Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
Nov 20 2017 - The biggest and most important international tech conference to be staged in New Zealand will be held in Auckland early next year which may pave the way for faster advances for the Kiwi economy. NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says changes and tech developments are happening globally at a phenomenal and unprecedented rate. “This year alone we have seen the launch of a self-driving vehicle firm in New Zealand, face-detecting systems to authorise payments, the creation of new solar devices that could create cheap and continuous power and the relentless push to add connectivity to home gadgets. “As self-driving cars become common in this country, we need to gauge if New Zealand’s is living up to its reputation as a standout digital nation. The Digital Nations 2030 Global Future summit, organised by NZTech and Conferenz bringing together the tech sector and the government, will put the spotlight on Kiwi tech advances.” The Digital Nations conference on 19 and 20 February 2018 will be a forerunner to the D5 summit to be held later that week in Wellington. The D5 is a network of the world’s most advanced digital nations, with a shared goal of strengthening the digital economy. It was founded in London in 2014 by the United Kingdom, Estonia, Israel, New Zealand and South Korea. Among the 10+ international speakers and panellists at the Digital Nation 2030 summit are South African futurist Graeme Codrington, chief executive of TomorrowToday; Singapore’s Sandra Ng, group vice president Asia Pacific, for IDC; Siim Sikkut, Government chief information officer, Estonia; Martin Lundqvist, partner at McKinsey & Co, Sweden; and Shai-lee Spigelman, chief executive of Digital Israel. Technology, business, social and government leaders from across New Zealand are also on the agenda including Simon Moutter, chief executive, Spark; Carolyn Tremain, chief executive, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment; IanTaylor, chief executive of Animation Research; Te Aroha Moreehu, general manager for digital transformation, Ngati Whatua Orakei Whai Maia. Muller says the conference will cover every aspect of how a digital economy is shaping. His comments come hard on the heels of the 2017 Digital Planet report by the Fletcher School at Tufts University that shows New Zealand is one of the world’s leading digital nations. “The Digital Nations conference offers a great moment to bring together New Zealand’s digital leaders, with international experts, business leaders, societal change agents and policy makers to envision what New Zealand could look like as a digital nation by 2030, and then agree on investments and policy to help us get there. “By listening to the plans of other leading nations and then working on what it could mean for New Zealand’s education, health and financial systems, our productive sectors and the society, this should help us move together as a country towards a more prosperous future during a period of profound change. “NZTech is pleased with the close and proactive partnership with in the Department of Internal Affairs and the Government Chief Digital Office as industry and government work together to prepare New Zealand for a tech focused future. “New Zealand’s innovation ecosystem and institutional environment are both noted as strengths for New Zealand in the 2017 Digital Planet report and this Digital Nations conference partnership between industry and government is a great example of why we are seen as a leading country,” Muller says. The Digital Nations conference is expected to attract more than 450 people including D5 Ministers and their delegations, invited international experts and New Zealand digital leaders and influencers representing all sectors.
| A NZTech release || November 20, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - Join CADPRO Systems Ltd & Global Survey technical specialist NEXT WEDNESDAY to see why the #BLK360
Nov 20 2017 - The news that the road toll for 2017 has now surpassed the total for 2016 is tragic news, says Associate Minister for Transport Julie Anne Genter. “This year we’ve already seen 330 people lose their lives on New Zealand’s roads. “Every death on our roads is a tragedy and the high number this year is quite simply unacceptable. “The road toll has been going up over the last four years and is now the highest it’s been since 2010. My number one priority in the transport portfolio is to bring the road toll down. “In recent years expensive roading projects have been the priority and road safety has taken a back seat. “This government will be exploring all options to improve road safety including reallocating funding to target high risk roads. “Every life lost leaves behind a devastated family and community. We have to do better. “In addition, all of us have a responsibility to make our roads safer. It’s the basics, like wearing a seatbelt at all times, driving to the conditions, and stopping a mate from driving home drunk,” said Ms Genter.
| A Beehive release || November 20. 2017 |||
Nov 22, 2017 - Autodesk launched the "Connect and Construct Exchange," a new BIM 360 integration partner program designed to bring third-party software applications and data into the BIM 360 construction workflow. The Connect and Construct Exchange launched with more than 50 inaugural BIM 360 integrators.
The next generation of BIM 360, built on the Autodesk Forge platform, supports informed decision-making throughout the construction project lifecycle by centralizing all project data in a single place. Autodesk Forge is a connected developer cloud platform which enables customers and partners to create customized, scalable solutions for engineering, construction and manufacturing challenges.
