Kia ora kato, no mai haere mai. Welcome to you all. Welcome to this virtual regional showcase. Today we're going to be looking and talking to Taranaki. A venture Taranaki is hosting us today and they have brought in a few guests. And what you're going to learn about in this session today is the general demographics, the statistics of the region, the sectors the region sees as opportunities and has resources to build on. You're going to hear about a couple of case studies and projects that are currently happening in the region as well. And so firstly I'm going to hand you over to Josh Hiskock who's going to open up the session with a karekia mihi and then we're going to hand it over to Bench Taranaki. Over to you Josh. Kia ora Michelle, Kia ora koutou. Kōwai totara kai runga, kōpara nenihi kai raro, kō Taranaki te maungati, hei Māori ora. Te mihi tōe tahi, kōte ranginu i etū, hone i kōpapatōu, nukua takotua tana i tēnā akorua. Te mihi tōe rua, ki ngatanga te whenoa o tēnai rohi, kō Ngāti Tuwhiti te hapu, kō Te āti Awa te iwi, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnā rā koutou, kē kuna i te hui, i te zui, i tēnai ātai, i tēnai āhi-ahi. Nē rā te mihi kia koutou, nē rā te mihi ki te Edmund Hillary Foundation, nōmai, harumai ki Taranaki. Kai te whakatimatanga o i tēnai hui i te karakia, he wakataka te hou i tūru, wakataka te hou i tūtonga, kia maakina kina ki uta, kia maatara tara ki tāi. Ihi ākia ana te ātai kura, he tōu, he huka, he hou hū ti he i mauri ora. Tūai ō, kō Taranaki Diwi, kō Taranaki Tamaunga, kō Taranaki Te Tangata, kō Joshua Hitchcock a hou. It's my treasure as a trustee of the Venture Taranaki Trust and as a general manager at Te Kotai Tangoa Te Ate Awa, the iwi organisation for the Te Tangata whenua here in New Thomas Te Ate Awa to welcome you all to our call today to learn more about Taranaki and the exciting opportunities that we have ahead of us for our region. We're going to start today and I'm going to hand over to one of the general managers here at Venture Taranaki. Ihi, he's going to provide an introduction and an overview of our region. Kia ora, koutou. Hello everyone and thank you very much, Josh, for your mihi and greeting. That was fantastic. Korva Fikifele toko onua. So my name is Fikifele and as Josh said, I am one of the GMs here at Venture Taranaki. So today we're going to tell you a little bit about Taranaki and we hope at the end of our presentation that you are going to be as passionate about the region and we all are here without doubt. So just to let you know how we're going to actually structure today's presentation, I'm going to provide a little bit of this overview and a few of the statistics about Taranaki as a region and then we're going to look at three sectors or areas that are very important to our development going forward and that is the Māori economy, our new energy innovation and our food and fibre sectors. We'll then finish off by showing you how we support enterprise to be innovative and also a little bit about the Taranaki lifestyle and what you can expect when you come to work and live here. So, like all good presentations, what we're going to start off with today is a video to show you what we have in the region. The spirit of our Māori moonga has guided people here for hundreds of years. Today our lifestyle is second to none. We're flourishing, connected as a region and to the world, exporting our ideas and products to the farthest corners of the globe. We're exploring new possibilities and innovating to create a future like no other. We're leading Aotearoa's transition towards a low emissions future to reimagine New Zealand's energy. We're fiercely protective of our unique environment, enhancing and protecting our quinoa for generations to come. Taranaki's rich geography is being harnessed with new and exciting ideas by our wildly enthusiastic growers, foodies and beverage crafters. A wave of new eateries and bars to fuel your passions. World-class concerts and events and New Zealand's only dedicated contemporary art gallery. Along with natural attractions like our gardens, walkways, rivers, forests and beaches.  You're always welcome at our place. The spirit of our... So that was a little bit of a snapshot and a feel for the region and what it's like. So where is Taranaki? Well, I like to say that Taranaki is on the sticky output on the west coast of the North Island. It is a bite, so it is surrounded by 105 kilometres of coastline. It is equidistant between Auckland and Wellington, so the flight times are approximately 45 minutes and we also have a direct flight from Christchurch, which is the main city in the South Island. Just before COVID hit, we opened a brand new airport terminal to cater for the increased capacity of passengers. Where that's coming from. So the other thing that we have is we are the only deep water port on the west coast of New Zealand.  It is the closest port to the eastern seaboard of Australia with a seven-day return trip time. So there's a wealth of opportunities there. It also accepts a limited range of cruise liners through each year. So currently that is our population. We're 2.4% of New Zealand's population. We're growing strongly in line with the country. The region consists of three districts, separate districts. There's New Plymouth, Stratford and South Taranaki. New Plymouth is the most populace and that's where the port and the airport are located. We are very vibrant and dynamic region and we're big enough to have all the resources that are required for enterprises to grow but we're also small enough that things can get actually achieved very efficiently and very quickly through the connections that are made through the community. We've got a reputation for innovation and punching above our weight and it's a reputation that we strongly guard. So our gross domestic product is recently substantive. There are three main sectors that contribute to that GDP and that is our agricultural industry, our oil and gas industry and a manufacturing industry which is largely concentrated around food manufacturing and processes but we do have a lot of additional manufacturing in the region as well. Taranaki has always been the energy centre of New Zealand and what we are now doing which you will hear about later on with Araaki is we are transitioning our skills in the oil and gas sector to renewable energy and new energy innovation to remain the energy centre of New Zealand going forward. We're also incredibly lucky to have a monga and Taranaki monga is not only our kaitiaki or our spiritual guardian he also creates our climate and our soil. We have incredibly rich arable volcanic soil which is one of the reasons why we're very strong in our agricultural sector but it also provides incredible opportunities for food and fibre diversification going forward and we'll be looking at that through our current initiative of branching out. So we have a highly skilled workforce very high in knowledge and skills and we also have a lot of multinationals in the region. Now those multinationals have created a very cosmeton feel in the region with the amount of expats that are currently in situ. They've also given us the ability to have a financial foundation to develop initiatives and one of those initiatives is WOMAD which is the world of music, arts and dance which is an iconic festival that occurs annually every March. It was originated in the UK and it's also held globally around the world. We've also identified a number of significant growth potential areas in various niches that we can pursue going forward and those niches are outlined at the bottom of the slide there. They're very much either part of our current sector strengths or they lie adjacent to our sector strengths and they've been identified because we have the expertise in the area and there's a tremendous amount of export potential in those areas as well. We have a report, it is not public yet but if you require a copy of that report and more in depth detail into those sectors and the products that lie underneath them you can contact us and we can send it out to you. So that's a very high snapshot of trends. We produce a publication every six months which brings all the Taranaki statistics together and that's available on our website www.taranaki.info So please make sure you go and have a look and familiarise yourselves with everything that there is to do with the region. So apart from the statistics in a regional snapshot what I really also wanted to get across today is that Taranaki is a community that is very much going in the same direction. We have undertaken a number of strategic developments over the past few years and the first of these was Tapa Wairoa. Tapa Wairoa involve consultation with stakeholders, with enterprises with businesses around the monga and it identified four futures that we could pursue in the regional development and that is visitor, food and fibre, the Māori economy and our energy sector and you'll be hearing about three of these today. These sectors or futures are underpinned by four foundations which enable those futures to actually take place. So after Tapa Wairoa was developed the government then made its announcement that there would be no new offshore bloc offers for oil and gas and the region realised that it actually needed to accelerate its transition into a low emissions economy. So Taranaki 2050 came about. Taranaki 2050 involved a massive amount of communication on community, youth, unions, local central government, enterprises all around the monga and the community came together and this is what in a very, very condensed snapshot is what they decided is how we were going to develop the region for the future. That snapshot is underpinned by a number of action plans across a whole range of sectors that are all focused on low emissions and what our objectives are going forward. And the vision that came out of that that we are a high value low emissions economy built on inclusivity and sustainability. So like any region we navigate challenges and we pursue opportunities. Some of our current challenges they're not confined to Taranaki they are national and global challenges and one of those is obviously attracting and retaining skilled talent which is an issue around the world at the moment and we do have a lot of focus on our talent attraction. Another challenge is also and this is where our fellows come in is attracting investors that live and work in the region. We want people to come to the region to find out what it's like to live here to invest in our significant opportunities that exist and to become a passionate advocate for Taranaki. So that's a very quick snapshot and now I'm going to hand over to Josh who is going to give you an overview of the Māori economy and the development that is happening in that area. Thank you, Tēnā rākoutou katoa no. Yes, it's my pleasure to be able to walk us through a case study on the Māori economy here in Taranaki