Our Business Clusters
Global Growth Opportunity
A test-bed for innovation, Christchurch is a city inspired, the place for future-focused, sustainable businesses and people who want to do things differently. We are leading the way in global health tech, aerospace and future transport, food fibre and agritech, and hi-tech solutions. These strategic strength sectors, are supported by progressive ecosystems connecting enterprise, education, and government.
The future is bright and full of possibilities for everyone. Come join us.
Clusters
Aerospace And Future Transport
With a current global value of $360 billion and estimates that it could be a $2.7 trillion industry by 2050, the field of Aerospace and Future Transport holds great opportunity for the Canterbury region.
Food, Fibre And Agritech
Canterbury is New Zealand’s largest agricultural region, contributing one fifth of national agricultural GDP. The region produces meat and dairy products, plant-based products, seafood and wine for both domestic and international consumers.
Health Tech And Resilient Communities
With the establishment of a centralised health precinct creating a much closer connection between research, testing and commercialisation, Christchurch can accelerate research into analytics and machine learning, virtual healthcare, bio-metrics & wearables and insurance tech.
High Tech Services
With an international reputation for producing the smartest service tech, Christchurch provides the best value brains to the largest companies and boasts a dynamic tech ecosystem offering excellent support for start-ups and investors.
The Big Picture
Clusters are sectors with strong global growth opportunities where the region has existing strengths and capabilities. Christchurch has catalysed strong eco-systems around each Cluster, aligning and connecting students, iwi, education providers, industry, and government to accelerate opportunities and growth.
This is about a progressive, prosperous and sustainable future. Clusters are facilitating an innovative mindset among our population, our education sector and our industries, aligning talent and education goals, and encouraging cross-sector collaboration.
The talent pipeline to support is geared up and growing. Canterbury hosts three world-class university campuses in the top two per cent in the world, and the largest ITP in the South Island, offering programmes ranked in the top 100 globally.
With world-class opportunities for work integrated learning, pathway programmes, joint ventures, increased innovation and R&D, and talent and business attraction, Clusters are transforming and future-proofing the Canterbury economy to stay globally relevant.
Connect With Us
ChristchurchNZ’s business and investment team are a knowledgeable mix of professional, strategic thinkers with diverse skill sets. They love identifying opportunities and building relationships to make positive, impactful outcomes for both stakeholders and the city of Ōtautahi.
Emma Renowden
Emma is an experienced strategic partnerships manager who is passionate about the role of innovation and technology in addressing some of the world's most significant challenges. In her role at ChristchurchNZ, Emma is responsible for developing an ambitious city strategy for the Aerospace sector, with the goal of harnessing the economic opportunities it presents.
Hamish McGowan
Hamish’s career has been focused on commercialisation and getting innovation, research, and development into the marketplace. At ChristchurchNZ he leads the Food Fibre and Agritech cluster connecting companies, people and teams to inspire focus and growth. Hamish brings strong communication skills to his role and especially enjoys working with market focussed professionals, technicians, engineers and scientists.
Shawn Melley
Shawn has over 23 years of experience and leadership in marketing, sales, business analytics, product development and corporate strategy. He has led commercial business units, launched multiple products into new markets, and co-founded a biotech start up. Shawn is a creative problem solver who enjoys working with businesses of all sizes to uncover areas of growth and opportunity that will help them achieve their goals