In New Zealand CadPRO Systems are a member of Autodesk's Connect and Construct Exchange.
| A CadPRO Systems FactoryFloor Update || Wednesday 22 November 2017 |||
Brought to NZ by National Business Review founder
20 Nov 2017 | MSCNewsWire | Truth never changes and neither does effective benefit selling. Only the techniques of transferring this information from the seller to the buyer change.
Drayton Bird (pictured) regarded as the Westminster sphere’s greatest and most seasoned expert on direct selling is to tour New Zealand with this message.
#8 - The notion that the world was running out of oil gripped the international middle class early in the millennium. The panic had something in common with the just earlier Y2K scare in that unless something was done the whole of the developed world would seize up. Yet while Y2K could be firmly pinned to the computer industry itself, and which benefited mightily from it, nobody can still identify the source of the Peak Oil panic.
The position now
In the event other sources of oil came on stream, notably of the shale variety, and crude oil
| MSC Newswire Big Frights of Our Times Series #9 || Monday 20 November 2017 |||
Nov 20, 2017 - AirAsia is the best low-cost airline in the world and CEO Tony Fernandes wants to shift the airline’s business towards e-commerce launching a payments platform called BigPay. Fernandes also believes the first class cabin is going away within five years. Sixteen years ago, Tony Fernandes, with a small group of intrepid entrepreneurs, took over a failing Malaysian Government-owned airline for $US0.25 and the promise to assume its $US11 million in debt.
Since then, AirAsia has helped bring affordable flying to the masses in South East Asia. In the process, the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based company has become one of the most disruptive forces in commercial aviation history while making the always affable Fernandes a rockstar in the business world.
What started as a two-plane operation has now expanded to a fleet of more than 150 Airbus A320 jets with another 200 aircraft on order. And for the past nine years, AirAsia has been named the best low-cost airline in the world by Skytrax and its reviewers.
Recently, Fernandes spent a morning with the Business Insider at our headquarters in New York. Our conversation touched upon several topics including the company’s future endeavours in e-commerce, AirAsia’s move towards fintech, where the airline industry is going, and advice from his mentor Sir Richard Branson.
AirAsia is betting big on e-commerceFor the airline’s next great adventure, Fernandes wants to move AirAsia’s revenue model beyond simply selling tickets and into the world of e-commerce. With an ample supply of customer data, AirAsia wants to anchor its new e-commerce operation around the sale of duty-free goods.
“So when you book your ticket (online), we’ll offer you the chance to buy duty-free and you can pick it up on the plane or at the airport,” Fernandes told us. “It gives our customers much more time to browse and potentially we can create a marketplace for shops to put content on our website.”
According to Fernandes, the average passenger has an hour to an hour and a half to shop at the airport. With the online shops, AirAsia passengers can shop 365 days a year with personalised recommendations.
Further, Fernandes wants to use the airline’s fleet to transport goods purchased to destinations throughout Asia, thereby creating a logistics business.
“If you take Amazon, they started with a website and great distribution, now they are buying planes,” Fernandes said. “We’ve got the planes and we’re working backward.”
Of course, AirAsia’s e-commerce revolution won’t get off the ground without retrofitting its fleet with high-speed Wifi, a process that’s currently underway. It’s an element of the passenger experience Fernandes admits had been lacking onboard his flights.
The airline is focused on getting rid of cashThese days, cabin crew on board AirAsia flights wear several hats, among them salesperson. But due to the nature of AirAsia’s network that spans the entirety of Southeast Asia, cash poses a major problem. Which is why Fernandes is excited to jump into the financial technology (fintech) business.
“We’re so excited about the fintech revolution,” Fernandes said. “We hate cash. It’s a pain for our cabin crew. FX is a super pain. It leads to fraud. It tempts my crew to do things they shouldn’t do.”
As a result, AirAsia launched a new payment platform called BigPay that will allow the airline’s customers to buy products through their smartphones. According to Fernandes, the platform is built with group travel in mind. Which means it will allow people to share bills and transfer money to one another.
Initially, BigPay will also be available with a pre-paid card, but Fernandes and his team are working to make it more app-focused using QR codes and near-field-communications.
There will be a currency exchange feature as well.
“We think our customers are being ripped off by banks,” Fernandes said. “If you were travelling to Bali, [Indonesia] from Da Nang, Vietnam and wanted to exchange your Vietnamese Dong to Rupiah, we would facilitate that for you at a much lower rate.”
BigPay currently works with 10 currencies, but Fernandes expects to up that figure to 14.
Ultimately, the AirAsia boss believes BigPay will be able to expand beyond the airline ecosystem and into mainstream retail.