and I thought I started at the national level and some of you may have seen this this is a graphic that has used quite often as a representation of the Māori economy in our their and our traditional waka to really kind of give an overview as to the types of industries that we are predominantly invested in and some of the key snapshots here and I think what's really important to understand around the Māori economy is that it's an ancient economy but it's also a very young economy. Our median age is Māori in New Zealand is around about 24 to 25. So when we talk about these long-term strategies that we here have in Taranaki as we look towards 2050 a big player over those next 30 years will be Māori and it will be that that large and growing young Māori population coming into the workforce and really driving the future of the economy here. So I want to step back a little bit and talk about I guess provide a bit of an introduction to Ngāiwi o Taranaki to the eight iwi that sit across our region here. As I mentioned in my opening I am from Te Atiawa and also from Taranaki iwi. Te Atiawa here is the Tangata Whenua the local tribe in New Plymouth. We are our offices located but as venture Taranaki we work across the region and we work with the the eight iwi throughout the region and with my other head on as a general manager at Te Kota Hitanga o Te Atiawa we do the same. We work with our partners here in North Taranaki and in our iwi down in South Taranaki and because there are shared connections around Bamaunga we all and we all have our own narratives around us but we as Taranaki iwi we descend from Maunga Taranaki our Paka Papa is linked to to Bamaunga it's linked to the lands to a forest for waterways and the sea all around us and over the past 12 to 1400 years we've called Taranaki home and my ancestors have called Taranaki home and for us that's what we that's unique to us there's nowhere else in the world that has that kind of connection for us as Māori is Taranaki this is home and over the last probably 30 or 40 years it's been a real revitalisation of the Māori economy around around New Zealand and here in Taranaki as well and through the I guess the settlement process with the government that's been ongoing over 30 years some land and some resources have been returned to our large tribes and that has created the ability to to build on our economic future and so when I think of the Māori economy here in Taranaki we're really talking about three distinct groups we're talking about our iwi as we saw on the previous slide we're talking about our quinoa our land-based organisations and then we're talking about our Māori-owned businesses our sole traders our start-ups our SMEs and it's wonderful that we have Huwia here Huwia heads up Ngapākehi the Taranaki Māori Business Network and no doubt if you're involved sorry at Edmund Tilery we'll be able to give you a really good snapshot of what that industry looks like here in Taranaki and I think it's fair to say that Māori organisations in Taranaki have a fairly significant contribution and have been making a fairly significant contribution to the region we have the largest dairy farmer in the region and then probably one of the if not the largest supplier into Fonterra with one of our large Māori land trusts we have fishing assets we have forestry assets we have land-based assets we have health providers we have commercial and residential property developments there's a whole range of activities across the entire I guess economic activity of the region and I'll share a few of those examples there everyone in this presentation for the work that we're doing and in Te Atiala here across New Plymouth and Waitara and there's a piece here around on the slide around our people because for us that is the most important thing in the world it is it is the the survival and the prosperity of our people and so we work hard across the region to ensure that what we do we do it we do it for our whānau we do it for our family we do it for our iwi for our tribe and everything we do for our our commercial activities and our social activities is geared towards making the world a better place for our whānau of which around about 20% of Taranaki's population is Māori both those who whakapapa to one of the eight iwi of Taranaki or to an iwi from around the country who have decided to call Taranaki home and we're very welcoming people um we you know one of our core values is this concept of Manaki tanga of of welcoming and making people feel welcome we own one of the large hotels here in here in town and and that for us is an investment into into the tourism sector investment into our people and investment into our visitors our Manuhiri is an opportunity to to welcome them and provide them with a you know a a Māori experience when you come and come and visit New Plymouth so if you do come here you know come and stay with us come and visit us and and learn about all of the the wonderful things that that we're doing across the region and I wanted to share a little bit of a work that I'm doing that at Te Kote Tunga Te Ati Awa one of the large iwi organisations here in here in Taranaki to provide a bit of a snapshot around some of the commercial and investment opportunities that we've got on the go at the moment there's a large amount of activity and this is I guess one of the eight iwi units I think it's representative of what the region as a whole are looking looking to achieve and and really just provide a bit of a a bit of a view of a of an economy that's I guess moving beyond what we have traditionally been invested in for our farming now our fishery and our fishery assets we have a vision at Te Ati Awa to be the premier property developer here in here in Taranaki and and we save it and we do that for really for one kind of core reason and that's because there's a very real issue with lack of secure housing for Māori within Taranaki and so we want to provide those houses to our people and by the best way of doing that is by building and developing these houses ourselves and ensuring that we are providing that high quality housing with different housing models for our for our whānau so I've got some pictures up here on the screen and the first one there is our you can see our Māunga and kind of at the base of that is the visitor centre that that DOC manage up here on on North Taranaki and we are involved in a process with DOC and with Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to essentially to recreate that visitor centre at the moment you got there and it's a nice building but it's a fairly standard building we're going to essentially recreate that and put a tiātiāwa footprint on the Māunga and have a building that that really represents tiātiāwa that represents Taranaki and builds that connection between us and our and our ancestor and in a building that kind of creates a very welcoming environment for those people who visit who visit that and use that as potentially one of the starting off points for the for the Taranaki crossing project and as you as you look to kind of do that that walk across across our Māunga underneath that that logo Ka Urua Water is a financial and savings literacy program and home ownership scheme that we've developed in partnership with Taranaki iwi our iwi on our I guess our South South Western border here in New Plymouth and Ka Urua Water is a fairly innovative model that's just secured around $17 million in government funding to provide affordable housing via via our commercial sorry residential property developments to our whānau and we're really looking here at affordable rentals and ensuring that that rentals are capped based on people's ability to pay rather than market rates and shared equity programs that allow more of our whānau to get into to get into housing and you'll see there on the bottom on the other bottom corner of the screen one of our potential developments is pukakura for parade it's a a 30 townhouse development that we're just in the demolition demolition phase of in downtown New Plymouth and the aim is that all 30 of those units will be made available to our whānau first to buy or to or to rent as a as a way of providing that housing opportunity and that's one of about 10 different 10 different residential developments we're going to be looked to be doing over the next four or five years and then there are two two commercial buildings on there so as long alongside our residential development we're also heavy into commercial development restoring restoring old buildings and bringing them back to life and and creating green star rated commercial operations and providing some high quality leasing options here in Taranaki so as you'll see there there's a wide range of of commercial residential and social activities that we're doing as part of us you know we are looking for the right partner to sit alongside us on this journey you know we are exploring impact investing models potential green bonds long-term infrastructure bonds as a way of really providing an avenue to deliver commercial opportunities that also provide social opportunities because that's the core of what we do there so for us as Te Ate Awa you can see our strategy our vision there te houtu to your whenua to your tangata so Te Ate Awa secure Te Ate Awa thriving and Te Ate Awa connected and so a big part of that is using our commercial operations to deliver social outcomes and and we're always interested in talking to the people who who have experience in delivering housing at low cost who have experience in commercial properties that at at you know at a environmentally sustainable approach people who are interested in social and cultural investment because that's that's the core of who we are as Te Ate Awa and if you were to talk to the seven other iwi around this region they will tell you exactly the same thing if you are not with that said I will um bring this section to a close and pass over I think to you Caroline to talk about Ate Ake Thanks Josh I'll just share my screen Kia ora koutou korelain gan toku ingawa It's my pleasure to virtually join you all today and give you a bit of background on Ate Ake and the initiatives we're working on So Ate Ake is Aotearoa New Zealand's Future Energy Centre we're established in 2020 to accelerate the commercialisation and demonstration of low emissions energy innovation based in Taranaki we're an independent organisation funded by the government the journey to decarbonise New Zealand isn't without its challenges we meet those challenges head on and help find commercial solutions to them this is where we see Ate Ake adding the most value so we work closely with stakeholders to clearly articulate the energy decarbonisation challenges that they face and then we undertake a global and national scan of innovative solutions to address those challenges By innovation we mean technology, commercial regulatory and social innovation we also support those with