The Waikato Story

The mighty Waikato region is a place of powerful possibilities.

Forged by a proud history and shared excitement about the future, we grow and celebrate world-changers, local innovators and inspiring champions. They embrace our guiding philosophy of mahia te mahi – to get the job done.

In a world hungry for new technology and pure produce, we hold prime position.

Our smart, fast-growing city and vibrant rural towns are connected in a diverse landscape that is fertile and ripe for discovery.

Waikato is our turangawaewae; the place where we stand. Here, family is nurtured. Friends are welcomed with open hearts, and life can be easily enjoyed to the full.

This is our place.
This is your place.
Welcome to Waikato, the beating heart of New Zealand.

Discover the essence of Waikato: a place of powerful possibilities, where mahia te mahi; ‘getting the job done’ is in our DNA. Here family is nurtured, visitors are welcomed as friends and life can be enjoyed to the full. Find out more about our people, our place.

Defining our personality

As a community we uncovered the personality and tone of voice for the Waikato region. See what the Waikato stands for and use assets and images to help tell your business story.

Mighty

We’re proud of our bold history and excited about our future. We’re the beating heart of New Zealand - strong but quiet achievers, always up for the challenge. Bring it on, we say!

Can-Do

The Waikato has a never-stand-still culture that allows businesses, farmers, growers, educational institutions, communities and individuals to make, create and grow. We embrace mahia te mahi as a guiding philosophy; we’re a place that gets the job done, where clever thinking and genuine opportunity meets hard graft. We’re always up for the challenge.

Compelling

We want people to say: “I didn’t know the Waikato had so much to discover. Lush, fertile landscapes, the rich diversity of the region and a deep-rooted sense of türangawaewae (place to stand). There’s always so much going on. The people are open, enthusiastic and welcoming. It’s a place of surprising opportunities. Let’s explore!”

How we created the Waikato Story

We encouraged and embraced participation from a very wide range of people and organisations – over 200 in total – to ensure our story would be both rich and representative of the diversity of our region. To do this we commissioned an independent branding agency to facilitate the process in order to keep it fair and open.

There were four stages involved:

the Waikato attributes – who we are today and our aspirations for tomorrow
Workshop outputs
Key story elements
The story framework

We ran four workshops: Te Aroha, Hamilton, Taupō, and Waikato iwi and youth with representation from business/agribusiness, the arts, community funders, environment groups, sports, agencies, education, health, tourism and local government.

http://consultation.waikatostory.nz/