To keep my finger on the pulse of goings on in Dunedin North, I like to visit local businesses regularly. Some of my favourites of late have been in the tech space. Animation Research and Tussock Innovation in the CBD, RocketWerkz down by the wharf, and Runaway over at NHNZ are all established companies doing amazing things right here in Dunedin. Equally, there are many start-ups making names for themselves here.
Speaking with the people building these tech companies, they say that Dunedin offers them a relatively low-cost environment in which to take greater commercial risks and subsequently greater possible rewards. Dunedin also offers them a beautiful natural landscape with alpine adventures just a few hours’ drive away, as well as access to the talent streaming out of the university and polytechnic here when they look to expand.
With the tech industry growing in Dunedin, collaborative opportunities abound. Just a few weeks ago, Otago Polytechnic hosted “Start-up Weekend”, where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and start-up enthusiasts came together to share ideas, build products and launch start-ups —all in just 54 hours!
To meet the growing local demand for tech expertise, tertiary institutions in Otago and Canterbury have collaborated to open an ICT graduate school in the South—“Signal”. It opened in Vogel Street in February and lectures there are now under way.
Dean Hall, chief executive of RocketWerkz, estimates that although the game development industry is now worth $90 million a year to the New Zealand economy, with a little investment over time it could easily grow to become a $1 billion a year industry. The potential for Kiwi entrepreneurs in the tech sector is huge!
Labour announced its Young Entrepreneurs Plan in April last year, which would allow a small number of smart and innovative young New Zealanders to apply to ‘cash in’ their three free years of post-secondary education—instead receiving a start-up business grant, training and a business mentor. This was music to the ears of many of the tech start-ups I’ve spoken to in Dunedin.
However, Labour took things one-step further with its tech-inspired regional development policy announcement in Dunedin earlier this year. Andrew Little revealed that Labour would invest in the burgeoning industry in Dunedin by setting up a Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) here (accelerating tech start-ups with a kitted out communal incubator space), instituting an endowed professorship for Game Development at Otago, and establishing a funding pool for tech start-ups as a truly innovative alternative to risk-averse grant schemes like Callaghan Innovation.
We need to support entrepreneurship by giving young innovators the tools they need to succeed. We also need to support economic development in the regions by really listening to our businesspeople there. A whole range of meaningful investment opportunities exist in the tech start-up space and in smaller centres across the country. Dunedin’s CODE is a shining example of both rolled into one. Now we just need a government with its eyes open to these opportunities.