innovative solutions to demonstrate their technology and often help them to find their first customer and as an independent organisation we share knowledge and help connect the thoughts across the whole of the energy ecosystem and that's to avoid duplication and ensure coordination A core service we also offer is connecting innovators, investors, customers and enablers On the screen here you'll see the energy innovation value chain There are a number of organisations that sit across this but our space is predominantly focused on the demonstration and commercialisation where until where established there's a gap in the ecosystem Slide summarises all of our current initiatives I won't go into them all but I'd like to get across to you that our initiatives go across all energy sectors in New Zealand We share knowledge and insights and also host a number of connector events Recently we released a study on carbon dioxide removal and usage in Aotearoa This provides a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities and it also promotes fresh discussion about the role of CCUS as a tool that we could utilise in our transition to low emissions We also launched a long distance heavy freight total cost of ownership tool It's a freight tool to help freight companies better understand the options for decarbonising their road fleet but I'll talk about more about this shortly We also hosted the Tanaki Biogas webinar in January We brought together innovators, industry, councils iwi, investors and enablers to discuss the challenges and opportunities within the organic waste to energy space And the Offshore Future Energy Forum was hosted in November 2021 in partnership with Bench Tanaki and we brought together national and international experts to explore new offshore energy potential covering technologies including offshore wind, wave and tidal generation and marine energy storage On the screen now you'll see a handful of some of the New Zealand energy innovators that we're supporting in different ways So EMROD has developed a long range wireless power transmission technology I plan to do a field demonstration in Tanaki actually this week but unfortunately it was delayed due to the weather So now they are heading to Europe to do an indoor demonstration in Germany and we'll be back to do the Tanaki Demonstration next year Fort Hex is a startup utilising waste energy streams to generate clean energy through using a Fort Hex turbine They're currently working through their engagement and consenting of their field demonstration And Vertus Energy's innovation optimises the utilisation of anaerobic digestors not only increasing the processing ability of existing anaerobic digestor plants but also increasing the energy potential As I mentioned before the long distance heavy freight TCO tool is a free tool to help you to understand the options for decarbonising road fleets That estimates a relative cost of using different vehicles powered by different fuels such as green and blue hydrogen battery electric vehicles drop-in and conventional biodiesels and standard diesel internal combustion engine vehicles The tool is a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet that comes with a set of inbuilt assumptions about various factors such as the cost of electricity vehicle capital costs the cost of various fuels and road user charges We've had feedback from numerous freight companies that have said it is very helpful in their purchasing decisions but we're also working on a case study with a company and after using the tool further they've said that this will help them accelerate their transition The goal of the electricity distribution business or EDB innovation challenge is to find innovative solutions to challenges for our EDBs as New Zealand transitions There are 29 EDBs in New Zealand and out of that we have 11 on board A few weeks ago we facilitated a workshop to formulate their top three problem statements and we'll share these in the coming weeks We will then undertake a global and national scan of innovation and technology seeking solutions for these challenges to test and pilot with the EDBs With the support of their electricity authority we're working on one of the world's first multiple trading relationships pilot or MTR pilot and the creative people might like to call it power to the people The aim of MTR is to provide electricity customers with more choice and the ability to contract with more than one electricity supplier at a single location More choice will allow consumers to select services that are better tailored to their individual needs while also improving competition within the electricity sector But it also increases motivation for people to invest in distributed energy resources such as solar panels The expected benefits include reduced costs and reduced emissions and ultimately it would be great to see a reduction in energy hardship I will now play a video that explains this project a little more This is Clara and these are hypothetical power companies Clara could connect to but only one will actually provide Clara's power This system works but it could be better Let me show you Here's Clara's place She's got solar panels and an electric car When she bought the car it came with 100 hours of energy credit from blue power Trouble is Clara's with orange power and because of current regulations she can only use one power company She can't access this offer Not a great start and that's not even the only problem because remember those solar panels? Well, if Clara has excess power she could gift it to her kids or her friends or better yet some people who really need it except they're with purple power Yeah But with multiple trading relationships or MTR we switch on Now Clara can get her main supply from orange power grab that deal from blue power and gift excess power to her whanau through purple power Which is good for Clara today but imagine when everyone has solar panels and EVs With MTR we could create an integrated energy system that would benefit the world forever We could increase efficiency in the power sector and help fight climate change Dramatically boost investment in clean energy and make power more affordable for everyone Sounds good, right? We thought so too That's why at Araake we are running the world's first MTR pilot When you register your interest you and your home or business can be among the first to experience the benefits of MTR and join an amazing group of kiwis standing for a cleaner more affordable and brighter energy future For more information go to www.araake.co.nz So with that we currently have a few cases underway already and a few in the pipeline So Kaianga Order are planning to install solar panels in a neighbourhood up north and will share their excess electricity with their customers who are currently experiencing energy hardship We are also working with a local community who plan to install solar panels on their marae and to share their excess electricity within the Papa Kaianga Also a Oh sorry about that sorry And a farmer in Hawke Bay has two large solar installations on his farm and he wants to get more out of his excess electricity So through this pilot it enables him to power the rest of his farm and even his mother-in-law's home at a different location We've also formed a partnership with Eco Labs who is Singapore's centre of energy innovation Eco Labs are working with the Western Institute of Technology at Tadmaki to develop a T-Speed for energy innovation for their twin buildings which were built in the 1970s What has a target to reach carbon-zero by 2025 so this will support them to reach this But we hope it also simulates interests from current and future students to get involved in energy training in careers This T-Speed opportunity also has the ability to be scaled for other educational institutions throughout New Zealand That was a quick snapshot of what Araaki is working on Happy to take questions or pass it over Actually, as a question here Caroline before you go from Rosalie are you working with new technologies that reduce industrial energy demand? I actually have my colleague Pam Walklin who's our head of commercialisation sitting right next to me so she will be able to step in Thank you Kia ora Kia ora I'm Michelle Hello all Oh Rosalie, how are you? Long time no see It's lovely to see you Did you want to just ask that question again then Rosalie? Or did you hear that? Look obviously, thank you You're doing some incredible things at Araaki and well of course we've got as a mixture of both investors as well as our entrepreneurs The question that I had here is are you also interested in working with new technologies that are actually reducing industrial energy demand? So rather than just the renewable energy things that might reduce for example the energy demand and refrigeration Absolutely focused on the energy demand as well Rosalie to me there is no one silver bullet that's going to get us to where we need to be and the energy we don't consume is the greatest energy of all, right? So certainly we are technology agnostic and we try to work with others in the sector like some of the ikias and the kala hands to see how we can collaboratively get some of these technologies to market so not just renewables absolutely in demand side as well where it makes sense for us to get involved Brilliant, thank you If there's no other questions on the energy side or we can do more questions at the end I'll pass it back to Venci Taramaki to continue with the presentation Thank you Caroline it was amazing it was a great a love seeing those projects coming through Thank you Thank you So Tena koutou katoa kō and probet tōkau ingo my name's Ann Probet I'm from Venci Taramaki and really pleased to be here today to talk about opportunities in the food and fibre industry here in Taramaki we're just pulling up the presentation at the moment but first of all why invest in Taramaki's food and fibre area at the moment well arguably there's never been a more opportune time to invest in food in New Zealand in the world given there's a real genuine interest by consumers for exciting food for food that's healthy for food that's sustainable and they really like to know where their food is coming from in Taramaki we are a really strong food and fibre region we have rich fertile soils in a temperate climate as you can see by that picture of the cow standing in a green paddock that is lush that's very typical of our region we have a strong track record in food production I'm going to talk a little bit about that soon but we have some very strong producers and innovators here and to make it even more helpful for you we have not only untapped potential but we've done all the hard work and identified a few opportunities that we want to present here to you today so a quick update a quick snapshot of what's here in the food and fibre industry here about one in five people work in the food in the agriculture and