Youth gather in Masterton

The Wairarapa Youth Council in the Masterton Town Hall, where 150 young people gathered for the Lower North Island Youth Council Conference 2014.

Wairarapa has hosted a youth conference that brought in leaders and aspiring leaders from around the lower North Island and beyond.

Youth from as far north as Wairoa and as far south as Kaikoura were being hosted by the Wairarapa Youth Council.

Themed Speak Out, the conference groundwork has been done by the young people themselves, supported by social agency Connecting Communities.

Wairarapa Youth Council has members from Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa, and they have got behind a variety of events including concerts and a local Speak Out Conference over the past year.

"We're all helping out a bit," youth council member Mel Tanner said as the conference opened .

"We're feeling pretty confident -- a bit nervous."

Connecting Community youth development co-ordinator Sarah Taylor-Waitere said much support had been given for the conference, which is sponsored by Masterton District Council, Trust House, and Police Blue Light, as well as Wairarapa businesses.

Ms Taylor-Waitere said money from the Ministry of Social Development was also behind the conference as part of a focus by the ministry on Wairarapa youth.

In organising the conference, the youth council themselves "have pretty much done everything... we just do what we're told," said fellow youth development co-ordinator Glenda Saville.

"We helped them out, but the final decisions were up to them."

The two-day conference was opened on Monday morning by Masterton Mayor Lyn Paterson.

Topics for discussion included leadership and communication skills, and politics including Youth Parliament, and there were presentations by different youth councils -- including Wairarapa -- about their activities.

Keynote speakers included motivational speaker Billy Graham and Jason Pemberton, who organised Christchurch's Student Volunteer Army after the Christchurch earthquakes.

Other speakers included Kieran McAnulty, Labour candidate for Wairarapa, Ana Coffey, who is deputy mayor of Porirua City and Michelle White of the Ministry of Youth Development. Cam Mansel and Liam McEwen, the young hosts of iHeartRadio, will speak on topics including social media.