Tēnā koutou ki te whanau,
 
Nga mihi o te ra. 

October has been a busy month for the Executive – particularly in the lead up to the 2019 NZILA Firth Conference in Ōtautahi next week. 

I was invited to the International Festival of Landscape Architecture by AILA in Melbourne as part of our MOU agreement which provides for the leaders of each Institute to attend each other’s annual conferences.   The Park and Square theme of the conference focused on well used public spaces and was hosted in one of the best-known public spaces in Australia – Federation Square.  At the Festival AILA confirmed their declaration of a Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency and held an ‘activation’ in Federation Square which generated a fair bit of interest and publicity.   The Festival was very well attended, and it was good to see a number of our members enjoying the excellent line up of international speakers.  Shaun Walsh, the President of the AILA Board has accepted the invite to come to our conference next week, so look out for Shaun and make him feel welcome.   
  
I have been busy with a number of member-based enquiries in October as well as preparing for the conference next week. 

Next week will be the biggest week in the calendar for the New Zealand Insitute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora this year with the Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture 50 Year celebrations, the 2019 NZILA Firth Conference (theme DISRUPTION) and the Resene Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards 2019 Dinner on 8 November to mark the end of the conference.   The conference organising committee and our event organisers have done a great job of pulling this years’ conference together.   Thanks to everyone that has been involved.  I am really looking forward to the week and to catching up with our members from around the country.   

As always, if you have anything you want to share with me, then please drop me a line, 
 
Mā te wā,

Brad