food production industry here in Taramaki we are very strong in the dairy industry and in fact we have around 500,000 cows here so for every person you have five cows in Taramaki we have because of that some very strong dairy production plants here we have four Fonterra production plants they're focused in dairy and cheese production we also have some major food meat processing industries and we're also very strong in the chicken and poultry production industry here in New Zealand we have many innovators working in a whole lot of areas in the food industry and you'll see in that that circle up there some of the examples of some of those areas so coffee alcohol making bread honey many of those sort of industries we have many innovators focusing in that area and that creates opportunities to leverage and get involved in some of those industries we've recently been working on a project called branching out it's a two-year project and during the course of that two years we've been working hard to identify some innovative and commercially viable opportunities for investment here in the region and I'm pleased to present some of those opportunities here today we have just released the outcomes of that project and they're in the form of investor blueprints and you're among the first ever to see those investment opportunities just showing some of the process that we have been through to reach this point we've done we've pulled together a lot of research in terms of our soils and our climates and that is on our website that you can view we've also commenced a register of areas within our region where land owners can say I have land available here and I'm really interested in doing something different with that land so you'll see a bit of a map there a Google map with little dots on your right and that is some of the areas that land owners have already identified that they are keen to partner with people who might be interested in doing something on their land on our website we also have information about our value chains and also insights of market trends in the last two years we've also made valuable connections with experts in a whole range of areas on food production who brought them to our region and take them on field trips we've hosted workshops where they have showcased some of their skills and got to meet people and see now region first hand we have a website with a lot of detailed information about investment opportunities and a regular newsletter if you're interested in keeping up to date with opportunities in the region so how we identified this short list of opportunities was first of all you start with a long list and we had around 100 on that list 96 to be exact and we went through a whole process of considering our soils our climate what grows here what some of the market trends are we cross-mapped that with our strengths here in the region or some of our adjacent sort of opportunity areas with some of the value chains with identifying some of our local champions people who are really keen in advancing particular areas of opportunity and what some particular points of difference that our region could offer some of those areas of opportunity and here is the list of 10 opportunities that that you can look at that we have forged in these venture blueprints that I'm really pleased to present here to you today so just going around that list you'll see avocados and there's avocado development already underway in the region gin botanicals and also when you look to the bottom of the screen you'll see hops as well so there's a real growth area of opportunity in that whole craft alcohol area and because of that through not only our region but others around New Zealand there's an interest in some of the inputs that go into making some of that food product or beverage product there's areas of opportunity and grains, legumes and vegetables in our region and particularly with the shift increasing interest in plant based food areas opportunities in hemp fibre particularly for construction and you'll note that as we move particularly towards more sustainable building products trees and their value chain kiwi fruit that's also an area of opportunity and there is kiwi fruit development underway here in the region medicinal plants and sheet dairy and I'm going to talk a little bit more about this in a minute and also opportunities in indigenous ingredients so for each of those opportunities you will find on our website investor ready blueprints which talk about each of those opportunities in a lot of detail and they will outline information about each and why they offer investment opportunity here in the region so given you a bit of a snapshot of some of those just to give you an insight of what you can find on our website avocados for example is a rapidly growing area of opportunity which has been developing in New Zealand and has real global potential avocados is a is a food item particularly considered a bit of a super food and is really in demand here not only in New Zealand but of course internationally and there's also opportunities to add value to that product avocados are currently growing in particular areas within New Zealand as you will see to the right of your screen but there's an opportunity to advance and to extend into Taranaki with avocados and some of the reasons why Taranaki would make a great opportunity for investment in avocados is first of all our growing conditions are really suited to avocados land prices are much more attractive here potentially for avocado development rather than some of their more established regions such as the Bay of Plenty for example our climate although attractive is slightly cooler than some of those other areas and that may create opportunities for a slightly altered growing season which may mean that our fruit can be produced in those ways where we could capture a bit of premium pricing on the avocados produced and also there are productive avocado orchards already here in the region and you'll see up to the top of your left hand side an example of some of the people already growing avocados here in Taranaki and there is also a commercial avocado growing group that has been established and you'll see to the bottom of your screen a table of contents and that's a whole list of the items that you will find which discusses that opportunity in detail as it relates to Taranaki Sheep Dairy is another exciting opportunity that is also on the Branching Out website there is the potential for much higher returns for sheep dairy farming than potentially bovine you know the cow produced milk so that creates a bit of an opportunity for investment it can be considered a nutritionally more superior alternative to bovine milk and also can have a lower environmental impact than cows so it's a real interesting area of investment and now is a great time to invest because the industry is quite in its infancy here in New Zealand but there is strong industry growth that is expected there are also existing producers who are currently in the process of recruiting additional supplier farms to ensure that their demand for product is met and they are really keen to expand into Taranaki and so why Taranaki just going down to the bottom corner because we have a lot of knowledge in terms of bovine milk and sheep dairy is an adjacent industry which fits well with the sort of region that we are we're also not far geographically from the Waikato where there is already a very strong sheep dairy area so not far to connect in to those sort of existing supply chain lines and as mentioned there is expansion from the Waikato now coming into Taranaki and you will see to the top corner a recent news release which highlights how Spring Sheep and PKW are partnering in Taranaki to enter more strongly into sheep dairy so there is an opportunity for investors to leverage some of those areas of opportunity and connect with some of those value chains and finally just moving on and touching on the opportunity in medicinal plants which is also a bit of an his untapped potential in here in the region so this is a high value these are high value products potentially with domestic and international opportunities attached to them New Zealand can grow a wide variety of quality medicinal plants at globally competitive prices and there's some really exciting market drivers aligned to health and well-being and they've shifted to natural remedies which makes this area of opportunity quite attractive potentially for investors and of course medicinal plants can be used as ingredients in a whole raft of products which are attractive to consumers and also may be relatively low cost to grow with potentially attractive returns and we've done a lot of hard work for you and we have you will find on our website information about some of the areas of market opportunity the types of plants and also the sort of plants which could grow well here in Taranaki and three of those are listed there for you so just to highlight why our region well one of the key things I just want to share with you is that we have not only a great climate for producing some of these medicinal plants but we have a really keen community who are already growing some of these plants at a more lower scale level who are keen to expand and grow we've also developed mapping tools to show what has grown where and we have developed interests with industry experts from across the value chain who are keen to connect with our region in this space so if you're interested in finding out more about those particular opportunities or some that I've talked about of those other ones the range of 10 or many others those all that information can be found on the Venture Taranaki webpage particularly the branching out web pages and you're going to find their whole lot of research and information you can download the investor blueprints you can sign up for our newsletters and contact us if you are interested in that area of opportunity so thank you for your time today and happy to take questions later if you have further ones of interest thank you I'm going to ask to Nick that was amazing thank you welcome Nick oh thanks Ann that was great Akiwa I'm Nick Field and I'm an enterprise advisor at Venture Taranaki and I'm here to represent the enterprise support team and talk a little about the innovation ecosystem so what do we mean by the innovation ecosystem well let's see the support available to make your new business ideas thrive and Venture Taranaki works to keep those opportunities within reach whether you're going for growth or social impact so i'll give you a very brief flavour Venture Taranaki is a great place to develop a new enterprise so it starts with our advisory and enablement support and we cover a wide range of areas from start up through to export but really it centres around the individual business whether you're a multi-billion dollar energy firm or a startup you're equally important to us and we