http://beta.UP.org.nz/ en Unlimited Potential Copyright 2011 2011-09-26T01:47:46+00:00 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:47:46 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/committee_nominations_2011 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/committee_nominations_2011#When:01:47:46Z October is the month for our Annual General Meeting at Unlimited Potential and that means there is an opportunity to get on board the UP committee. If you’d like to help with organising the coolest tech events in town then we’d love to hear from you. We are always on the lookout for good event ideas and are especially happy to collaborate with other groups and meetups around town. We reach over 2000 I.T. professionals in the Greater Wellington region, so it’s a great way to broaden your network.  Nominations for committee close on 21st October. Contact the UP committee and get involved. Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:23:46 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/startup_weekend_comes_to_wellington http://UP.org.nz/media/news/startup_weekend_comes_to_wellington#When:05:23:46Z Got a crazy idea for a start-up business, but need to find a team to help pull it off? That’s where Startup Weekend comes in. Startup Weekend is a global phenomenon backed by the world famous Kaufmann Institute for Entrepreneurship. The idea is to get developers, designers and business heads in the same venue and creating new ventures over the space of a weekend. The event begins on Friday evening when budding entrepreneurs give a two minute pitch from the floor. The most popular or intriguing projects go forward and then teams form to get the ball rolling. Startup Weekend Wellington organiser and Webfund Chairman Dave Moskovitz says that Startup Weekend is not just about building a new application and selling it. It’s a great opportunity to grow your entrepreneurial networks and find friends and mentors with complementary skill sets. There will also be great food and coffee available throughout the event, included in the ticket price plus prizes, he said. The event will be held at BizDojo kicking off on the evening of Friday 4th November. For registration and more info goto the Wellington Startup Weekend website or check out what Unlimited Magazine had to say about the event. Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:59:17 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/up_lift_how_communities_help http://UP.org.nz/media/news/up_lift_how_communities_help#When:09:59:17Z At a time when New Zealand is grappling with the twin economic challenges of a recession and a large scale natural disaster, it’s heartening to learn that Unlimited Potential made a difference to some small businesses around town. A lot of people are having hard times right now and the “recovery” might still be a long way off yet, according to some pundits. That’s why we need to help each other UP. Community building can be a thankless task at times, until you hear some anecdotes about who met who through your great event and what transpired. We had a huge event year in 2010 and are aware that a number of good introductions happened at UP events that led on to teams being built and projects created. More specifically, we heard recently that, through Wellington to the World, a local angel investor was able to facilitate a new and unexpected relationship between the university research community and some hi-tech industrial projects happening in our region. One of our entrepreneur speakers from W2W 2010 recently commented, “last year’s event came at the right time and boosted our company profile, which in turn helped us secure our funding round.” We also heard that several of our business services partners have had referrals of brand new clients in the last year, directly as a result of their involvement with Unlimited Potential. No doubt there are other stories out there. If you’ve found employment, made an investment, formed a company or had any other success as a direct result of making a contact or being inspired at an Unlimited Potential event - please get in touch or leave a comment below - we’d love to hear your story. Mon, 31 Jan 2011 07:24:29 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/openside_merges_with_deloitte http://UP.org.nz/media/news/openside_merges_with_deloitte#When:07:24:29Z Longtime Unlimited Potential supporter Openside has merged with global accountancy and business growth practice Deloitte. UP treasurer and financial advisor Stephen Nicholas will become a partner at Deloitte and is taking his staff and clients across with him. Openside specialised in assisting small and medium sized technology businesses and many of Wellington’s emerging tech companies are clients of the firm. Mr Nicholas said that under the terms of the merger clients will receive the same personal level of service from the existing team and there will be no increase in consulting fees. He said that Deloitte’s global reach could also be beneficial for smaller companies looking to head offshore with their technology products and services. Deloitte has a reputation for backing innovation with its support of the New Zealand Fast 50 and the Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500. Both competitions have given local companies higher profiles overseas. On a local level Unlimited Potential already collaborates with Deloitte and Angel HQ to host the annual Damsels Den event aimed at tech start-ups and angel investors. Stephen Nicholas says he looks forward to strengthening the relationship between Deloitte and Unlimited Potential. Deloitte New Zealand Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:40:30 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/website_update_december_2010 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/website_update_december_2010#When:23:40:30Z