Ensuring Queenstown residents can get a dose of intellectual and physical challenge is behind the Catalyst Trust, a new group in the resort.
The group organised last night's ''Queenstown 2040 - Where will the snow be?'' discussion at the Queenstown Memorial Centre, where four experts revealed the latest research on climate change and practical implications for Wakatipu, before a question and answer session.
Trust chairwoman Cath Gilmour said it was an interactive formula the trust hoped to repeat to give ''greater depth'' to other Queenstown events.
Work on forming the trust began after last year's TedX Queenstown and Wanaka's Aspiring Conversations.
''A group of us wanted more and deeper such events, to inform, open and challenge minds and provoke discussion about the big issues,'' Ms Gilmour said.
On Monday, Otago University Mozart Fellow and multimedia musician-composer Jeremy Mayall will showcase his work, and on July 14, the trust will hold a presentation by Jakarta-based political and business analyst Douglas Ramage, entitled ''Indonesia - The Politics, the People and Potential Profit''.
Ms Gilmour said while the trust didn't ''even have an oily rag to run on the smell of at this stage'' it was hoped resources would grow so the trust could reach its long-term goals, which included New Zealand's first ''Festival of Ideas'' and encouraging the establishment of an Aspen Institute-like entity in the resort.