see new businesses as the future of our region we specialise I suppose in access to co-funding and support from central government and there are over 200 funding streams to navigate also with connections to expert providers for business intellectual property, marketing or logistics would be examples of that and connections for partnerships employing new talent or mentoring we have specific support for entrepreneurship through our power programs really looking to build capability but also a community of new company founders so that might include business advisory in connections and also importantly pathways to investment examples of the kind of things we do would be business accelerators with seed capital and expert mentor support one-on-one meetings with action planning and business plan support really in this region we also focus quite a lot on connections within businesses so we have a good community we create business events where it's very easy to network one of the benefits of being in New Zealand regions is your only one step removed from anyone you want to speak to selling your business time it's very easy for us to connect you with other expertise or people who have done similar things in the past so I consider this to be an open invitation to ask me questions or ask our businesses and we'll be more than happy to connect you so it's not a big brief and really I'm looking to sum up here we really support innovation across a diverse economy so we do have a high profile in new energy including green energy production and agratech but we also have enterprises active in manufacturing engineering as well as food and beverage products so Taraki has several world leaders in niche industry sectors from all sorts of odd industry areas you'd be surprised at the level of expertise that we have also our fast internet coverage makes it a good place for software and virtual business activities but of course one aspect that will be important to people when considering Taraki is really why would I be going to New Zealand the first place and why I'm a big driver is to balance my business and my enterprise with the rest of my life and I think to talk a little bit more about that I'm going to hand over to Rachel Thanks Nick yeah we're going to look into the lifestyle so Rachel really looking forward to this session and what it would be like to live in Taranaki Kia ora Tata Thank you Nick that was a great segue into my segment I am the talent advisor at Bencher Taranaki and I always tell people that this is perhaps the easiest job in the world because we know it's a great place to live and work we know this is a place where your career can flourish and you get your time back and I think in today's fast pace world we kind of undervalue that though I think over the last two years we've kind of learnt that that that is actually what we're all after so I'm going to end by talking about okay you thought it's a great place to invest you've seen the wonderful opportunities but why is it a great place to live so I've just put at the bottom of this slide that we are the sunniest place in New Zealand don't let anyone at Taranaki tell you otherwise Taranaki is New Zealand's sunniest place and we intend to stay that way so I just want to get you to picture yourself living here so thinking about what it would be like to bike to work along our coast of walkway wins and you hear you're taking your time you're taking in the scenery and you pull up at work and you feel great you feel inspired for the day or imagine that you're growing your own food on a farm with some of the best falls in the world it's your own farm you've invested on your lifestyle property you know after that you head down to the local surf spot and soak in the surf because you've become a great surfer from living here now I'm a parent I know that parents' biggest concerns is how are my kids going to do at school and I just want to put everyone's mind at rest our kids are taking on the world so on my left here we've got Mercy Jones Mercy as a real star she was ducks of New Formas Girls High School last year Mercy went out to see what kind of scholarship she can get she's taking a full scholarship to Duke University we're really really proud of her she was one of the top scholars in the country but not only did she get a full scholarship to Duke University she also had scholarships to Harvard and other prestigious universities so it is totally achievable in the middle there we have Greenschool New Zealand now some of the fellows will be familiar with Greenschool particularly Greenschool Bali it is a global brand our local investors Rachel and Michael Parrott bravely probably about three years ago I think it was now decided that they would build Greenschool Aotearoa it's a fantastic enterprise and it kind of builds on education in New Zealand which is all about living off the environment and they've taken that concept and it's a beautiful space they would welcome anyone to come and check out what they're offering so I'm thinking about international education and this is a great place to start on my right there Nick talked about how we support enterprises and some of our enterprise competitions to get people up and running some of our students are doing that as well so here we have Ashken and Jayden they invented a plant monitoring piece of kits and that's changing the way indoor plant companies deliver their product so all of that is possible from here so I don't want anyone to thank that oh my kids education is going to suffer it won't there are real opportunities here so you've done your work your kids are in school you've got some time off what are you going to do so if you're a golfer we actually have 18 golf courses around the monga and I think for memory it is perhaps the highest number of golf courses per cabadoff so you know great place to play golf okay you're under 80 maybe surfing might be more more your thing so come and surf in ourself surf breaks now four of our surf breaks are globally recognised surf breaks so and because of the way the topography is shaped it doesn't matter what day it is somewhere around the monga the surf is going to be pumping if you're perhaps not so active and a bit like me a bit terrified of the water we've got art galleries as well so whether it's a niche one to come and have a look at take your time find the next emerging artist head out around the mountain and find out what's on offer and as I said before we are the sunniest face in the country so and we grow beautiful gardens so come on just relax in a garden so it doesn't matter what you're into we're going to get you covered so as Anne mentioned we grow beautiful food it's outstanding but we turn those beautiful food products into beautiful meals sit in the sun soak up a beer like the rest of this country we love our coffee and our coffee is pretty exceptional you can visit food trucks you can it doesn't matter what you're into we'll have it covered for you as well now we know that around the world everyone's worried about the cost of living so what is it like to live here how does your dollar go i'm going to say is we actually ask this question ourselves we're always telling people we'll turn like he has great value to live so we actually did the research we proved it you'll see here in the red line is New Plymouth and New Plymouth kind of represents the rest of the region we are one of the most cost effective places in the country to do your supermarket shopping we do all sort of say well it's got expensive but let me tell you there are a lot more expensive places around the world where you could be spending your money than New Plymouth so you've come here you've done your fellowship and you decide actually residency might be for me while housing is also quite affordable you'll see here where the average mortgage payments fit amongst the regions and we still offer a really great value for money and take the time have a look at some of our real estate offerings and real estate pages around Tavimaki because what you'll find is that your dollar goes a long way so if you've always had that dream of that coastal property maybe this is the place where you're going to find it but finally I just want to just finish on where we can see you so this is one of our latest co-working spaces now co-working is quite a new thing but it is becoming increasingly popular and we've found that some of our fellows who have lived here in the past have really embraced the co-working lifestyle so this is at Awakura Awakura is a small coastal village that is like headed just south of New Plymouth and people love living here so you'll see here we've got Ricky doing his work in Manifold Awakura and in the background is actually the surf beach so if he wants to take some time out go for a surf he can sort of do that we've got the couch there we want you to come and sit on that couch and be part of us come and visit I'm going to conclude by saying no mai haere mai please come and see us in Tavimaki I've popped our contact details there for both myself and Caroline and we can connect you with the rest of our teams we'd love to host you our doors are always open and there are hundreds of opportunities here and hundreds of people to come and meet well we were just any fellow is welcome to come through our door so Michelle I'm going to conclude at that and stop sharing my screen you may not see that we're all still here and we can take questions that we need to brilliant thank you Rachel and team that was just absolutely amazing I want to move to Tavimaki and I did not know you had that many golf courses there that is just very cool now Jeff Rosalie do you have any questions any reflections any comments you want to make about the region no just a huge thank you to everybody Jeff I'll hand it to you because obviously you've got such a passion for the renewable energy area so let me just pass to you first of all I'd like to acknowledge the Manapanawa Tavimaki Kioru Koto and thank you for hosting this it's really exciting to see everything that is available you may be able to tell from my accent American but thanks to Edmund Hillary Fellowship I have revocated to Aotearoa and am now pursuing and helping support to move to the zero carbon economy through grid-scale solar development so that's just a bit of background on what I'm doing here as a fellow and we recognize Tavimaki as the energy hub for the country and are working here to explore the possibilities for large-scale solar work certainly not alone in that but we have connected with numerous organizations and agencies in the region and just again have a good relationship with Aotearoaaki and Cristiano and the team there and again much of this facilitated through EHF I think that the last bit in particular living in Tadinaki very compelling but from the business side I am intrigued by the presentation on the land ownership that landowners have essentially put up their hand and