By now we hope you’ve browsed the upgraded UP.org.nz and given some of the new features a test drive. Summer is on the way and we’d like to share some tips to help you get the most out of ICT networking opportunities using the UP site. Want to grab a coffee with java devs or find a few UP members to grab a summer lunch with? Log in and browse over the the member search and search for “java” in members interests, click email link next to a member, or check out their profile for other contact information and a picture. Check your own profile at UP.org.nz/user/edit Forgotten something? Pop over to http://UP.org.nz/user/forgot_password and enter the email address we’re sending this to. You can then login from the top of every page. Planning something bigger? Check out the UP.org.nz/events page. You can add your event to our site, subscribe to an RSS or ICAL feed of UPcoming events contributed by UP and members. There’s plenty on this month! We’re still currently in Beta mode, but this will soon change. We’re about to roll out some great improvements to the site, including some refinements to our member search that will make it even easier to make those important network contacts - stay tuned! Thanks to Crescendo Multimedia and WheresMyServer.co.nz for keeping us up. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:22:35 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/bloggers_predict_2011 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/bloggers_predict_2011#When:23:22:35Z Once again, in true UP fashion, we’ll be welcoming the New Year with Bloggers PredICT 2011. A panel of leading Wellington-based bloggers will reveal their insightful, quirky, and occasionally baffling visions for the coming year. A year ago Bloggers PredICT occurred hot on the heels of the iPad release, and accordingly our predicters had plenty to say about it. Apple aside, reining champion Brenda Wallace predicted Wellington library would start renting eBooks, the open source sector would grow (but for the wrong reasons), open government would lead to cyber-stalking, more labourer-bots would enter the market, and NZ would keep following international trends rather than leading. “Tweeter” Philip Fierlinger foresaw that the keyboard would reign, with Chrome beating the iPad in the popularity stakes. Facebook – like AOL – would crumble, wireless electricity would break on to the market finally ridding us of those unsightly tangles of cables, and marijuana would be legalised in the US. Joanna McLeod lamented her prediction that marketers would continue to try selling products to girls by making them pink. On the bright side, Wellingtonians would lead NZ in the adoption of of augmented reality games & cyber pets, the party game industry would continue to grow and government would turn to technology in a bid to save money, adopting among other things – revolutionary SMS messaging technology. She envisioned that people would get tired of sitting at home talking on social networking sites and start using them to meet up face to face, and that touch screens would increase in retail outlets. Mauricio Freitas shared his glimpse into the mobile market, predicting that Windows mobile and Symbian OS would finally fail in consumer markets, Google’s Android phone would reign supreme in the smartphone market followed closely by the iPhone (although non-geeks would call it a “Google phone”), by default, smartphones would come with built-in GPS, and social networks and location based games would intertwine – with people will forgoing their privacy for the fun of interactive entertainment. Miraz Jordan predicted that Wellington would become the hub of the 3D printer revolution, direct RSS feed readers would fade away, and that we’d finally get an iPhone app that would tell us when Wellington busses will actually arrive. So…how accurate have they been, and what visions will we be imparted with for 2011? More will be announced soon, stay tuned! In the meantime, check out videos of last year’s event here: http://www.viddler.com/explore/uptv/ Contact us if you’re interested in being involved in Bloggers PredICT 2011. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:14:12 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/i.t._communities_back_up_tech_entrepreneurs http://UP.org.nz/media/news/i.t._communities_back_up_tech_entrepreneurs#When:23:14:12Z This year at Unlimited Potential we’ve made a big effort to support our new tech entrepreneurs. Our Co-founder Matchmaking event was a huge success as participants in Grow Wellington’s Bright Ideas Challenge got acquainted with UP techies. We’ve already heard about several business projects that got started that night. We also ran Start-UP Saturday, a workshop for teams working on software or web start-ups and of course we showcased our best emerging tech entrepreneurs at W2W. Communities play a vital role in a vibrant and fertile entrepreneurial ecosystem because knowledge sharing and personal networks are the foundation for new ideas, project collaborations and capital flow. Apart from our own events, UP also supports and promotes other groups that have an interest in tech innovation. MLabs is a new group that is attracting interest from mobile developers and designers, for example. There are also some great Meet-Up groups around Wellington, including Lean Startups, Web Design and Hackers & Founders. Last, but not least Summer of Tech is a partner community that supports young I.T. interns to find placements. Keep an eye on UP.org.nz for tech community events and stay tuned for a very special project aimed at fast-tracking validation and investment for new tech ventures. