Waikato Business News May/June 2018

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS May/June 2018
11
Techweek’18 Waikato celebrates
tech talent across the region
Waikato’s week-long technology
symposium, Techweek’18 Waikato, has
been hailed a success by organisers,
participants and attendees.
Running from May 19
to 25, Techweek’18
Waikato hosted information
and communications
technology (ICT) and innovation-inspired
events at
Waikato Innovation Park and
locations around Hamilton and
the wider Waikato region. The
Waikato event ran in parallel
with the nationwide Techweek
festival, organised by NZTech
and supported by the Ministry
of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE).
According to the 2017
Technology Investment Network
(TIN) report, Waikato is
the fastest growing technology
region in the country. Waikato
Techweek’18 project lead Jannat
Maqbool says a key focus
of the week was showcasing
the breadth of technology talent
and expertise across the
region.
“We had more than 1300
people join us at 21 events
across Waikato,” says Jannat.
“We wanted to showcase
the advantages of working in
ICT in the Waikato region,
and the depth of tech talent
here. It’s amazing how much
creativity and innovation there
are in small towns, and we can
tend to overlook them for the
bigger cities, so we made sure
events in Raglan, Thames,
Taupo and Paeroa were on the
agenda.”
Jannat says the featured
event, the Internet of Things
(IoT) tour, was a highlight
among the Waikato events.
The Internet of Things
focuses on the connectivity
between things – devices,
appliances and machinery –
and how data can be collected,
analysed and shared to solve
problems and drive innovation.
“During Techweek’18
Techweek exhibitors at Waikato Innovation Park.
Waikato more than 200
attendees were able to gain
great insights into how IoT
is being applied around us at
a regional level,” says Jannat.
“This included the work
of world-leading technical
and scientific experts in Raglan
to the applications of IoT
in healthcare showcased at
Zealong Tea Estate in Gordonton.
Attendees learned
about a telepresence robot and
what the future looks like for
pro-active primary care. The
focus in Hamilton was smart
cities, and in Paeroa they
learned about the application
of IoT in primary industries.”
“In its early days the Internet
of Things centred on individual
consumers and how
they can use technology to
enhance their lives. Now we’re
seeing large organisations and
cities start to adopt this technology
to create connections
between information technology
(IT) and physical objects
on a much larger scale.”
Jannat says the Māori
Tech Showcase at Wintec was
another major highlight of
Techweek’18.
Connections, knowledge sharing
and inspiration – what a week!
By JANNAT MAQBOOL
In November I was thrilled
to be asked to lead the
Techweek 2018 initiative
for the Waikato region. It has
been a lot of work pulling it
together, with a great team of
people and loads of support,
and I think we can all say that
it’s been a great success.
Techweek’18 Waikato
started on Saturday May 19
with a robotics and coding
workshop for girls at the University
of Waikato and ended
with a Social Media workshop
hosted by Social Listening
and a technology themed
TEDx Ruakura Salon event at
Waikato Innovation Park on
Friday May 25.
It has been fantastic to witness
the programme of events
running thanks to the support
of sponsors, participants and
attendees as well as all the hard
work of the organisers and
many volunteers. I remember
someone saying earlier this
year “If we can pull this off,
it will be amazing!” and based
on all the feedback we have
Innovation Park business growth manager
Craig Purcell speaks at the event.
For me although
Techweek is a
nationwide initiative it
is about how a festival
celebrating technology
innovation can benefit
local people and
businesses
received “We did it!”.
There were more than 1300
attendees over the week – our
youngest an infant and our
oldest a 90 year old grandmother.
Attendees came from
business, technology companies,
start-ups, local schools,
tertiary organisations, community
groups, councils, and
everywhere in between. Many
came to more than one event,
which added a sense of community
and connectiveness.