said I'd like to try something new I'm curious to learn more about that one of the co-applications that we see for grid-scale solar here in Aotearoa in particular is the idea of sheep daring sheep grazing because of the nature of the panels and the structures it does not work to coexist necessarily with dairy but with sheep it's actually a very good and well demonstrated co-application but I think the ovaim daring element is a new twist on that and I'd be very curious to hear more I do see from some of the conversations we've had with landowners and with Māori trusts and and organizations in the Tadinaki region this is an area people are very excited about for growth how might that how might we merge that with what we're seeking to do in grid-scale solar Thank you I'll respond to that Jeff it's interesting the blend of solar and agriculture and you I'm not sure if you're aware we've got a solar farm here in Tadinaki and they've got some some sheep running around in the paddock I understand and there is a study underway looking at that whole blend of agriculture grass growth and blending it with power so it's quite a new and evolving an interesting area here for for New Zealand and also here in Tadinaki and we have a lot to do with both energy and our farming sector because they're both our two key prongs here and so now that they're starting to kind of merge together a little bit in how the industry can work in you know together with solar and in farming so there's interest in following some of that work and we are interfacing lot with our farmers who are very interested in rural energy and also some of these areas such as the solar blend with farming as well Thank you. I'm also curious to learn more as the energy transition takes place and we moved to renewable electricity and zero carbon how the Venture Tadinaki used the workforce transition from some of the earlier and incumbent industry into new industries we've seen with Hidringa for example the production of green hydrogen through renewable resources with wind and solar and so on how do you view the labour force transition and training for Tadinaki and I think both Rachel and I can respond to that but certainly because we have a lot of capability in the oil and gas industry is there's a number of those skills which are almost which are directly transferable because they're quite similar into some of the new forms of energy such as hydrogen etc and in addition to that we are fortunate to have a very proactive polytechnic which also offering some courses in some of the areas of opportunity as well such as solar but Rachel do you want to add? Yeah I mean I'll just add to that by just saying with our regional skills leadership group we picked energy as the first cab off the ramp and we've partnered with energy skills Aotearoa to look at where is the workforce at where do they need to go and what are the gaps so there is a piece of work that's currently being done they're releasing it I think it's about the 27th of July so any day now around what their recommendations are and where they see the training needs but as Anne said I think there's a lot of transferable skills so the example I always use is a good friend of mine is a pipeline engineer and now he specialises in corrosion and the metal side of things but hydrogen still may need corrosion engineers and still may need so what we really want to try and do is make people understand the opportunities that are there and that they know that it's not just going to stop because the block off is finished there are opportunities and new energy for transferable skills and that we want to keep these people in region we don't want them leaving because they have great skills and it's not just the skills that they bring to the workforce it's also the skills that they bring to the community and what they invest well just a couple of other observations I would make is that our understanding and we have not initiated any resource consent processes yet but our understanding is that the district council is actually very eager to welcome new segments as you've described to the area and so there is a friendly and I won't say easy but a well facilitated consenting process for the Todonaki region the other thing that I would add and this is just from my personal experience not only is Todonaki one of the sunniest region it has some of the best rainbows ever it's really extraordinary it's those green paddocks of grass for those cows just to talk about at the start of this before we've been live is that sunshine and rainfall are not metrilegal exclusives yes we have great sunshine but we have great rainfall but the upside of that as you're saying Jeff is that allows things to grow yeah nice a couple of things that stood out for me which I really loved Josh I loved hearing about move into the property I thought that was a really great conception all those new projects that you've got on the go there I did not know that and I just think it's such a great more sustainable way forward as well and diversifying EWIS you know monetary portfolio I think that's such a great idea and very clever and helps out the community a lot there Caroline I liked was it called MRTs? Was that the the yeah I love that concept MTR yeah yeah I just I think I can't wait for that to be sort of more out there and I'm assuming to sign up to be on that pilot you have to be in that region or is it anywhere in New Zealand that you can? yeah it's all throughout New Zealand there are some not all retailers are on board so if you go to our website you can see who's on board so you would have to be with those companies but um yeah it's really exciting we just really excited to see the benefits that come from it yeah I just I just think it's great because we just need that breakthrough and to be able to sort of how do we help get the energy sector a bit more sort of broken up make some more entrance can come in and activities can happen there and on that what was the other one I really liked oh the supply that tool for supply for transportation we've actually got a talk coming up later in the the month actually we're one of our fellows who's in a global transportation you should just come along and make sure you're and also just checking that you're a part of Auckland University's supply chain sort of like group that they have yeah just so that you because you may find you get more great conversations and people that you can connect with that are in that supply chain sort of network as well that sounds great I'll touch base with you offline yep brilliant thank you Rosalie I saw Josh yeah Josh has Yeah Josh sorry I'm not sure looks as if Josh just had to drop off but to me what I think was exciting to see a region recognise the transition that it's facing and actually beginning to plan for how you will make that transition particularly in the areas regenerative agriculture and renewable energy and I think that will be real music to a lot of our fellows is the part that I was intrigued in is to also understand given how a proactive te atiawa Taranaki Tanduli are within the region to really understand how are they thinking about innovation and partnerships across their assets to actually trial really different approaches for example with different models for sustainable housing might be just one example or different forms of regenerative land use as sort of pilot projects that could prove the economic model in other areas so I realised Josh isn't here yet but I wanted to sort of put that down to see if anyone had a response to that Yeah, I mean what I will add is as Josh kind of said was that every iwi throughout Taranaki is kind of looking at similar approaches One thing that perhaps if you sort of start looking at what they're offering their whānau in terms of the financial side of things and how they finance people aren't you? I think that's really interesting actually some really innovative models around getting whānau into housing and partnering as iwi with whānau so it does become affordable and then having and then getting into the development side of it's sort of a holistic wraparound and I think that's really exciting and I think the rest of us could actually learn quite a lot from what they're doing in terms of starting to challenge the housing model and Josh mentioned that they are open to social impact investing and things like that so if fellows are looking at that sort of thing I think they would be more than open to have those conversations Thank you Well thank you team I absolutely appreciate I learnt a lot as I always do in these sessions and I know that the fellows will look forward to watching the recording and if you don't mind sharing the powerpoint as well because there's a lot of nice detail that you can actually read in there and actually appreciate it and I will be sending this recording back to you that you can have a look at as well


So let's do the equilibrium constant for this expression a little more like we're saying a little more scary expression but still not too Difficult if you remember the rules, okay, so remember the equilibrium constant aq Okay, it's going to be the products Raised to their coefficients divided by the reactants, okay That's their molar concentrations. Okay, so and the only ones we're going to do are ones that are either gaseous or aqueous Okay, so if we look at the products, right? We've got three products here But one of them is a pure liquid. So that's not going to be incorporated into the equilibrium expression Is everybody okay with that? so what we're going to do is say Concentration and then two plus hey, it doesn't have a coefficient. So it's not race We're going to multiply that by cl2 or in gas Which also does not have a coefficient, right? So we're going to raise it to everybody okay with that side of the equation okay, now we're going to look at the reactants side of the equation and We see well, we got it solid. That's not going to be expressed in the equilibrium constant expression Right because pure liquids and pure solids are not expressed. So we have two aqueous components or protons and two chloride Right, so what we're going to do is take those protons or hydrogen ions For those of you who weren't here on And we're going to raise those raise that concentration And then we're going to take the chloride and Raise that so that's the equilibrium constant expression. The one thing you want to remember About the equilibrium constant is I know we're not putting any numbers in right now But when you do put numbers in you're going to get some sort of kind of units of Malarity or something over molarity or molarity squared or molarity to the negative two Just kind of have to cancel those units out because kq doesn't have any units Okay, so when you get whatever units just throw away. Okay, this is the first thing that we've been saying In chemistry that you don't want to put units with okay. Are there any questions on this one?


