Priority One CEO, Dave Courtney, looks at the positive regional messages sent out from two local events, DayBreak – Festival of Innovation and Zespri Momentum 2026.

Last week, two events in Tauranga offered a powerful and positive signal of the Western Bay’s economic future.

The events were the Zespri Momentum conference and Priority One’s DayBreak – Festival of Innovation. Together they paired our world-leading kiwifruit sector with a fast-rising local cohort of global companies, underlining the growing strength of our export-orientated business sector. 

Zespri announced a demand-led strategy to more than double its revenue by 2035. That’s a confident statement of intent from a $5 billion global business anchored firmly in our backyard. Its drive to become the “World’s Healthiest Fruit Brand” is global in its breadth and ambition.   

Success abroad will mean local success. Whether that’s through increased grower returns, investment in the post-harvest sector, the presence of Zespri’s head-office in Mt Maunganui, or through the broad eco-system that supports the industry’s ability to operate and deliver from orchard to market.   

The fact the cornerstone of our regional economy is so confident about its future should be celebrated. 

But no matter how strong the kiwifruit industry is, it cannot shoulder the future economic growth of this region on its own. Long-term economic success – particularly in a world of material geopolitical and economic risk – requires increased diversity across a range of markets, industries and categories. And that is why DayBreak mattered. 

Inside the rooms at DayBreak were companies such as Robotics Plus, Trimax, Bluelab, LawVu, Oasis Engineering and SYOS Aerospace. These are hi-tech exporters based in the Western Bay of Plenty that are already generating hundreds of millions in revenue between them, that collectively employ hundreds of people locally, and are selling into a broad sweep of categories and markets across the world.  

They are ambitious, internationally connected companies – they prove that high-value manufacturing, automation and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) development can thrive here – not just in Silicon Valley or Singapore. 

Also at DayBreak, were companies such as Cetogenix and Bonnet – tech startups well on their way to joining these established exporters, growing investment and international customers. There were also several early-stage founders, right at the start of their journey – entrepreneurs with a prototype or a spark of an idea. They’re a reminder that innovation isn’t a moment, it’s an ecosystem. 

The magic of DayBreak is that we have established exporters, ambitious scaleups, investors and founders in the same room, along with people from the broader ecosystem: experts, designers, creatives, educators, researchers, marketers, lawyers and more. When that happens, knowledge flows, connections grow and momentum builds. Ideas move faster. Capital becomes bolder. The region’s economy builds greater value and resilience. 

Taken together, the messages from Momentum and DayBreak are positive: The Western Bay is a growing and diversified economy, driven by globally orientated companies with deep local roots.   

The Western Bay has strong foundations in its export-orientated sector – that was made clear last week. Those foundations perform best if they’re supported through the broader social, environmental and economic context around them:
– planning and policy settings that enable and encourage forward motion with stewardship
– investment in physical infrastructure
– investment in the capability and capacity of our people
– and the need to complement our own ecosystem with off-shore talent and capital attraction.   

Get those settings right and this region will thrive.