Pure gold – another PRINZ award win

PRINZ Awards, Auckland, 20 May 2022

Left to right: Dawn Handforth (General Manager, NZALPA), Lisa-Marie Richan, Captain Andrew Ridling (President, NZALPA) and Leigh Harris.

Leigh Harris

For the second year in a row, Convergence has won the gold award for best Government Relations and Public Affairs project in the New Zealand Public Relations Institute’s annual awards.

Our latest gold award was for: An Unsafe Proposal – making the case to retain regional air traffic services. This was the work of our Wellington Partner Lisa-Marie Richan for the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA).

The project was triggered by Airways announcing a proposal to dramatically withdraw its air traffic services at seven regional New Zealand aerodromes – affecting many air traffic control (ATC), flight service and support staff jobs. NZALPA (representing more than 2,600 air traffic controllers, pilots and flight service operators) believed Airways was putting cost savings ahead of safety and sought Convergence’s help to challenge the proposal.

The resulting strategy helped prevent the removal of critical air traffic services and prompted the Minister of Transport to direct a review of New Zealand’s entire air navigation system.

Last year Convergence won the gold award in the same category for a confidential project involving an integrated government relations and media strategy for one of our long-term clients. This was worked on by Partner Lisa-Marie Richan and Account Director Katie Moore, and also won the national Supreme Award.

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