Well, Joe Biden sent a very clear message to Bernie Sanders supporters. I hear you and I know that I have to earn your votes. So the day after Bernie Sanders decided to exit the 2020 race, he released two policy concessions that are specifically intended to woo us over. As Greg Sargent points out on Twitter, the Joe Biden campaign is set to make its first big overture to Bernie Sanders voters. Biden will roll out two policies, lower Medicare age to 60 and forgive student debt for low and middle income borrowers. Okay, so forgiving some student debt, that can be, I think, appealing to a lot of younger people. But in terms of lowering the Medicare age to 60, if that's all that you're willing to concede with regard to healthcare, he genuinely doesn't understand like he misunderstands the Bernie Sanders movement. That's the best that you're willing to do. Reduce the age of Medicare by five years. That's it. Let me ask you this. Who is Bernie Sanders demographic disproportionately? It's young people, right? So how would telling them that they can possibly get Medicare five years earlier excite them in any way, shape or form? I'm going to tell you the age that you should lower it to zero. Every single person should be allowed to get Medicare. It should be an automatic thing that we all get just by residing in the United States of America. The fact that he's offering us Medicaid at 60 is honestly insulting. I mean, because it shows like he's not willing to go any further. He won't even say Medicare at 50. Isn't that what Sherrod Brown even suggested? What do you expect? Like, do you honestly believe this is going to appeal to people? People are dying every single year, 68,000 Americans every year. This is according to a Yale study, not me. That's a peer reviewed study. You think that Medicare at 60 is going to appeal to us? And I'm assuming that that means really no changes to Medicare as it stands, right? Because when we talk about Medicare for all, what we're talking about in reality is expanding but also improving Medicare as it stands, because in its current shape, it's just not good enough. Even if you qualify for Medicare, you still usually have to buy supplemental insurance because it doesn't cover everything. So the appeal of Medicare for all is that we're not just expanding Medicare to everyone. We're improving it and it's comprehensive. You get everything, dental, vision. So to just say, you know what, here you go, Bernie supporters, here's Medicare at 60. It's honestly genuinely insulting. If he thinks that this is going to win over anyone, it's not. How does this help a 20 year old? For someone who's 27 and they no longer can stay on their parents' plan. How does this help them? It doesn't help them. So this tells me that Joe Biden isn't actually serious about winning over Bernie Sanders supporters. And here's the thing. I don't want to construct this false reality that Joe Biden has to win over Bernie Sanders supporters in order to win because I think that the real obstacle for him is exciting that Democratic Party voters, non-voters enough so that way they come out and vote for him. We know there's a gigantic enthusiasm gap between him and Donald Trump. So you can't just offer these milk toast solutions and expect people who haven't voted in decades to come out and suddenly support you. Medicare at 60 isn't going to do anything to win back those voters. If you're serious about winning and you genuinely really, really want to win, you have to do better than this. Otherwise Trump will get another four years and that means the Supreme Court will be filled by Donald Trump. He's going to get one to two more appointments and we're looking at a seven to eight conservative majority. We'd be lucky to have what like one liberal on the Supreme Court, two. He doesn't get it. This should scare every single centrist Democrat currently. He does not get it. So log off of Twitter, log off of Twitter, stop brow-beating Bernie supporters and immediately start phone banking for Joe Biden. If you are serious about defeating Donald Trump, you're not going to convince Bernie supporters and Joe Biden isn't going to convince anyone with this. So you have to put in the extra time and effort to help him win because he's not going to do this himself. If he wins, it'll be because he's been dragged across the finish line by Obama and Bernie. This is, I don't know what to say, what an embarrassment, Medicare at 60?


What's happening back in Scythe, black bag is back and ready to react and this one is to the Punisher versus the Red Hood. Now look, who do I got my money on, I got it on the Red Hood because the Red Hood is the apprentice of the Batman, okay? Now Punisher got all them damn guns and he's ruthless, he's absolute psycho, but I think the Red Hood has the tools to take him out. He's trained by a man who has made it an art to what people whip guns without gun. So, we're gonna see what happens, all right? Well, he pulled that gun back. My face and I are here just another hood. My friend. The greatest few brothers of all time. Check out all of the original music that is featured in every Beatdown episode by clicking the link below. Also, give a special shout out to Heathen Devs from Alabama and all our friends who start by Collectors Paradise and give us awesome suggestions and all the support. Go to our Facebook for special behind the scenes content. Definitely, get in your votes for the next episode. It's gonna be epic by going to superpowerbeatdown.com. Thank you guys so much for watching and we'll see you next time. The scorpion dome is hot too. I'm wondering if after I picked Red Hood, I was like, you know, I wonder if Red Hood, he's not as disciplined as bats. He's not as good as bats. So it's a possibility he could lose to the more ruthless punisher and he did. But I'm sticking with my choice. I did pick Red Hood and I think it's possible he could beat him, but he didn't in the Superpower Beatdown and majority of the fans chose punisher. So that's how it worked out. All right, y'all. Post your comments below. Let me know what you think of this Superpower Beatdown. So far, still don't nothing beat Batman vs. Darth Vader. That episode was good. I did like Superman vs. Thor. That one was real good too. Wolverine vs. Predator was good. I'm telling you, but this one, look, it ain't.


Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. On today's program, Faith Perlow reports on a new holiday in Kenya for nationwide tree planting. Gregory Stockle has a story on human-like robots.  And later Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins present the lesson of the day. But first, here is Faith Perlow. The government of Kenya says November 13th will be a public holiday for nationwide tree planting. The surprise holiday is part of a huge plan to grow 15 billion trees by 2023 to fight climate change. Keetore Kandiki is the Interior Minister of the African Nation. He announced the tree planting holiday via the newspaper, which was then posted to social media. The announcement came after a cabinet meeting last week and was led by President William Ruto. Kandiki says that the government expects the public to plant trees as part of their patriotic contribution to the national efforts to save our country from the devastating effects of climate change. The government has saved more than $80 million this year for the project. The goal is to increase tree cover to more than 10%. Right now, tree cover is only at 7%. The more tree cover, the less carbon in the air because the trees store it. Deforestation or removing trees speeds up climate change. It stops photosynthesis so the trees cannot take in the carbon. Deforestation often happens alongside burning, which also increases carbon dioxide. Extreme weather events are worsening because of climate change in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya. There, rains have failed the past five seasons, though Kenya is currently experiencing heavy rains and flooding because of the El Nino weather event. The Kenyan Environment Ministry said it would supply tree seedlings to citizens to stand for the government's commitment on climate action. Soy Pantuya is the environment minister. She said it is a moment for Kenyans to stand in solidarity in the defense of our environment. She referred to the day as a hummingbird contribution day. Hummingbirds are small birds, but they play an important part in the environment by pollinating flowers. The saying means that it seems like a small contribution, but if everyone does it together, the results will be impactful. Since becoming president in September of 2022, President Ruto has made the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program a top consideration. Kenya is part of the British Commonwealth. King Charles III praised the efforts last week on his first visit to an African nation since becoming King last year. King Charles said at a state dinner, having been planting trees for most of my life, I thought I was doing rather well, but your ambition for planting 15 billion trees makes me admire your efforts. During his visit, Charles planted a tree at the State House in the capital city of Nairobi. He also planted one in the Karura Forest. The forest is associated with Wangari Mathai, the late environmentalist and Nobel Prize winner who made the Green Belt movement, which was the original tree planting effort in Kenya in the 1970s. I'm Faith Perlow. Being a robot that is both human-like and useful has been a goal of engineers for many years. Interest in the idea of artificial intelligence, or AI, has created another wave of investment in robot technology to build a human-like robot. But most of the current robot models that aim to look like people are not too effective. They appear to work well in planned performances, but not in real life. However, this has not stopped some startups from continuing to develop human-like or humanoid robots. The intention is not to start from the beginning, said Jonathan Hearst. He is co-founder and chief robot officer at Agility Robotics. We're trying to make robots that can operate in human spaces. Hearst said Agility's robot digit is designed to do human things. It is not designed to look like a human. What it does is pick up objects and move them. Amazon announced in October that the company will begin testing the digit robot for use in some of its storage buildings. Agility opened a factory in the western state of Oregon in September to mass produce their robot. Digit has a head containing cameras, other sensors, animated eyes, and an upper body that provides power. It has two arms and two legs. But its legs are not human-like. It looks similar to cats and dogs that walk on the very end of their feet rather than on flat feet. Competing robot makers, like Figure AI, are designing robots