Local Focus: Transforming Rotorua into a tech hub

Rotorua has long been a mecca for local and international tourists but the city is also gaining a reputation as a technology hub, with an increasing number of businesses and careers available.

Alec Foster, bioproduct portfolio leader at Crown Research Institute Scion, said there were not many places in the world where “you get the opportunity to work on some of the technologies that we have got here”.

Scion specialises in technology development for the forestry sector and Foster said it was an exciting time to be in the industry.

“We’re exploring biotechnology to genetically engineer trees and help them grow twice as fast. We’re modifying microbes to capture methane and convert it into bioplastics.”

Foster was developing a more eco-friendly plastic, which he hopes will replace non-biodegradable plastic in everyday items.

“We’ve started making natural polymers from geothermal methane. So we’re taking the gas from a geothermal power station, feeding it into a fermenter where bacteria make natural polymers that break down. So, sustainable plastic made from gases — and that’s really quite cool.”

Rotorua local Matt Browning, who founded consulting company Triple Scoop, said his path into IT had not been not a traditional one.

“I joined a company that I wanted to be in but they didn’t have any tech support. I had to go through literally 2000 pieces of paper with calculations every week. I said, ‘This is crazy, I would teach myself coding to not have to do this’, and so I did.

“I spent nights and weekends for six months teaching myself coding on Google to learn how to make a program that could do that job instead of me doing it every week.

“So I managed to create a program, and it got used by the whole department. That was my entry into tech, into coding.”

Browning’s work meant he could base himself anywhere in the world, but he chose Rotorua for the lifestyle.

“I live one block from the forest, a 10-minute drive to the lakes, and the lifestyle here is incredible.”

Browning recently created a contest for secondary school students to pitch ideas for an app, with him developing the winning entry.

Leon Thomas carved out a niche for his technology-based business in Rotorua after previously working at Weta as a motion graphic artist.

“I started with making spaceships, all that sort of stuff, and then I slowly branched out into actually doing proper work for proper companies.”

His advice to anyone interested in technology is to focus on the process and not the tools.

“The process is the key, a piece of software is only a tool.”

Thomas relocated to Rotorua from Wellington and enjoys the lifestyle and slower pace.

“The way that technology has moved in, the way that information needs of companies have moved, made it possible for me to use my skills to actually base myself here.

“You can do very cool things, even though you’re not in the big city.”