http://UP.org.nz/media/news en Unlimited Potential Copyright 2013 2013-05-10T12:00:28+00:00 Fri, 10 May 2013 12:00:28 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/UPdates_for_2013 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/UPdates_for_2013#When:12:00:28Z We’re working a few new features on the UP site, to enhance your experience, and streamline your use of UP.org.nz, but while you’re waiting we’ve got a good year ahead… Check out the newest feature on the UP website - a meta-calendar that automatically aggregates tech and entrepreneurial events around Wellington. While you’re at it, update your UP profile - adding your LinkedIn and Twitter will build your professional profile around Wellington.  Big Business + Small Business series: we’ve got 3 events lined up aiming to connect big business (corporates, government, vendors) with small business (less than 30 employees). These events will present unique opportunities to provide startups with significant commercial contracts and corporates with innovative solutions to their IT problems. Is there something missing from UP? Is there anything you would like to see UP coordinate? A hackfest, professional development events, a particular panel topic or social outing? Add your suggestions to the conversation on LinkedIn. Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:23:22 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/inspire_plus_a_world_class_tech_showcase http://UP.org.nz/media/news/inspire_plus_a_world_class_tech_showcase#When:22:23:22Z Ten stellar technology companies fronted up before a crowd of over two hundred of the Wellington region’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs and investors last week in an effort to accelerate the global growth of their companies. The Inspire event brought KEA’s World Class New Zealanders to Wellington as part of their annual roadshow and delivered the Inspire Plus workshop, a fully facilitated networking and forum event developed jointly by Grow Wellington and Unlimited Potential. The seed for the event was sown almost a year beforehand when Unlimited Potential’s Wellington to the World event was postponed due conflicts with the many Rugby World Cup activities that were happening in the city. It was then realised that KEA would be bringing a fantastic group of global Kiwis to town and that it made sense to combine the two initiatives to get the best possible return for the region. KEA is a global network of New Zealanders with over 25,000 members abroad. The aim is to connect New Zealand based businesses to global opportunities using this vast network. KEA was originally founded by Sir Stephen Tindall, who spoke at the Inspire Plus event in Wellington. Appropriately, this years KEA World Class New Zealander Award was made posthumously to Wellington’s beloved Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, who was one of this nation’s most articulate advocates for building a knowledge based economy. Sir Paul’s amazing legacy lives on with Magritek, the tech company he founded, the MacDiarmid Institute for newly emerging researchers in the physical sciences and the Transit of Venus forum in conjunction with the Royal Society. During the afternoon session we invited guests to join one of four streams to address some fundamental questions relating to building a better model for taking companies global from the Wellington region. There were some deep and heartfelt conversations and we are currently distilling the feedback from this session and hope to funnel this material into the regional economic strategy and other initiatives. We will report more on this in the future. Finally we hosted Unlimited Potential members and Inspire Plus guests for an extraordinary after 5 networking event. Stellar Companies Showcase Green Keeper 8Interactive Green Button Im Able Educa Pukeko Pictures Matakina Aura Photo Higher Safe Eyes Special thanks to Grow Wellington and Wellington City Council for supporting this initiative. Update: Grow Wellington have posted video content from this and other innovation related events on their YouTube channel. Sat, 24 Mar 2012 03:21:32 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/face_your_fears_says_tech_founder http://UP.org.nz/media/news/face_your_fears_says_tech_founder#When:03:21:32Z Some of Wellington’s leading tech company founders fronted at Unlimited Potential’s ‘Tech Founders Blast Talks’ in mid-February with some extremely frank and honest comments about the challenges facing start-ups. Dave ten Have is onto his second internet-based start-up, with Wellington-originated, globally-operating Ponoko being a bit of poster child for mass customisation/personal manufacturing. It describes itself as ‘the world’s easiest making system’. He describes the start-up (and follow through) stage as being where “fear of failure is a constant”. Those reading and observing of others’ success in the venture capital and start-up space “hear a lot of stories that are embellished,” he says. That is, people hear many of the successful bits, the how it all happened narrative. The downsides, hard times, unsuccessful moves get short shrift. Equally, hindsight provides tremendous clarity. As it currently stands for himself and Ponoko, “I can’t tell you where I am, but I can tell you how fast I’m going,” he says. “It is like being chased in a confined space with a bunch of other nutters,” explains the ten Have. For all that, he clearly relishes the excitement, the challenge, the unknowns that go with starting with a metaphoric blank piece of paper. “It allows you to look into the abyss,” he says. “But do it for the journey, for the learning, not for the dollars.” For someone who in the first two years of his original start up began his morning by throwing up the breakfast he’d just eaten, ten Have’s frankness was a tonic in an environment where kicking off a new idea is often seen and spoken of as a walk in the park. At times, it is anything but easy. “You need to turn around and conquer the fear,” says ten Have. This article was adapted with permission from Peter Kerr’s SticK Blog Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:57:01 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/tech_focus_for_deloitte_sme_team http://UP.org.nz/media/news/tech_focus_for_deloitte_sme_team#When:20:57:01Z If you’ve ever attended an Unlimited Potential event at the marvelous venue on the 16th floor of Deloitte House in Wellington, you are probably wondering just what a global financial services and advisory firm has in common with a bunch of technology start-up folks and I.T. industry geeks. Surprisingly, they actually have quite a lot in common. Deloitte New Zealand employs around 900 specialists offering advice including taxation, finance, risk management and general accounting services. What most people don’t know is that Deloitte has a small business team based right here in Wellington that are already working with some of the coolest emerging technology start-up companies from around New Zealand. Headed by Stephen Nicholas, the SME team are keen to dispel some of the common stereotypes that persist around the industry.  Deloitte provides services to a huge range of clients from governmental agencies to large corporations right through to one person businesses and they tailor fees and service offerings accordingly, says Nicholas. “Small enterprises are the life-blood of the economy and (more than ever) we need to make sure they get sound advice to help them grow”, he says. Being a kind of global cooperative, Deloitte also reaches thousands of other professionals in their global network. So if your company has aspirations of growing offshore, odds are that someone can be found to answer any curly questions relating to specific markets. Deloitte are also involved in a number of industry initiatives aimed at showcasing our business talent. The Deloitte Fast 50 tracks the fifty fastest growing Kiwi companies each year and tech firms often feature prominently. Across the Asia-Pacific region Deloitte sponsors the Technology Fast 500. Last year local companies like Powershop, Silverstripe and Xero made the list which is great news if you are employed within the information technology sector. So, kudos to Deloitte for supporting our tech industry and for getting right behind Unlimited Potential. Contact Stephen @Deloitte Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:57:21 +0000 http://UP.org.nz/media/news/developers_testers_needed_as_firm_expands http://UP.org.nz/media/news/developers_testers_needed_as_firm_expands#When:21:57:21Z With fresh investment on board and big goals in mind to enter more markets globally, software entrepreneur John Mitchell is feeling upbeat about the future of Petone based company Learning Source.  An alumni of Unlimited Potential’s Wellington to the World showcase, we picked Learning source as one to watch back in 2009. The company provides online software for training organisations and has grown steadily since inception in 2006. With the growth spurt happening, Mitchell is keen to add more staff including .NET or C# developers and testers. Get in touch with John Mitchell directly if you are looking for new opportunities. 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.