differently. The company believes that only human-like robots can effectively work in places built for humans. Figure AI also plans to start developing robots for simpler uses. But it aims to build robots that can perform more than one job to help take over work from humans. There's not enough people doing these jobs, so the market's massive, said Figure AI chief Brett Adcock. He said he believes his company can sell millions, or even billions, of humanoid robots if it can make a robot do a human's work. At the moment, however, Adcock's company does not have a model that is ready. The company was founded just over a year ago after it raised tens of millions of dollars. Figure AI released a 38-second video of its robot, Figure, walking through its building in California. Elon Musk, head of Tesla, is also trying to build a human-like robot called Optimus in the Electric Car Makers Robotics division. But a presentation of the robot's walking last year did not win over experts in the field. Agility's digit robot caught Amazon's attention because it can walk and move in a way that would work well with the robots the company already uses. Those robots look like vehicles and work in large buildings carrying heavy loads. Ty Brady is Amazon's chief technologist for robotics. He said the way the robot moves is more interesting than the way it looks. Agility Robotics co-founder and chief Damien Shelton said its digit robot is just the first use case of a new generation of robots. He hopes people will embrace robots rather than fear them as they enter businesses and homes. So in 10-20 years, you're going to see these robots everywhere, Shelton said.  I'm Gregory Stockle. Scientists have discovered the oldest black hole yet. The huge object formed about 470 million years after the Big Bang, researchers said. The study was published recently in Nature Astronomy. The researchers said the findings confirm their theory. Supermassive black holes existed in the very early universe. The United States Space Agency, NASA, used its James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory over the past year to make the observations. If the universe is 13.7 billion years old, the age of this black hole would be 13.2 billion years.  It is believed to weigh anywhere from 10% to 100% the mass of all the stars in its galaxy. Said the study's lead writer, Akos Bogdan, of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. That is far larger than all the black holes in our Milky Way and its closer galactic neighbors, he noted. Their mass on average is only about one-tenth of a percent of that of the stars in their galaxies. It's just really early on in the universe to be such a behemoth, said Yale University's Priyam Vada Natarajan, a study team member. The Astrophysical Journal Letters published a report linked to the study. It's astounding how this thing actually is sitting in place already with its galaxy so early on in the universe, Natarajan said. The researchers believe the black holes formed from huge clouds of gas that collapsed in a galaxy next to another with stars.  The Chandra telescope found the object with X-ray imaging. That fact confirms, without a doubt, that it is a black hole, Natarajan said. With X-rays, you're actually capturing the gas that is being gravitationally pulled into the black hole, sped up, and it starts glowing in the X-rays, she said.  In addition to the latest find, scientists said the Webb telescope might have found a black hole that is 29 million years older. However, that object still needs to be observed in X-rays to be confirmed. Natarajan expects more early black holes will be found, perhaps not as far away, but still very distant. We are expecting a new window to open in the universe and I think this is the first crack, she said. The two space telescopes, Webb and Chandra, were able to observe the part of space that holds this galaxy, UHZ-1, and its black hole because of what is called gravitational lensing. The gravity of a galaxy much closer to Earth magnified the apparent image of UHZ-1 and its black hole, which are further in the background. It's a pretty faint object and, thanks to luck, nature has magnified it for us, Natarajan said. NASA launched the Webb telescope in 2021 to a point 1.6 million kilometers away from Earth. It is the biggest and most powerful observatory ever sent into space. Webb captures images of the universe in infrared light. The much older Chandra records X-ray radiation. It was sent into orbit in 1999. I absolutely find it amazing that Chandra can do such amazing discoveries 24 years after its launch, Bogdan said. I'm Katie Weaver. That was Katie Weaver with this week's Science and Technology Report. Katie joins me now to talk more about the story. Hi, Katie. Hi there, Dan. Great to be back on the podcast.  You refer to the black hole as an object. I find it hard to picture a hole in space as an object and I think many people probably do. It is not something I can wrap my head around fully. We think of holes as empty places or new places made by removing material. But NASA explains that black holes are not empty at all. Experts there describe a black hole as a great amount of matter crowded into a very small area. But we can't actually see a black hole, right? Right. The pull of a black hole is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it. But working with data from the Webb and Chandra telescopes, the scientists could measure the intensity and brightness of gases as the black hole's gravitational field sucks them in. Or as it did 13.2 billion years ago. Right. The issue of time and what exactly time is will have to be left for another discussion. It will certainly come up in future Science and Technology Reports. Well, Katie, thanks for coming in and talking about one of the most mysterious things in the universe. It was fun. See you again soon, Dan. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. You're listening to The Lesson of the Day on The Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In Lessons 32 and 33 of the series, Anna has a new TV show for children. In the show, there is a computer named Mindy that helps Anna travel to different places. But Mindy sometimes has trouble sending Anna to the correct place. Anna loves baseball. And she wants to travel to a ballpark to talk about the sport of baseball. But Mindy has sent Anna to wrong places, including the ocean. Let's see if Mindy can fix the problem. Last time on the Time Traveling Treehouse, Anna was lost. Really lost. She wants to learn about baseball, but her computer Mindy sent her to many wrong places. Mindy, help me. I am in the ocean with a shark. I will try one more time, Anna. Please try harder, Mindy. Can teach children about baseball when you find the answer. Now Anna can explain how to play baseball, a sport that is popular in the United States. To play baseball, you really only need a bat, a ball, and a glove. Each team has many players. Pitchers pitch the ball. Catchers catch the ball. Batters bat the ball. Runners run the bases. Fielders field the ball. In baseball, bases are special places on the field. And to bat means to hit the ball with a specially shaped piece of wood or metal called a bat. To pitch means to throw the ball to the batter. The throw itself is called the pitch. Have you noticed how the same word can work in different ways? The word bat can be either a verb or a noun. To bat means to hit, and a bat is the piece of wood or metal. And the batter is the person who holds the bat and tries to bat the ball. For some words in English, we can take the noun or verb form and add the ending er. Pronounced er to describe the person or agent doing the activity. Here are several examples. Run, runner. Work, worker. Dance, dancer. Swim, swimmer. Think, thinker. Bank, banker. Pitch, pitcher. In baseball, the pitcher is the person who throws the ball to the batter. To pitch is the verb. While the pitch is the noun, the name for the throw itself. From pitcher to batter. When you are learning new words in English, it is helpful to know how the words can be used in different forms like to pitch, the pitch, and pitcher. Let's take another example using the verb create. To create means to make something new and original. A creator is someone who creates, just like a pitcher is someone who pitches. But here's where English spelling might drive you crazy. Words like pitcher, batter, runner, and dancer all end with the letters er. But creator ends with the letters o-r. But it still sounds like the sound er, creator. How else can the word create change? Well, we can use the noun form creation. The adjective creative or the adverb creatively. To repeat the forms that's create, creator, creation, creative, creatively. So remember, when you learn a new word in English, be sure to check the dictionary to learn all the forms of the word. I'm Jill Robbins and you're listening to the Learning English podcast. Before we move on, we should say one more thing about baseball. We have many idiomatic expressions in English that come from the sport such as hit a home run or be out in left field. If you want to learn more about these, enter the following words in a search on the internet. Words and their stories, VOA baseball. Let's repeat that. The search terms are words and their stories, VOA for Voice of America, and baseball. That will help you find a VOA learning English article that explains all of the baseball expressions and gives more information about the sport. After Anna's computer, Mindy, brought her back to the right place, Anna was able to finish teaching about baseball. And then she asks Mindy to return her to what she calls her treehouse, which in this scene is really a room at the office. Mindy, Mindy, we found the answer. It's time to return to the treehouse. Good job. That was fast. Good job, Anna. You know, I still don't like children's shows, but I like this children's show. In American culture, we often say positive, supportive things to people we work with. We call these statements compliments. An easy compliment to say is good job. Good job. That was fast. Good job, Anna. Here are some other compliments we commonly say. That was thoughtful of you. Thanks. You are so helpful. I really appreciate it. It's great having you on our team. Way to go. Nice job. I really like what you've done here, Andrew. Well, thank you. Now, here's something our listeners can do. Try to compliment someone you know in English. Then you can write to us and tell us about it at learningenglishatvoanews.com. And while Andrew and I don't need compliments, we do like to hear your comments and what you think about the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. Remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Dr. Jill. That's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.