A Forum for our Young Leaders

The development is the NZW Young Leaders Forum which will be held for the first time in November.

As members will be aware in recent times we have significantly expanded our support of events and programmes targeted at the young people in our industry. To that end we have taken on Nicky Grandorge as our Leadership and Communities Manager, we have developed the Women in Wine mentoring programme and have provided increased support for the Bayer Young Viticulturist and the Mercurey Young Winemaker competitions.

These have been positive steps, but there has been a nagging question – beyond each of these exciting programmes, what is the next step for our young leaders. The answer we have come up with is the NZ Winegrowers Young Leaders Forum.

The Forum is to be held on an annual basis and will be open to current and former finalists in the Young Vit and Winemaker programmes, mentees from the Women in Wine mentoring programme, potentially nominees from regions and from among NZW and BRI staff. Participation will be limited to no more 20 young leaders each year.

The programme will be facilitated by an outside facilitator and a small number of speakers will present to each Forum on that year’s theme. The theme for 2019 is Next Steps in Sustainability.

The purpose of the Forum is to grow and develop the talent pool of emerging young leaders in our industry. Specifically the aims are three-fold:

To expose our potential young leaders to some of the big issues and questions facing our industry and agri-business in general.

To provide an avenue for emerging young leaders to provide direct input to the NZW Board on those issues.

To challenge our young leaders to get involved in the industry, at local, regional or national level.

So as the industry looks to its third century, we are hopeful that the Forum will provide a platform for the young leaders who will be key to that future success.