I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Had a good night last night at the Positively Wellington Business ICT Debate. The panel argued first if Wellington’s claim to be ICT Capital is under threat and then what do do about it.
I put forward that Wellington ICT had the following positives:
- We are very networked and that deep trust relationships occur quickly
- We have access to Government
- As the Capital City there is massive Government ICT spend that has to occur
- Our strong services base gives us access to broad business experience, is a great training ground and allows us to discover real business opportunities
- We now have insider money in our local network
I think the following things need to happen:
- We need to improve Government Procurement policies. That spend can be used to more effectively grow export businesses
- We need to lobby for Export and R&D incentives that encourage business investment
- We need to introduce capital into our great services businesses so that they can invest in developing IP and products rather than selling hours
Syd Huff from Victoria University pointed out that young people are less excited about ICT, and that the numbers coming through the education pipeline were dwindling. This really resonated with me. I’m going to make a point of going out and talking to schools. ICT is exciting and magical. You can create a great career.
Be great to see some of the Unlimited Potential people at these events.
The night finished up at Martin Bosley’s. Bit furry today.
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I attended this too, and was impressed with the turn out. What resonated with me was a concern one speaker raised that things just weren’t bad enough for people to care to make a difference…that worried me (how bad does it need to be?) but unfortunately was reinforced by the tone of the night, great fun but now what??? Not that it should have been painfully sincere but a call to action would be have good (maybe that happened at Martin Bosleys?!)
And sadly the lack of comments on this blog entry might also point to a lack of enthusiasm for the topic…hopefully not