Technology innovation and inspiration will be abundant for businesses at an coming tech festival.
The 2018 Taiopenga Hangarau Rotorua Tech Festival is running from June 26 to 28.
It is a local initiative run in partnership with the Rotorua Lakes Council, Firestation and Rotorua X.
Over three days, the festival will leverage the skills and experience of local businesses and experts.
Speakers will share knowledge of using tech for business in free one-hour clinics on tech-related topics.
Event organiser Rachael McGarvie from Firestation Business Growth Centre said this was the first tech festival in this form to be held in Rotorua.
She said she was looking forward to the event providing inspiration to other people who want to start and grow their business.
Event organiser Darren McGarvie from Firestation said it was a great opportunity for Rotorua to celebrate technology and there would be a wide range of speakers.
"It's really important to the economy going forward that we support and encourage innovation and technology, not just for technology businesses but any business that wants to grow."
They said registrations for clinics were filling up fast and if people wanted to come along they needed to register.
Rotorua Youth Centre manager Steve Holmes is one of the local speakers.
He and colleague Bobby Howard will be speaking about YouthHub - a service which uses an innovative IT platform to create a community of support around young people, and connecting them with services, providers and employment opportunities.
"This whole project for us has been a lot of work ... to be able to showcase an initiative like that is exciting."
"It's always interesting to see what others are coming out with, and see where we can connect and link with complimentary projects that have similar goals and outcomes for youth."
Hadleigh Ford will speak at the Rotorua X Connect networking event on Wednesday.
Ford is the chief executive and founder of SwipedOn, one of New Zealand's fastest growing Software as a Service (SaaS) companies.
The business focuses on one core product - an iPad-based visitor management system that replaces outdated visitor books.
The SwipedOn app is used in more than 2000 cities worldwide. Their customer base is largely in the UK and US, followed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
He will share his story of growing the business from an initial idea to expanding to a team of seventeen staff.
"Events like these are great to raise the profile of the tech industry, especially in the regions where tech can be somewhat overshadowed by a focus on primary industries.
"You can start a business from anywhere. There's no reason why we can't have our own 'Silicon Valley' in the Bay of Plenty."
For event details and to register go to www.bit.ly/techfest18.
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