UPDATED: 12/03 Full Press Release on Lance’s Site + Technical Details

It is great to see a lead being taken with regards to New Zealand’s broadband (and over at Stuff)

This is exactly what we need to get New Zealand business competing on a world stage.

I can’t say I am too surprised to see this as Rod @Xero has been advocating this for a long time, obviously to the point of him saying – well no one else is doing it, we might as well do it ourselves. Sam Morgan also eluded to it in the latest issue of Idealog.

Lance Wiggs (who is now also part of the Cadimage Team) is also part of the group behind Pacific Fibre so I look forward to hearing first hand how this progresses.

I can’t wait for this to come on stream so thanks to the group for doing what Kiwi’s do best – just getting on with it!

There are just a few days left to vote for your favourite architecture of 2009 in the ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards.

It is great to see New Zealand’s very own Pacific Environments Yellow Treehouse in the finals along with a number of ArchiCAD finalists from around the globe.

Check out the finalists and place your vote: http://www.archdaily.com/49280/archdaily-building-of-the-year-awards-2009-the-finalists/

Last Wednesday I visited the sunny (or not so sunny as the case was) Hawke’s Bay for Accelerate 2010.

For a number of years Rod from Xero has been wanting to hold a conference to help accelerate growth in New Zealand business’ – specifically hi-tech.

The conference was held at the wonderful Black Barn Vineyard a wonderful setting.

Apart from the delayed flight the day got off to a great start with Andy Lark giving us his latest views on the Virtual Era.

A long lunch gave ample opportunity to network with everyone and sample some of Black Barn’s wines.

The afternoon session was quite loose with a chance to share ideas and issues that people are experiencing and hear insights from some of New Zealand most successful entrepreneurs and investors.

One of Rod’s aims was to get the ‘city folk’ into the provinces and as such it was great to meet a number of new people all based in the Bay.

Overall it was a fun day and I look forward to next years event

Cheers Rod, Odette and the Black Barn.

There has been an enormous amount of coverage of Air New Zealand’s recently announced Cuddle Class.

Most has been extremely positive and as a loyal Air New Zealand traveller I am eagerly awaiting it being rolled out on the Auckland-London route (about 12 months away I think!)

To me the great things about the announcement are firstly how closely it followed the announcement of Air New Zealand winning airline of the year and in so doing helped to reinforce this. Secondly, it is great to see good old kiwi ingenuity challenging the norm and leading the world.

Having been fortunate to have travelled extensively I agree wholeheartedly that Air New Zealand is the best!

Following on from my posts on the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards & And the Winner is… here is the official press release for the Awards.

On Friday night I had the great pleasure of presenting the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards.

In summary the judges were most impressed:

Again this year, the standard has been high and the jury was impressed with the strong and compelling quality of the verbal presentations and the professionalism of finalists in what can be a nerve-wracking situation. We saw a diverse array of presentations over the two days ranging from those firmly rooted in the best traditions of architecture to more theoretical speculations that questioned the boundaries of the discipline itself. The winner, however, stood out in terms of strong theoretical exploration with great breadth and depth. The scheme excelled on multiple levels from its proposition right through to the detailed resolution of the work.

However, there can only be one winner and that was Simon Harrison from Victoria University:

Urban Neighbours

Encouraging formation of a genuine neighbourhood in a high-rise inner city apartment building through inclusion of quality ‘in between’ spaces and design measures that allow a diverse range of inhabitants.

Juror’s Comments

A compelling investigation of physical, social and commercial aspects of architecture, taking a fresh look at private, public and in-between realms of high rise, high-density living.

The Highly Commended Prize was awarded to a joint entry from Sebastian Hamilton & Barrington Gohns of Auckland University:

Other Than Human

This highly interactive project explores sensory engagement and seeks to develop a new means of spatial engagement. It uses different technologies and tools including ‘the haptic’ to centre the user in their environment.

Juror’s Comments

Good engagement in different skill sets and disciplines, a high degree of resolution in built outcome and presentation and an exemplary process of mediating between theoretical propositions about spatial engagement and working at one-to-one scale.

Over the last two days 12 students from Auckland University, Unitec and Victoria University have been presenting their final year project as part of the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards.

Graphisoft New Zealand is extremely proud to be the sponsor of this event and I have enjoyed attending a number of the presentations.

The presentation quality of this years awards is outstanding. The diverse range of schemes from the Porosity of Architecture to Extra Sensory Experiences of Architecture to a collapsible Whare  is certain to make the judging interesting.

Tonight is the official award ceremony where one student will be picked as the best in New Zealand –  I have chosen my winner but having not attended all the presentations I could well be (and most likely will be) wrong!

Congratulations must be extended to all 12 finalists as reaching this stage is a fantastic success in itself:

2009 Finalists:

UNITEC Department of Architecture

Callum Dowie

Alisha Patel

Jayshree Magan

Elisabeth Tryland

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY – School of Architecture and Planning

Sebastian Hamilton

Barrington Gohns

Lyannie Tran

John Hawkins

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON – Faculty of Architecture and Design

Daniel Davis

Simon Harrison

Charlotte Hoare

Frances Vessey

UNITEC Department of Architecture

• Callum Dowie
• Alisha Patel
• Jayshree Magan
• Elisabeth Tryland

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY – School of Architecture and Planning

• Sebastian Hamilton
• Barrington Gohns
• Lyannie Tran
• John Hawkins

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON – Faculty of Architecture and Design

• Daniel Davis
• Simon Harrison
• Charlotte Hoare
• Frances Vessey

Last week I had a week off.

Based on the following I can’t imagine when Rod had any time off:

Rod Drury, Selwyn Pellett enter NZ Hi-Tech Hall of Fame

Rod Drury joins NZX board

Accelerate 2010

The great thing all of these have in common is that even while Rod is building a world class company he still has time to give back!

Great work Rod

20 years ago I was 14 years old and just finishing my first year of high school – the biggest decisions of my short life were likely to do with which subjects I’d take in fourth form (Art and Woodwork for anyone who cares!)

However, 20 years ago was also the day that Murray and Sue Pearson founded Cadimage Solutions – the business I started working for 13 years ago and which I purchased 3 years ago.

In 1989 New Zealand was still in a recession following the crash of 87 and everyone told Murray it was not a good time to start a business – Murray’s opinion: it can only get better!

Twenty years later it is almost fitting to have survived another recession and be looking forward to returning to strong growth in the coming years.

Over the years Cadimage has had some remarkable achievements and now consists of a group of four companies with both local and global focus’s (foci?)

The Team at Cadimage (both past and present) have built a strong customer driven business which we can all be proud of.

New Zealand’s economy is built on small business and I personally think 20 years is a remarkable achievement.

I’d therefore like to thank everyone including the founders, past employees, current employees and most importantly our customers both here and around the globe to contributing to this success!

Cheers to 20 more!

Some of the readers of this blog will click immediately to the significance of 1957.

Yes, that’s right! 1957 was the last time Otago held the Ranfurly Shield.

After our 6-0 win against Canturbury during the Super 14 we couldn’t match the Cantab’s on Saturday night, in what was our second attempt this season.

In the last 52 years we have had 21 attempts and I can remember at least 2 years where we fortunate to get 2 bites at the cherry.

Anyway, what I found quite interesting which helps illustrate how long it has been was the following:

• 1957 was the year of New Zealand’s last execution!
• John Lennon and Paul McCartney met and 3 years later the Beatles were formed!

52 years is a long time…