Where AirAsia and the airline industry are headedEven though AirAsia is thriving, the airline won’t be expanding beyond its bread and butter low-cost economy model. When asked if AirAsia is looking to offer a low-cost, long-haul business-class-only product like La Compagnie, Fernandes quickly shot down the idea.
“No, not while I’m at AirAsia,” he told us. “I think focus is key and we’re good at what we do and [long-haul business-class-only] is a different model.”
With that said, Fernandes understands the reasoning behind a dedicated business-class airline and is baffled by why airlines would offer so many different cabins on board a single aircraft.
“Airlines were crazy to have first class, business class, premium economy, and economy on one friggin plane,” Fernandes said. “That’s four business models on one plane.”
“You don’t have Four Seasons hotels with budget rooms and super suites, they basically have one standard, but with bigger rooms,” he added.
Instead, the AirAsia boss believes market segmentation in the future will see airlines specialize in one or two particular products.
“I’ve always said airlines will eventually become low-cost carriers and business class,” he proclaimed.
According to Fernandes, we will see the end of the first class cabin within the next five years. In addition, the economy cabin on full-service airlines could disappear altogether with dedicated low-cost carriers taking over that segment of the market. This means traditional, full-service airlines could be left operating flights with only business and premium-economy cabins.
The best advice Sir Richard Branson told him during the early days of AirAsia During the mid-1980s, Fernandes spent several years as the financial controller for Virgin Communications. Through the years, he’s become known for his close friendship with Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson.
But Fernandes makes it clear that he has no ambitions to become Asia’s Branson.
“Everyone thinks I want to be Richard, but I can confirm to Business Insider that I don’t,” he said. “I have no preconception of going on a balloon at 36,000 feet nor do I have any intention of going to the moon.”
While at Virgin Group during the early days of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fernandes told Branson that his decision to go into the airline industry was crazy and advised him to sell Virgin Records. It’s something Branson remembered during the early days of AirAsia.
“One of the first people to call me up when I started AirAsia was Richard who said, ‘I thought it was really stupid to start an airline’,” Fernandes said jokingly.
As far as advice goes, it was pretty simple, yet profound.
“He just said have fun and make it a fun place which we’ve tried to do,” the AirAsia Group CEO added. “But we would have done that anyway.”
“Virgin was very informative in my whole cultural experience in that it was a fun place, it was a place where there were no suits, it was informal and ideas and innovation are encouraged,” Fernandes said.”That rubbed off on me.”
According to Fernandes, this open and innovative culture has defined the company’s success. For example, AirAsia encourages its employees to design their own uniform choices and to show off their personality as individuals.
“If they’re comfortable coming to work, they will be happier and more themselves,” he said.
| A BusinessInsider release || November 19, 2017 |||
20 Nov 2017 - The first Chinese travellers to officially use the Customs eGates (formerly known as SmartGate) have been welcomed at Auckland International Airport. Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri and representatives from the Chinese government joined staff and key partners to mark the milestone. “Customs is part of a multi-agency group, working collaboratively to make eGates available to more nationalities. China is our second largest visitor market, and has contributed to the strong growth in visitor numbers in recent years. So extending the use of eGate facilities to eligible Chinese passport holders makes sense.” “The expansion of eGates to Chinese passport holders will help enhance the quality of their experience as visitors to New Zealand,” says Ms Whaitiri. Customs Acting Comptroller, Christine Stevenson says expanding eGates to more countries will help to manage the increasing number of travellers arriving and departing New Zealand. “By allowing eligible passengers to complete their Customs and Immigration checks quickly and easily, it also enables Customs officers to focus on travellers who may present a higher risk,” says Ms Stevenson. “More than 24 million people have used Customs’ eGates since they were introduced at New Zealand airports in 2009, and China is the sixth country that we’ve extended the service to. “Our e-Gates are available in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown to eligible ePassport holders aged 12 years and over from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and from today, China. “We expect this number will continue to grow, with plans underway to enable ePassport holders from more countries to have access to eGate technology in the near future.” About eGateIn New Zealand, you’ll find eGates at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown International Airports for both arriving and departing passengers. The eGates were first introduced in New Zealand in 2009, and there are now 51 eGates at our international airports. You are eligible to use an eGate if you are 12 years of age or older, and have an ePassport from:
The eGates use biometrics to match the picture of your face in your ePassport (stored in the chip in your passport) with the image it takes of you at the gate.
| A NZCustoms release || November 18, 2017 |||
A Tauranga company has spent seven years developing a unique platform to safeguard the more than 800,000 hives in New Zealand, and satisfy overseas market access requirements, with its globally unique software.
