Inspirational time for the can-do gang

By SIMON COLLINS

An Auckland business adviser who has spent the past three days at the Innovate conference in Christchurch says the event should become an annual fixture.

Margaret Mulqueen, of Quantel Business Solutions, said the $200 fee for a stand in the exhibition hall at the conference had been "the single most effective strategy for getting our product off the ground".

"For us to have had the opportunity to meet some of the country's key decision makers has been invaluable," she said.

"If this was a yearly event, the word of mouth from it would be enormous."

The Government put $500,000 into the conference, at which some of New Zealand's most successful business leaders passed on the secrets of their success.

The state money was matched by other sponsors, including Otago University, Sky and TVNZ.

A start-up, three-person web-based tourism booking company from Queenstown, nzlive.com, launched its product at Innovate.

The company's young managing director, Christin Collins, said the response was huge.

"I have never been praised so much in my life.

"They want to buy our shirts," he said.

The black shirts, featuring the company logo and a Maori design, were made for the show as a marketing device.

Grant Carran, of WebSol, a two-person Auckland start-up with a software package which enables educational institutions to offer their courses on the net, was equally impressed.

He said he had more response from meeting educationists face to face at Innovate than from all his previous mailouts to institutions.

James Gu, of MasterSoft, another two-person Auckland business offering software to help people to compare alternative loan or investment options, used Innovate to promote a conference in Auckland in May.

It will bring together Asian investors and expanding Kiwi businesses.

Mulqueen said she met two expatriate New Zealanders at the forum.

The pair were so inspired by what they saw at Innovate that they were now more likely to come home.

"One guy is some kind of genetic molecularist who was here on holiday," she said.

"He heard about the conference, came to check things out and found it fantastic and he wants to come home.

"Another young woman, who has a huge business in England in the fashion industry, was really inspired by the concept of the Auckland fashion incubator.

"So forums like this are providing the information track for people who are looking back at New Zealand to see what's happening at home.

"This could be publicised internationally as part of what to do when you are thinking of repatriating."

Only one person interviewed had some doubts.

Gerard Daldry, a Christchurch truck driver who has a one-man business selling South Americans a New Zealand-made product that kills bacteria in diesel, said Innovate was "aimed at people's heads, not their guts".

"Everyone they have had giving us demonstrations has got degrees from universities," he said.

"New Zealand was probably built more on our guts than on our heads."

But he said the conference made him "more determined than ever to show these people we are succeeding without their help".

He was waiting at the door to meet a mate who had been in Satan's Slaves and had spent 23 years in jail, but was technically brilliant.

"I rang him up and told him to get down here because he will just love to meet these people."