The New Zealand Tech Alliance is a group of independent technology associations from across New Zealand that work together to ensure a strong voice for technology.
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Goodbye 2020!
Well, what a year! Who would have predicted a global pandemic and the havoc it wreaked in 2020? Terms like ‘pivot’, ‘new normal’, ‘be kind’ and of course ‘unprecedented’ have been used with, well, an unprecedented frequency. However, through adversity we have also learnt a great deal. Many of us are able to work at home and this has changed the nature of the office environment, for better or worse. We have also learnt that location is crucial to the management of a pandemic whether it’s the mapping of cases, tracing of individuals, the management of regional lockdowns or the backdrop to dashboards. Location technology has never had such a high profile!
New Zealand has been fortunate for many reasons. COVID-19 never found a strong foothold in our community and for most of us we are looking forward to the holiday season and putting 2020 behind us. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is a global pandemic and it is clear even as news of vaccines emerges, that the world still has some way to go before the new normal becomes known as the old normal.
This year, World GIS Day 2020 was more subdued than usual globally, but in New Zealand we were able to engage fully. There were seven registered events across the country with six in the North Island and one in the South.
LocationTech held its inaugural event on Thursday 4 December in Wellington, Christchurch and online. We were joined by great speakers, Graeme Muller from NZTech, Matt Lythe from Lynker and Mark Rocket from Kia Aerospace. It was great to meet with so many spatial professionals from a wide diversity of organisations. If you couldn’t make it then a recording of the presentations can be found here.
The presentation details LocationTech’s plans for 2021, but in summary, we are focused on three broad activity themes:
CONNECT
- Networking with a purpose
- Communications
- Connect the New Zealand Ecosystem
- International Connections
- Together build credibility
PROMOTE
- Newsletters
- Social Media
- Case Studies
- Mainstream Media Engagement
- Briefing Papers
ADVANCE
- Grow and Export
- Help Government understand the value of location technology better
- Skills and Capability
Connect and Promote are the means through which we deliver on Advance, representing our core focus. We wish to grow the Location Technology industry both in New Zealand and abroad. To grow the industry, we need to help the Government understand the value of location technology and to support the growing industry we need to increase the skills and capability of industry. We are really excited about this future and hope that you join us on this journey.
Finally, Santa is going to find his supply chain stretched this season, so spare a thought for the logistics manager elf and the warehouse elves – they could probably do with a bit of LocationTech support to see them through!
Ngā mihi
Chris Morris
Deputy Chairperson
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