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:11:16 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/job_market_overview_summer_2010 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/job_market_overview_summer_2010#When:23:11:16Z Inflation is up, interest rates seem to be stable, but the market for IT skills is definitely tightening. People skilled in Java, .Net, PHP and SharePoint are harder to come by every day, and the phrase “my kingdom for an experienced project administrator” has been used more than once over the past few months. But what does this mean for job seekers and employers? A recent survey by Absolute IT found that people looking for new roles have options again – both here and overseas – and those looking to hire will have to think harder about their value proposition and how they’re going to attract and retain top quality talent. Salaries are definitely on the rise again, but if you’re thinking about a change is an extra $5k or $10k really going to cut it, or would you stay on the same salary in exchange for being able to pick your kids up from school, or have a sleep-in after a late night? Employers have enjoyed the luxury of a veritable glut of applicants, cherry-picking those who specifically match what they’re after, but this is changing as people increasingly head overseas. Also, with competing employers coming up with new, innovative ways of securing top talent,  simply putting an ad on a job board mentioning “career development opportunities and great working culture” isn’t really going to be enough to pique someone’s interest, paticularly if you’re trying to attract talent that isn’t necessarily looking for a change. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:06:25 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/report_from_apec_japan http://UP.org.nz/media/news/report_from_apec_japan#When:23:06:25Z UP Committee Member Bowen Pan recently traveled to Japan for the APEC SME, CEO and Business Advisory Council, brushing shoulders with the likes of John Key and Barack Obama. He shares some of his thoughts from the trip. APEC assists New Zealand business by supporting trade liberalisation and promoting high-quality free trade agreements in the region. It’s been successful in reducing costs of trading across borders, and provides a channel to improve the business environment. Progress in these areas will continue to make it easier for New Zealanders to do business throughout the APEC region. APEC is hugely important to New Zealand. In fact, fourteen of our (New Zealand) top 20 export markets are APEC members, including the three largest economies in the world - the United States, Japan and China. The APEC region accounts for 70 percent of New Zealand’s total trade and 60 percent of our inward foreign direct investment. Close coordination with APEC economies is vital to New Zealand’s future prosperity. APEC’s role is in faciltative discussion in a non-threatening and mutually trusting environment that is very hard to find in other international organisations. The non-binding nature of APEC as well as the economic focus of the organisation is an advantage as it helps the member economies to focus on practical/pragmatic initiatives that can be done now rather than the “ideal”. One highlight was an interview with Canadian ABAC member Paul Lee, former president of the largest game publisher in the world – Electronic Arts, and now an accomplished venture capitalist investing in digital media start-ups. We had a 45 minute sit-down discussion with Prime Minister John Key, who spoke about the importance of avoiding currency valuation wars, inclusion of additional countries such as India, and what New Zealand needs to do to be competitive in the world. It was a candid and friendly chat and we all left the room buzzing; feeling incredibly lucky as Kiwis that we have such immediate access to our leaders. The APEC CEO Summit included presentations from several of the world’s leaders, including President Barack Obama, President Hu of China and President Medvedev of Russia. Perhaps of interest to UP Members, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke about the importance of ICT innovation. In particular, Ms Gillard emphasised the importance of cyber security. Interestingly, one development raised by Mr Mundie of Microsoft and Mr Nishide of Toshiba was the development of quantum cryptography. This technology would make it virtually impossible to crack open an encrypted message and was hailed as one of the potential breakthroughs in internet security. One of the most exciting points of progress in regional economic integration is the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). TPP, in my view and in the view of many ABAC members, is the most viable way to achieve the Bogor goals of a free trade and investment area in Asia. The fact that Japan is now showing significant interest to be part of the TPP is a testament to the important role that APEC plays in bringinly about regional economic integration. This is particular relevant for New Zealand, as a large agriculture exporting economy, heavy tariffs has meant that New Zealand and other countries has largely been left out of the Japanese market. By signalling a strong desire to join the TPP, Japan paves the way for long overdue reforms, transitioning from “protectionism” to “win-win free trade”. Thanks to Asia:NZ foundation and the VTM Trust, who sponsored Bowen’s trip to Japan. Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:16:01 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/hi_tech_awards_open http://UP.org.nz/media/news/hi_tech_awards_open#When:10:16:01Z The NZ Hi-Tech Awards 2011 is a wonderful opportunity to showcase your tech company and to take part in three excellent events, including the awards dinner which is to be held in Wellington this year. Win the attention of the media, future employees, investors, your colleagues, customers and the public. Plus have your entry judged by an outstanding panel of local and international judges. http://www.hitech.org.nz/enter-the-awards.html