I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Been a busy week. Deep south end of the week. Excellent X|MediaLab event over the weekend and been in Auckland today doing a World Class New Zealand workshop.
One of my WCNZ colleagues is next to me in the koru lounge waiting to fly home and just whooped loudly. Alison just got her IT Governance Standard approved. ISO/IC 38500.
That’s pretty cool. Contact alison.holt@concretecampus.com for more information. Global influence.
X | Media Lab was quite a cool event. I was a mentor which meant that I got to spend an hour each with some very cool companies and talk through strategy and give them feedback. It was very rewarding and a lot of fun. I was blown away by the quality of much of the work. I especially noticed how rich media was just another data type for many companies. Coming from a business software background I get blown away by how sophisticated cross media applications can be.
Met some great people who were visiting. If you get the chance I’d recommend heading to an offshore X | Media Lab event to build in market connections. If you are in NZ this should be an event you shoot for next year.
blog
With events like X|Media|Lab we can all be “global influencers”. The conference day was by far the best value event I’ve been to for years and was long overdue. We must all lobby our friends at NZTE to keep supporting this project because it is a very cost effective way for a whole bunch of NZ companies to connect with movers and deal makers from offshore.
Having the X|Media|Lab come to Wellington was no accident either. It is clear that the city is emerging as a major force on the global digital innovation scene. We can keep this momentum going by ensuring that other cross-media events happen too. We tend to stick to our own little silos in NZ, but the real creativity arises when communities overlap.
As one speaker said, “people do business with other people that they like”, and there’s nothing like spending a couple of days brainstorming together to cement those friendships.
Did Alison mention the sustainability standards she’s working on the with the UN?… now THAT’S cool.
ps - great work on the WCNZ stuff. A much needed open, high quality meritocratic network for NZ
Paul
“We must all lobby our friends at NZTE to keep supporting this project because it is a very cost effective way for a whole bunch of NZ companies to connect with movers and deal makers from offshore”
Instead, how about those NZ companies that would benefit from such contact with offshore movers and shakers fund it themselves instead of NZTE appropriating money from taxpayers?
(just to be clear - that’s 2 different “Sam’s” posting above)
The challenge is that many (but not all) of the companies that benefit most from these sorts of networking mechanisms (including Kea) aren’t really able to pay ‘enough’… or aren’t willing to because the network effect isn’t recognised as important or effective - it’s not tangible or predictable so how can you charge for it?
Original Sam
The people on the networks are incredibly generous with their time. NZTE and KEA act as a facilitators of the networks. The bulk of the value comes from 100’s of talented New Zealanders sharing their experience and ‘paying it forward’.
Being on the ‘helped’ and ‘helping’ side, these are fantastic programs and all NZ companies should aspire to get involved and tap into the networks.
You simply get access to networks and advice you wouldn’t dream of.
X|Media sounds like a great event - the long weekend wasn’t a starter for me due to a higher power than myself :)
Are the focus points of the different X|Media|Lab genuinely as different as per the site? It seems the Wellington event was the most generally focussed whereas the others look like they are focussing more on specific categories.
Sam 2:
A large proportion of the companies at XMediaLab were start-ups or early phase ventures. How many small firms do you know that can afford frequent trips to the U.S. or India for example? The only growth path for new tech ventures involves getting offshore into bigger markets.
When those small acorns grow into big oak trees they will pay back the investment through job creation and taxes. That is why I am very relaxed about having my hard earned tax dollars spent in this area.
I can think of a few areas that I don’t enjoy seeing public funds spent on, but I dare not mention them in case I offend the politically correct. NZ relies on export income to make a living and NZTE is tasked with helping exporters connect globally. We need more events like this, not less.
Miki:
The theme for the Wellington event was “commercialising ideas” and a broad range of digital innovation projects were specifically sought such as Web 2.0, virtual worlds and e-learning graphical tools. The conference day and networking on Friday was open to the public. Some of the XML events later in the year look pretty interesting and relevant as well.
[...] you want to find out more about IS 38500 then Rod Drury provides a way to contact the ISO Chair for JTC1/SC7, Alison Holt, or you can download the standard from ISO directly by [...]
[...] last month at Te Papa, X|Media|Lab proved that we can all be global influencers for digital innovation. Not only that, but by utilising knowledge networks, we can leverage the [...]