Spotlight on NZ

30 days...and counting!

Frances Manwaring | 16 June 2009 | 3 Comments

Well, we're now counting down to ExpoNZ's inaugural event, ICT All Stars to the World - only 30 days to go.  Yesterday, we got a preview of the new version software, which will host ExpoNZ.  After all the planning it's incredible to be watching our vision for a national virtual expo take shape, and we start loading exhibitor booths next week.

When a colleague and I stumbled across a virtual events platform last year during some research we were undertaking, it was love at first sight!  Like a shiny new Christmas toy, try as we might, we just couldn't stop thinking about it and the potential it has to transform how people do business, particularly as it became apparent that 'credit crunch' was really a euphemism for global recession.  This was one toy we definitely wanted to share!

Because of New Zealand's distance from our international markets and the relatively small scale of even our largest businesses on the world stage, going virtual has to be part of our national trading repertoire, particularly if we want to justify our claim to be a nation of clean green innovators.  Going virtual offers a genuine opportunity to justify our 'can do' credentials and take some pressure off our resource-strapped businesses by working smarter and more productively and without further damaging our environment.    

It seemed appropriate to open ExpoNZ with a technology theme - using innovative technology to showcase technology has a certain symmetry to it.  So here we are, thirty days from launch with a fantastic line up of speakers shaping up, including the Professor Paul Callaghan, head of the MacDiarmid Institute, open source guru and coffee aficionado Branda Wallace of CatalystIT, New Zealand's recently crowned IT Rockstar 2009, Josh Waihi and our opening exhibitors include some of New Zealands iconic technology companies.

 

Tags: virtual events, virtual technology, technology, ICT, global recession, New Zealand, national virtual expo