Sitting here in the Mahurangi College at the end of day one of TelecomONE, the unconference which seeks to be;
a vehicle for helping to drive Innovation into Telecom, to harness what works for people, to share what people have found is going on in the world and discuss what Telecom could or should be doing
There are some seriously smart Telecom people here with a serious passion for enabling both this organisation and, by extension, New Zealand. There are a bunch of really cool external parties here also who have all taken time out of their busy schedules to take part in this event - it’s all good.
I’ve just finished taking part in an excellent session discussion the broadband issue for New Zealand (where is Rod Drury when you need him?) and it was great to have a broad ranging discussion around the issues - from many different perspectives both internal and external.
I’m running a session tomorrow entitled "Of Big Chief and Big Cheese - an Allegorical Journey" - I’ll try and detail what that’s all about after the event.
Yesterday - just as financial markets were crumbling around the world, shareholder value was being eroded and confidence was slipping. Our venerable bank - the Bank of New Zealand - decided to rebrand.
Now of course they didn’t decide because of the economic crisis - I’m sure it’s been in planning for… oh at least 2two or three years - the corporate wheels turn slowly after all!
I’ve done a very rough online poll about these changes and the closest thing to a consensus I could find is the statement “I don’t like it but perhaps it’ll grow on me” - what, like leprosy?
I’ll not spend a lot of time dwelling on my thoughts - don’t want to taint the neutrality of the poll after all
I will say that as I brushed my teeth this morning I was tempted to created a BNZ logo on the brush - subliminal advertising maybe?
The new logo - extruded from the tube of a graphic designer in some swanky loft studio in Wellington, resplendent in its Web 2.0 curves and with just the sort of flourish that says “yes - I HAVE had three glasses of savvy over lunch at Logan Brown - what of it?”
The old logo. Traditional and perhaps a little staid, but conveying solidity and prudence in these difficult times. It says “I sailed in with the first four ships sonny, get me a G&T, polish the Roller and then we’ll talk about your loan”
Times of global economic uncertainty are bad news for fledgling start-ups. None more so than those in need of angle funding. The fact is that most angel investors head for the hills at times like this - their own wealth and returns from their more robust investments are heading south, they’re generally not especially motivated towards altruistically giving their “hard” earned dollars, drachmas or yen away to others.
Into the fray then comes excellent news that a consortium funded by Sparkbox and K1W1, an investment company owned by Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, have launched the Start-Up Fund, aimed at companies from Auckland’s business incubator the Icehouse.
Apparently the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund’s Seed Co-Investment Fund (SCIF) will match investments made by Sparkbox and K1W1, so enabling Kiwi entrepreneurs to get funding of up to $150,000 per project.
$150k is enough money to get over the proof-of-concept hurdle - it’s not so much that businesses get silly and spend up on bling - but it can remove some of the impedimenta to success.
Applicants for the Start-Up Fund must be Icehouse residents. The 85 start-ups that applied for this first round of funding were first cut down to 20, says Hamilton. Of this 20, six are now being put through a process that will cut the candidates down to two. The winner will be announced in the next couple of weeks.
Fair suck of the sav Marge, and will ya throw another snarler on the barbie and grab me an xxxx out of the esky (sorry - just practicing for when New Zealand becomes another state of our Western neighbour).
Cool to hear that Xero have fully launched their Australian offering. Fact is that Australia is a huge market (compared to New Zealand) yet still close enough to here for their to be some similarities in the way business is done - to that end Australia, in my mind, will be a key test of Xero’s market entry strategies. It was also cool to be alerted (thanks Dan) to the fact that Diversity is being quoted on that most illustrious of sites, Computerworld - just remember, you saw it here first (by several months!)
Of course I’m looking forward to seeing them go head-to-head with Saasu - I kind of feel that they’re both distinct products with different target markets - Saasu suits a larger operation more in need of an ERP lite offering, while Xero I see as being more of a step up from the "excel or a cashbook" crowd.
Either way it’ll be fun to watch. And on another note look what came up when I did a Google search for Xero - it seems Netsuite will clutch at any straw for business!
Sitting here in the Mahurangi College at the end of day one of TelecomONE, the unconference which seeks to be;
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