Years ago I received a cold-call email from a teacher at one of the local primary schools. Naomi Lees had read my bio on the Hospice New Zealand Conference website. This was a conference at which I was a keynote speaker. Naomi said that from my bio it sounded like we had common interests and she invited me along to her primary school’s networking meeting.

I had always loved the idea of compassionate communities and thought it would be a good opportunity to connect with one of the local communities we serve. I was keen to meet Naomi, her school principal and other community members, at the PIANO (Papakura Information and Networking Opportunity) meeting. A cool name and I wondered what kind of music we would produce together.