Trading Places Workshop
Trading Places is a half-day workshop that helps local and regional leaders to understand how trade is already shaping their economy and how to reimagine trade to make it work better for their place and community.
The Challenge
Complexity & Value
Regional economic development is increasingly complex. Regions are told they need to become more productive, grow, export, attract investment, and compete. But the mechanics of who actually captures the value of trade and where economic benefit really ends up are rarely part of the conversation.
Activity v. Prosperity
So many regions are finding that activity and prosperity are moving in different directions. Production may be local. But value adding, processing, branding, ownership, data, and control often sit elsewhere. Trade is happening. But the community is not capturing enough of the benefit.
Reimagining Trade
How trade happens in the 21st century is not a small or technical problem. It is central to how regional futures are being shaped.
Local and regional leaders need a renewed understanding of trade to be able to reimagine how to make it work better for their places and communities.
The Workshop
The Trading Places workshop gives local and regional leaders and their teams a practical framework for thinking and strategising about building and realising the benefits of trade at the place level. Your takeaway from this workshop is a practical action framework and 90-day agenda.
The workshop is currently available in a New Zealand edition and an Australian edition. Editions for other countries in the Asia-Pacific region can be considered on a case by case basis. Each edition is built around the specific policy frameworks, institutional architecture, and local and regional development realities of country contexts. All editions cover:
The Scope of Trade
The full scope of trade: goods, services, investment, mobility, and data, how trade works in the 21st century and what that means for local and regional strategy
Navigating Economic Transition
The economic transition pressures all places are navigating simultaneously, and the role of trade in this navigation
Trade Leakage
The leaky bucket: how to diagnose where trade value is generated but not retained, why this happens and how to fix it
Social Licence
Social licence and community wealth building: why trade needs to become more directly and visibly beneficial to communities to remain politically and socially durable
Digital and AI Technologies
How digital and AI technologies are changing trade value chains, decentralising the means of production and what that means for opportunities in trade
Higher-Value Trade
How to identify and realise higher value trade opportunities in services, design, data, advisory, and governance, and how these opportunities can be more locally owned and controlled
Who Is This Workshop For?
Local and Regional Development Leaders
Local and regional councils, bodies and agencies
RDA committees and executive leaders
Economic development agencies, executives, and officers
Regional trusts
Industry Leaders
Cross-sector regional strategy groups
Industry sector groups engaged in regional development
Chambers of Commerce and Industry
First Nations, Iwi and Māori Leaders
Traditional Owners, Land Councils, Treaty Bodies and First Nations development agencies
Iwi and Māori commercial organisations and development agencies
Iwi, Māori and First Nations land and community trusts
Guided by a rare perspective
Connecting my knowledge and experience in trade and development.
This workshop is guided by a rare perspective drawn from my knowledge and experience of working in two often disconnected domains: international trade facilitation, and local and regional development.
In this century, trade increasingly enables direct interconnections between regions through value chains that can harness inputs from anywhere. When regions identify and understand these value chains, they can target their advantages towards them. Doing this well enables regions to build a more sustainable base for their development and prosperity.
What's required is a renewed practical understanding of how trade works in the 21st century and how trade opportunities are evolving in ways that places can recognise and organise around. Capturing and keeping more of the benefits of trade needs deliberate thinking. I guide you towards that practical understanding and open up pathways for you to explore.
The Investment
New Zealand Edition
NZ $4,000 (+GST)
Includes: pre-workshop diagnostic, participant handout, facilitated session, and post-workshop summary of key issues and actions.
Australian Edition
AU $5,000 (+GST)
Includes: pre-workshop diagnostic, participant handout, facilitated session, and post-workshop summary of key issues and actions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The pre-workshop diagnostic is used to shape delivery to your specific regional context, sectors, and priorities.
Yes. The workshop works best and is designed for in-person delivery but it can be adapted for hybrid and online formats on request.
Yes. A full-day version with deeper diagnostic work and extended action planning is available. Please enquire.
The workshop can be followed by a strategy advisory session, a sector-specific workshop, or an ongoing advisory engagement.