We had people joining the IoT
tour from outside Waikato,
excited to be on a technology
inspired “road trip”, as well as
others that were appreciative
of events held during the day
that enabled them to attend
during normal office hours,
plus many that found it useful
to be able to find out more
about speakers and exhibitors
and connect with participants
and attendees with the Techweek
Waikato App (developed
specifically for the festival in
collaboration with Room 9
and LayerX).
A highlight for me was having
school students not only
attend but in many cases contribute
to the success of events
including the girls’ coding
and robotics workshop, all
the youth at the Maori Tech
Showcase, Ngaruawahia High
School students exhibiting
and speaking about their EVolocity
electronic vehicle projects
and participating in the
future of work and education
panel discussion, the mostly
female digital technologies
class that made the trip to the
Thames technology breakfast
from Whangamata Area
Company-X director David Hallett, Labour MP Jamie
Strange and Techweek project leader Jannat Maqbool.
School, and Paeroa College
students presenting the IoT
project they are working on
with Agrisea for the Waikato
wide Young Innovators Challenge.
For me although Techweek
is a nationwide initiative it is
about how a festival celebrating
technology innovation
can benefit local people and
businesses, and the Waikato
region. I think the Maori
Tech Showcase really brought
that together and someone
summed it up nicely on the
night by describing the event
as having a “real soul”.
This year was partly about
seeing what works and what
doesn’t and the approach we
took in asking for wider input
into planning is an example of
something that I think worked
well. We wanted to find out
about as many things people
were working on and planning
or wanting to do and achieve
that were technology-driven
and good for the world and
pull them altogether. We
wanted to provide an opportunity
for as many people and
organisations as possible to
“We know the Māori economy
in Waikato is growing
fast in a business sense, and
it’s also growing rapidly from
an IT and technology point of
view.
“More than 400 people
attended the Māori Tech
Showcase, which shows the
interest the sector is gaining,
and how the use of IT and
technology are being used to
enhance Māori business activity
and connect people to New
Zealand’s cultural story.”
Craig Purcell, business
growth manager at Waikato
Innovation Park and one of
Techweek’18 Waikato organisers,
says he’s continually
impressed by the brain power,
connections and technology in
the Waikato region.
“I’m blown away by the
sheer amount of IT talent in
this region,” he says. “People
of all ages and across all different
sectors turned out to
see our events in Hamilton,
Thames, Taupo, Raglan and
Paeroa, and talking to them I
know they walked away with
an appreciation of the IT talent
in this region”.
“The fact that we are part of
the national Techweek shows
Jannat Maqbool speaks at Techweek’18.
participate and contribute to
the week-long celebration.
There was also an element of
trying to reduce duplication
and wanting to illustrate how
much capacity we had in the
region, to encourage more of
us to work together and use
resources effectively, plus we
wanted to consider themes
that were not only relevant
regionally but a focus for government
and globally.
Techweek’18 Waikato has
resulted in a great deal of
knowledge sharing and generated
plenty of discussion as
we can be really proud of the
quality and scale of events
hosted in the Waikato region.”
Craig says Techweek’18
Waikato is just the beginning
of initiatives to support the
emerging and fast-growing IT
sector in Waikato. Other initiatives
include the establishment
of CultivateIT, a cluster group
of Waikato ICT companies and
tech professionals created in
2017 to help retain skills and
build capacity in the Waikato
region.
“The sector is thriving and
the more support and celebration
we can give it, the better.
The IT and technology sector
in Waikato – and New Zealand
– are growing rapidly and in
the Waikato region we’re wellplaced
to be at the forefront of
that growth.
“I suspect Techweek’18
Waikato is just the beginning
of an ongoing celebration of
the capabilities of both the
region and the country.”
well as connecting those who
would otherwise have continued
to work away unaware
of the opportunity to produce
considerably more value for
themselves, the Waikato and
the New Zealand economy.
Planning for next year will
commence in August and,
now that we have all had a
taste of what is possible, we
should be able to pull together
a real showstopper for Techweek’19.
Please contact me
on Jannat.maqbool@wipltd.
co.nz if you have any ideas for
next year.