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It's been absolutely magic week. You know, we we started off with that incredible opening ceremony. Uh, fantastic Wellington day, walking on the waterfront to te papa. And here we are at the closing ceremony. Another fantastic Wellington day. But what? What a heck of a lot we've done this week. You know what? What amazing, extraordinary things have happened over the last 78 days. What are some of the highlights been for you? I think there's there's highlights on different levels. Some of them are just the events like the um The cultural dinner at was just an amazing experience. I think, for [00:00:30] everybody who was there, just the crowd that was there. What happened? The atmosphere in the room was was just extraordinary. Nobody really wanted to leave. But then there's lots of little things that you see which really touch you. Particularly some of the people I think who came from overseas who were quite shy, maybe not particularly confident about themselves about being open as to who they were in public, and they would come out of the hub and put their take their ID away. And then after a couple of days, you'd see them walking around town with their heads held high, wearing their [00:01:00] ID, wearing an eight games t-shirt. Obviously very, very comfortable and proud and happy, and that that sort of flourishing, that sort of flowering of of people was just wonderful. Are there any other examples of that? I think there's There's been quite a few, uh, things during the, um during the week when we've seen in the sports area, for example, some people do things which were quite a big challenge for them. Uh, one of the magical things about our sports competitions is they cater for all abilities. So you have people [00:01:30] like Kirsty at one end breaking World Masters Records, which is just a phenomenal achievement. But we also have people at the other end who have, uh, really set themselves some high challenges, some big goals which are just just their personal goals for themselves, and they go out. They've trained for quite a long period of time, and then they just go for it and they achieve for them. And that's fantastic as well. This has been a huge logistical exercise for the organising committee. How how many people were involved in in getting this up and running. [00:02:00] And how long did it take? It was really over 2.5 years. At one stage, I counted, uh, something like 229 people who were lending a hand in different areas. Uh, looking at the financial side, there are 33 separate budgets, uh, being held across different areas. So Mark Ferry and the and the finance team, they have just done an extraordinary job of managing all that. Um, so it has been a huge logistical exercise, but, um, Wellington has done really well. The Wellington community has been totally behind it. The City Council [00:02:30] has been totally behind it, and, uh, we've brought it off. How has greater Wellington responded to to so many queer people in town? I think they've responded really well, I've I've heard some fantastic feedback, uh, of of people here who have wonderful personal experiences around Wellington. Just talking to some of the locals, asking directions to things. Um I think just the visibility that we've had around town, people can see the lanyards and the t-shirts and so on. Um and [00:03:00] it's been it's been very well received. What about media coverage? media coverage, Uh, has been a little bit all over the place. Mainstream media. We've had some great mainstream media from, uh, radio from particular areas of Radio New Zealand and and some other, um, places, uh, gay nz dot com and the gay media Sydney Star Observer. Uh, those sorts of places Joy FM, have done some fantastic stuff and and that's been, um, that's been extraordinary. The coverage, the time, the energy, the passion that they put into that [00:03:30] If there was looking well, I mean, we we we're still part of the the the the week. But I mean, I guess in hindsight, was there anything that you would have changed about this what you've done so far? You know, I can't think of anything off the top of my head. I think so many things that we wanted to happen have happened, and, um and the feedback has been fantastic. Um, there's there's just minor details, but again for a for a volunteer effort with, with all of the [00:04:00] exac being people who had very busy day jobs and then doing this on top, Uh, I think what we've achieved is extraordinary, and I'm absolutely proud of all the people who have been involved in this, can you describe just the spirit? Uh, especially last Saturday when there was 1500 people in the square and marching. Can you describe what that was like? It was, I think everybody who came here, uh, was just completely blown away by the fact that it wasn't just a group of people arriving at, uh 4 [00:04:30] 30 then going off to take part in the opening ceremony. The buzz was there all day out in the square, was packed and was was really busy all day and people just mixing and and meeting. And that was just the sheer numbers I think were very, very exciting. But then, as we got together under the banner for the different countries and people realised who was here and that so many different countries around the world, so many different parts of the world were represented here, Uh, was just absolutely magic. And then being able to walk around [00:05:00] the waterfront to te papa and go into te papa was, um was an incredibly rare experience. What will you take away from this conference and week? Uh, I think I'll take away several things. One, personally, I I've found it, um, hugely rewarding exercise. Um, it's been an enormous pleasure to spend so much time working with people who are absolutely passionate about what they're doing, but also bringing [00:05:30] huge numbers of skills and a huge experience to it. And so, working with that very wide team, But working with the exec team in particular has been a real delight. Um, I think it's been marvellous for someone who lives in Wellington to, uh, it's just an incredible sense of pride. I feel how well Wellington has hosted this. All the different venues, the City Council, the businesses getting behind it. Um, it's, uh, we've really done ourselves proud. So [00:06:00] when's the next one? Well, you know that. I mean, that's one of the most exciting things about this stage of the event is that people are thinking, Well, this was just awesome. When's the next one? What can we look forward to? When when can we start saving and training and all those sorts of things? And there are some incredibly exciting, um, suggestions around as to where things could potentially be be held like Kathmandu, Nepal. I mean, how amazing. Would that be just what a what a what an event that will be. Uh, but there [00:06:30] are other cities that I know are sort of quietly having conversations, saying, We can do this, We can do this. Let's put in a bid. So I think the next six months it's going to be very exciting seeing um, seeing what develops in that area. And I think there's quite a lot of people in Wellington who've had such a great experience doing this, that we'd be very happy to lend our experience and lend some time and ideas to whoever is, uh, planning to host the third, uh, Asia Pacific Art Games. If somebody is listening to this in 30 years time, what [00:07:00] would you like to say to them? I'd like to say to them that, uh, this has been a week. This has been an incredibly moving week for an awful lot of people. The the atmosphere in so many different events, um, has been a really rich, warm atmosphere which has just touched so many people's hearts. Uh, we've had the motto was Play Excite, Inspire. We've certainly played and excited and inspired, and it's going to be a week [00:07:30] that I think people who've been involved will look back on very fondly for the rest of their lives.
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