Welcome to the ION e-Letter.
Leadership Resource Goes Live
A new multimedia site is offering personal insights from business leaders prominent in the area of technology commercialisation. Supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand, leadership researchers have captured a rich collection of video clips in which New Zealand innovators and entrepreneurs talk about how they built their careers and their businesses. The aim of the Leadership Pathway project is to to take young people on a journey of reflection that, through the use of role models, emboldens them to consider a future in business or technology as an attractive choice.
Instinct Exports Wikipedia App
Wellington based Instinct Entertainment scored a coup recently by getting their mobile Wikipedia application onboard at Singapore Telecom, the island nation’s largest telco. Instinct director Dan Millard says Wikipedia were happy to agree to the idea which allows mobile users to interrogate the site and receive an abbreviated query response directly to a mobile handset. The company are still looking for a local provider to host the product in New Zealand.
U.S. Firms Looking to Buy Up Kiwi Tech
ION has been approached by an intermediary acting for U.S. companies seeking to purchase rights to proprietary ICT. The contact is well connected through his writing and lecturing on technology and is willing to act on behalf of any company with technology patents to sell. Email ION for an introductION.
Offshoring Opens Access to China Market
A software developer in China is looking to provide outsourcing services to resource constrained industry peers in New Zealand. The Beijing based firm specialises in Java/PHP and .Net development for mobile and enterprise applications. Run by a young Canadian educated Chinese chap, the firm has a sound project track record with a number of multinational companies. The developer is also offering to assist NZ firms by tailoring existing applications to the China market. Email ION to make the connectION.
Vaulting to Success
Emergent business consultancy Vault is leaping to the defence of businesses with big plans for growth. The firm offers a tailor-made service to small and medium sized businesses dealing with financial, strategic and organisational issues during start-up or periods of high growth. “It’s much like having an oncall executive cheer leading team of business and financial experts at your fingertips”, says Vault director Marie-Claire Andrews. As a former advisor to an economic development agency, she helped dozens of small businesses take their first steps.
What’s Happening at ION
At the start of 2007 we completed the Immigrants Online project and wrote up a report for the Asia NZ Foundation. The project looked at how recent migrants make use of online communities to form networks and garner information. Assisting migrant entrepreneurs was an important part of the project. Flowing on from this we are currently considering developing a proposal to identify migrant investors and channel them toward local business opportunities.
At the present time ION is essentially unfunded, hence there has been less facilitation on offer to the community this year. However we would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the University of Auckland Business School who provide hosting for the ION website and forum. Also thanks go to Revera who assist with broadband. Greatly appreciated.
Best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a safe and profitable New Year.
Paul Spence – ION Executive Officer
contact [at] genius . net . nz