Mr Harrington brought the Heli Challenge back to the mountains of Wanaka and Hawea last year, after an eight-year hiatus, and he is promising more spectacular action when the 2010 event begins next week.
The event has attracted some of the world's top extreme free-ride snowboarders and freeskiers this year, after it attracted the attention of international TV and web-based viewing audiences in 2009, he said.
"The run-in to the event has been fantastic.
You'd have no idea of the support which has grown for us," he said.
Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore, LWT board chairman Ross McRobie, Wanaka Chamber of Commerce president Leigh Stock, and Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks met Mr Harrington this week.
Expanding the World Heli Challenge to include more community-focused and spectator-friendly events is on Mr Harrington's wish list.
"We talked about the history of previous heli challenges and the success of the big air comps which Wanaka used to host. I'd like to be able to bring those back downtown again," Mr Harrington said.
Mr Helmore said Lake Wanaka Tourism was "fully supportive" of Mr Harrington's plans for the World Heli Challenge.
Providing more community-based events made a lot of sense, because with a back-country format in isolated mountains, "sometimes locals won't actually know the event is on".
However, the back-country images of skiers and snowboarders above Lakes Wanaka and Hawea provided "amazing exposure" for the district to international viewers.
"It offers us a great marketing platform to sell the virtues of Wanaka to the world, especially from a winter perspective," Mr Helmore said.
The World Heli Challenge will start next week, from Friday, July 30 and will take place on two fine weather days, until Saturday, August 7, when the Lake Hawea Hotel hosts the Big Air Ex-stream TV Snowstyle Show.
