Just before Christmas Air New Zealand sent me my new Airpoints Card – The OneSmart Card. They couldn’t have done better with the name as it truely is one smart (and useful) card.

Having spent the last week in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test I was able to test all the functions on the card.

Aside from being my Airpoints Card the OneSmart Card allowed me to:

• Add money to the card as a MasterCard Debit Card
• Once the money was added I created an AUD ‘wallet’ and converted some of my NZD to AUD.
• Once in Australia I withdrew money (though note this was taken from my NZD balance – not sure why but I think this is still better than a standard international ATM withdrawal)
• The MasterCard is also a PayPass card so once at the MCG I was able to ‘tap and go’ at the bars and food outlets. This is similar to what was available at the Rugby World Cup but I didn’t get a card for that as there were a few funny rules around it.
• The card is also a chip based card so when PayPass wasn’t available I could still use it like a standard credit/debit card.

All the transactions (except the cash withdrawal) used my AUD balance so no conversion fees.

The card also can be managed via your mobile phone using YAP but I haven’t had the need to try that yet.

Air New Zealand have done extensive work before launching the card and I am most impressed it the simplicity and cleanliness of the website. I am easily able to convert money to multiple currencies and clearly see all the transactions. I was also able to set it up to email me every time a transaction takes place, and many times the email arrived before I’d even had time to pick up my food and leave the checkout.

All and all I have been most impressed with my new card, while I don’t plan to travel as much in 2012 as I have previously, it certainly made things very quick and simple – great work Air New Zealand.

On December 21st 2011, Gabor Bojar the founder of GRAPHISOFT unveiled a statue of Steve Jobs in Graphisoft Park.

Steve Jobs had a profound impact on the entire world so some may wonder why GRAPHISOFT took the step of commissioning a sculpture.

GRAPHISOFT and Apple have had a long association which is explained well by Mary from Graphisoft North America.

Following an earlier post regarding the capturing of Christchurch Architecture the HitLabNZ has now released CityViewHR for Android powered smart phones.

CityViewAR is a mobile Augmented Reality application that allows people to see how the city was before the earthquakes and building demolitions. Using an Android mobile phone people can walk around the city and see life-sized virtual models of what the buildings looked like on site before they were demolished, and see pictures and written information.

Well 2012 is just around the corner and while many of you will be simply thinking as far as Christmas now is the time to look a little further and sign up for some of the exciting events scheduled for early 2012.

February/March seems to be the time it all happens which is a good thing as it can provide a great foundation for the year ahead.

To date I have signed up for the following:

Better by Design CEO Summit 2012 – Design your future - first time attending but heard good things about this years event

Accelerate 2012 - always stimulating and a great concert to finish

Webstock 2012 - great content and speakers, but also one of the most well organised conferences I’ve been to!

I’ve also signed up for the Xero Developer Conference – quite a bit more technical than the above but always keen to see how the Xero eco-system is expanding!

Earlier in the year I visited Singapore. While visiting I explored Marina Bay Sands.

I was therefore very impressed when I read the article Would you like some chilli sause with your BIM? and saw the impressive Structural Models developed by Arup.

The structural models of the Marina Bay Sands project in Singapore created by Arup. (Courtesy and Copyright: Arup + MBS)

With the year coming to a close it was once again time for the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards.

During Tuesday and Wednesday the 12 finalists – 4 each from the architecture schools of Auckland University, Victoria University and Unitec – each presented their project for the three judges.

The finalists were:

UNITEC – Department of Architecture

Warren Nicholson

Erxin Shang

Tess Fenwick

Nick Adams

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY – School of Architecture and Planning

Jessica Mentis

Raukura Turei

Min Tian

Yunwei Xu

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON – Faculty of Architecture and Design

Sophie Hamer

Te Ari Prendergast

Roger Wilson

Ashton Wright

I attended many of the presentations and was most impressed with not only the work on display but the depth of research and thinking behind the projects.

Wednesday evening saw a lecture from Dr Nigel Bertram followed by the official part of the evening. All 12 finalists were recognised before the winner and two highly commended awards were presented.

Winner

Roger Wilson “Transcendent Site: The Resurrection of Denniston”

Highly Commended

Min Tian “Adipaetopia: The Co-Evolution Between the Born and the Made”

Erxin Shang “A Pulpitumic School”

Being involved in New Zealands’ premier Student Design Awards for Architecture is a great privilege and once again I’d like to congratulate all those who made it through to the finals.

Below is a few photos from the top 3:

Today I got an email pointing out that I didn’t post a single article in October or November!

The last date I posted was actually the 27th September when I talked about how impressed I was with Air New Zealand getting me (eventually) down to Christchurch.

The reason I mention this again is that what took place on the 27th September is largely responsible for my lack of posts in the last two months.

On 27th September 2011, Tracey and I (as directors of Cadimage Group) along with Andrew and Marion Ecker of Cadconsult signed an agreement that saw our businesses merge on 1st October 2011.

Andrew Ecker has essentially been part of the team since 1991 when we first started distributing ArchiCAD. Andrew operated as our South Island ArchiCAD reseller for 20 years. In 1999 Andrew established Cadconsult Limited as a great kiwi owner-operator business. Andrew has had enormous success with ArchiCAD in the South Island. Cadconsult was also the New Zealand distributor for Solid Edge – a mechanical design product from Siemens PLM.

As Cadimage Group has developed the board decided to approach Andrew about merging our businesses. We saw that as essentially a solo operator Andrew was having to deal with significant administration which was preventing him from doing what he loves best – interacting with customers and potential customers.

Over a four month period we discussed options with Andrew and initially signed a Heads of Agreement in mid-August working towards the official merger from 1st October 2011. The merger saw Cadimage Group acquire Cadconsult and in return Andrew received a shareholding in Cadimage Group.

Over the last two months I have put in considerable work merging our businesses which also included establishing a new business to continue the Solid Edge related operations – Cadconsult PLM.

While we have extensive systems and processes in our business, merging customer databases with over 20 years of history still takes time. Also getting systems in place helps provide a platform for us to build and grow Cadconsult PLM as a key part of the Cadimage Group has taken time, with yesterday seeing the third iteration of our website launched in 2 months! This coming week sees Cadconsult PLM’s first official events with the launch of Solid Edge ST4 in Christchurch and Auckland.

Two months in we are still excited about the opportunities the merger will give us and are looking forward to a strong 2012.

Along with the merger – though not directly as a result of it – we have also recently employed two more people taking our team to 17. It is great to be growing even after another challenging year. For an overview of the Cadimage Group you can refer to our website.