ApiTrak, which launches this month, allows everyone – from hobbyists with 10 hives, to corporates with over 10,000 – to easily track and verify their product throughout the value chain.
Founder and chief executive officer Hayden Stowell says ApiTrak maintains the confidence of overseas consumers and regulators in the integrity of New Zealand Manuka honey, by ring-fencing the industry to easily identify stolen or adulterated product and provide consumers with clear traceability.
“Consumers worldwide are increasingly seeking assurances that everything they eat is safe and can be reliably traced back to its point of origin. They want to be able to connect with where their honey is from,” says Hayden.
20 Nov 2017 - A Tauranga company has spent seven years developing a unique platform to safeguard the more than 800,000 hives in New Zealand, and satisfy overseas market access requirements, with its globally unique software.
ApiTrak, which launches this month, allows everyone – from hobbyists with 10 hives, to corporates with over 10,000 – to easily track and verify their product throughout the value chain.
Founder and chief executive officer Hayden Stowell told Tauranga's SunLiveNews that ApiTrak maintains the confidence of overseas consumers and regulators in the integrity of New Zealand Manuka honey, by ring-fencing the industry to easily identify stolen or adulterated product and provide consumers with clear traceability.
“Consumers worldwide are increasingly seeking assurances that everything they eat is safe and can be reliably traced back to its point of origin. They want to be able to connect with where their honey is from,” says Hayden.
ApiTrak software can be utilised at every step of the supply chain and its advanced authentication system verifies product and captures all critical tracking events writes
The cloud-based GS1 compliant system allows users to track honey throughout the supply chain, utilising small NFC (near field communication) tags, which are attached to hives, drums and jars.
Hayden says the ApiTrak complements existing systems and is managed through a web-based platform and proprietary smart phone apps, meaning no expensive extra hardware is needed.
The surge in beekeeping over the past five years, as cited in recent media reports, has created an increased need to safeguard the valuable honey industry.
“By June last year there were estimated to be almost 700,000 beehives, this has grown by at least 100,000 since – our industry is in fast growth. The high market demand for Manuka honey in particular is driving an increase in hive numbers.
“And with larger numbers entering the industry, there are more pressures on land use, and an increased need to ensure hives are correctly sited and that honey can be securely tracked from beehive through to shelf.”
ApiTrak chief technology officer Duncan Williamson says the platform goes well beyond the hive management-only systems offered by some other providers.
“ApiTrak can be integrated with existing hive management systems, providing a bolt-on service to the many platforms that lack our food safety compliance functionality. Our long-term aim is to help create a fully connected industry with robust traceability and food security.”
Sean Goodwin, chief executive of 100% Pure New Zealand Honey, and a member of ApiTrak’s advisory board, says the ApiTrak team had put in a great deal of effort to engage industry participants and ensure they not only created an innovative system, but one that would be widely utilised.
“The key to ApiTrak is the integrated, end-to-end nature of the system, which provides benefits for every user,” he says.
Sean, who is also deputy chair of both Apiculture New Zealand and GS1 NZ and so has strong insight into the requirements of industry and international standards, says ApiTrak has significant potential on the global stage.
Jamie Te Hiwi, Customer Manager in New Zealand Trade & Enterprise’s Maori Business Team, says global consumers are demanding the highest standards of food safety throughout the supply chain.
“We also know the risk we run if the consumer loses trust in our ability to control the safety of their food. To earn more from the food we export, solutions like ApiTrak will help attract the premium price from consumers willing to buy the intangible attributes like food safety, country of origin labelling, and traceability.”
Hayden, who has been involved in the Manuka honey industry since the early 2000s, founded the Honey Network honey auction site, and is a member of the Maori Honey Working Group.
The cloud-based ApiTrak platform makes food safety compliance easy and significantly cuts down on paperwork for apiarists, processing facilities and marketing companies.
The ApiTrak system has potential applications beyond the honey industry to a range of other food producers. Consumers worldwide are increasingly seeking assurances that everything they eat is safe and can be reliably traced back to its point of origin.
Victor Goldsmith, general manager of Ngati Porou Miere Limited Partnership, who also serves on ApiTrak’s advisory board, says the partnership owns 1000 hives on its own land blocks and will continue to increase the numbers.
“We need to give our customers assurance that what they are buying is authentic and we will be able to demonstrate this with ApiTrak.
"As we grow the business to include extraction processing and bottling, we will be one of the only honey businesses that is truly integrated from the land right through to the brand. ApiTrak will be vital to our growth.”
| A SunLive release || November 18, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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