By SIMON HENDERY
Down at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour, inside an eye-catching new building shaped like a silver fern, they're screening a repeating tribute to Kiwi innovation.
But this isn't your standard documentary on an endless video loop. The show at the Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand Pavilion is played simultaneously on 70
monitors strung from aluminium poles.
From any vantage point within the pavilion, there are several choreographed images to take in at any one time.
This is video presentation on steroids - a celebration of innovation using innovative technology.
Some of the screens use technology from Deep Video Imaging - the local company which has secured a US licensing agreement for its three-dimensional screen developments.
Attached to the DVI monitors are flat-panel speakers from Auckland company Slab DSP, whose ground-breaking noise-reduction technology this year landed it a deal with Matsushita Avionics Systems, the international market heavyweight for in-flight entertainment.
DVI and Slab are among more than 80 New Zealand companies featured in the "innovation vignettes" which appear in the pavilion's audiovisual show.
The pavilion is Industry New Zealand's way of bringing a celebration of innovation to the masses.
The Government's industry development agency has spent about $750,000 on the project and has convinced sponsors to contribute $650,000 more.
Industry NZ northern region general manager Lance Wickman says the aim of the project is to enthuse both New Zealanders and overseas visitors about this country's innovation successes.
Its Viaduct Harbour Avenue location - across the road from the America's Cup syndicate bases - ensures the pavilion is at the centre of the hype surrounding the regatta. Entry to the show is free, and Wickman says he expects 200,000 visitors to pass through the pavilion, which will be open until late March.
About 20 per cent of visitors are expected to be from overseas.
Once the America's Cup hoopla fades to a memory next year, Industry NZ hopes to take the pavilion - or at least a scaled-down version - on the road so the rest of the country can experience it.
"If we're going to take the message to the world that we are serious contenders in business, then we've got to get New Zealanders to believe it," says Industry NZ marketing manager Julian Moore.
This shameless cheerleading of Kiwi enterprise - in a country renowned for its tall-poppy bashing - symbolises the recent Government-led push to champion business innovation.
The Minister for Economic Development, Jim Anderton, has led the charge and is responsible for pumping up the Government's support structure for economic development through its agencies such as Industry NZ.
As Anderton puts it: "Success will only be achieved by a commitment to partnership between all sectors, public and private, with a stake in unleashing development potential."
He believes the pavilion is a statement to overseas visitors here for the America's Cup that as well as being clean and green, New Zealand is an "ideas-based nation".
It is also about inspiring the locals, he says.
"The more new innovators and entrepreneurs who decide to turn their dreams and ideas into businesses and jobs, the more likely it is that living standards for all New Zealanders will rise."
Industry NZ's brief is to push economic growth by helping businesses to grow and encouraging new businesses.
It runs the BIZinfo advice centres for small businesses and provides enterprise grants of up to $20,000 for small businesses undertaking specific projects.
Contestable funding of up to $100,000 (matched dollar-for-dollar by the company) is also available for businesses wanting to develop a significant international market opportunity.
The agency's business development advisers offer mentoring, grant application advice and work as business marriage brokers, helping to develop industry "clusters" - groups of companies which may be able to increase their collective clout by working together in training, infrastructure, procurement or marketing.
Industry NZ is also charged with "supporting and celebrating" industry - hence its investment in the pavilion.
The agency's chief executive, Neil Mackay, says the pavilion's aim is to change perceptions.
"We need a strong enterprise culture in New Zealand, not just for economic growth and prosperity, but also to retain and attract talented people who appreciate this country as a great place to live, work and play."
The next phase in the Government's innovation drive is its plan to merge Industry NZ with Trade NZ to create what it calls a one-stop shop for industry assistance.
The merged body will have a budget of $160 million and is due to be launched in the middle of next year. The union has the support of lobby group Business New Zealand, which believes the new body will be able to have a clearer focus on the development of the country's export capacity.
The business community's willingness to contribute about $650,000 in sponsorship (and more through payment in kind) to the Industry NZ pavilion seems to indicate the private sector's enthusiasm for pushing the innovation message. One of the key enthusiasts for the pavilion - and innovation in general - has been Carter Holt Harvey's recently departed chief executive, Chris Liddell.
Liddell said Carter Holt's naming rights sponsorship of the pavilion mirrored the company's own view of business.
"To be the best in the world, we need to not only be competitive, but to be different. Innovation is at the heart of differentiation."
While New Zealand has developed a culture, born out of necessity from our pioneering background, of practical innovation - the recent GEM report ranked us the sixth most entrepreneurial nation in the world - our challenge is to turn that entrepreneurial drive into thriving, enduring business success, says Liddell.
He cites the i2b programme (ideas to business) set up at Carter Holt.
"The belief behind this is that everyone is capable of having a great idea for a new business. The best ideas are developed into business plans by the idea generators and then once it's gone through a rigorous testing process, we get behind the winners."
Liddell says in its first year the programme generated 512 ideas. In its second year that number shot to 1532.
Two examples of the company's approach were the spinning-off of its human resources arm, now called Mariner7, and its IT support division, Oxygen Business Solutions.
Formed last year, Oxygen's initial business objective was to drive down technology costs for Carter Holt subsidiaries.
It has achieved a 7 per cent reduction in costs and increased user satisfaction by 17 per cent. The company has also picked up more than 20 new customers who have outsourced IT services to Oxygen.
In September Mariner7 sold its psychometric testing product to Auckland recruitment management software company StaffCV, which has offices in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Chicago.
While Carter Holt's strategy of aiming to extract value from its assets and intellectual property has not all been smooth sailing - a software-related subsidiary, Straightedge, dropped its plans to float through the New Capital Markets process this year - Liddell believes the country needs to emulate Carter Holt's i2b philosophy.
* Over the summer the Herald will profile some of the innovative companies showcased through the Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand Pavilion.
Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand Pavilion
Industry New Zealand
Herald feature:
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report - 2002
By SIMON HENDERY
Down at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour, inside an eye-catching new building shaped like a silver fern, they're screening a repeating tribute to Kiwi innovation.
But this isn't your standard documentary on an endless video loop. The show at the Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand Pavilion is played simultaneously on 70
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