have a live look at it on line. There's an old show biz rule that you should run like hell from working with kids or animals. I would like to add live links to that list and now express my hope that I am proved wrong.