Hi Readers,
Last week I reported in from the ski field and this week I’m reporting from Taipei. I am at the Board meeting for the World Information Technology and Services Alliance followed by the World Congress on Information Technology where I’m flying the flag for New Zealand as a leading digital nation.
This Thursday, the sold out Canterbury Tech Summit will be in full swing. My return flight won’t get me back in time, but NZTech’s Nick Elias and Techweek’s Jennifer Clamp will be attending.
Also this week, we have partnered with MBIE, the Ministry of Women, the National Advisory Council on the Employment for Women and NZRise to launch Return to IT in Wellington. This pilot programme will encourage women back into IT roles after taking a career break and will help promote greater diversity in the tech sector. Stay tuned for more details following Wednesday’s launch.
Friday finds me back in Wellington with ITP, NZRise and MBIE to review the work of the Digital Skills Forum and look at how to accelerate its impact. Progress this year has been encouraging with the Digital Skills Survey, (results are currently being processed), the Return to IT project launched, better immigration pathways introduced, a national skills framework selected and we have begun work on improving internship pathways. However, we could still do more, so it’s time for a review.
I met with Incredible Skys last week. They are a cool new firm that has New Zealand’s only CAA approved commercial beyond line of sight drone test area and is piloting remote medicine delivery in rural Northland. They have stacks of space (800sq km) so if you are developing a cool drone product or service, look them up.
Graeme Muller
CEO
NZTech
