I have been lucky in that the opportunities have arisen because something positive is happening, and I get to extol the virtues of our wonderful region.
Locally, The Northern Advocate is a media partner in the Whangarei Love It Here campaign, and I was lucky enough to be invited to be part of Radioworks radio campaign on the subject.
On a similar note, National Radio broadcast Summer Report during the holidays and recently asked if I would do a 10-minute segment.
I said yes, of course, and was given a briefing of what they wanted, supplied a counter-briefing of what I could talk about and away we went.
It didn't start well - the producer couldn't hear a word I was saying due to a dodgy headset.
But once we were up and running it was great - until I mentioned that the Far North District Council had worked with Chinese delegates interested in business opportunities in Northland.
I had offered it up as an example of how Northland was potentially an attractive market to foreign investment. An impromptu example - it was not something I had advised the producer I would be talking about.
The journalistic instinct of the host took over and, intrigued, she asked me one or two questions off the cuff about the Chinese interest. I will be honest, I am not over-endowed with information about the current state of affairs re the China-Far North District Council talks re business opportunities.
I tried (in vain) to steer the host away from China but she had a strong desire to go there. To anyone who was listening - and thank you to those listeners who did and emailed to say they enjoyed my promotion of Northland - I apologise if I sounded anything but authoritative on the subject of Chinese foreign investment interest. Luckily, out of the 10-plus minutes, I managed to stick largely to the loose script.
But next time, I will stick to what I know - blimmin journalists!
